To be honest I'm amazed it works at all but it did right off the bat. Complete with pump driven copper coil stack Preheater.
Poor man's continuous flow system
To be honest I'm amazed it works at all but it did right off the bat. Complete with pump driven copper coil stack Preheater.
2017 25 taps on buckets got me hooked 1 gallon of sweet
2018 51 taps on 3/16 tubing/ DIY oil tank evaporator 8.5gallons finished
2019 60 taps 7 gallons finished ended season short
2020 New 2x4 divided pan ready to get away from the headache that is steam table pans
2021 off year due to pandemic and projects
2022 back at it
Could you give a better description of how this works? Thxs, Mark
2017- Started small-made 7 gallons. Long days & few nights on a 1x2 and turkey fryer.
2018- Bought a 2x4 and built a small scale RO. 21 gallons.
2019- moved up to 100 gph procon for my home built RO. Built a steamhood. About 220 taps and 21 gallons again.
2020- 140 procon on the R0. Added a new mainline at my in laws. 330 taps for 24 gallons, sold excess sap.
There is a 12v pump rated at 1gal/min pumping from a 55 gallon barrel.
The pump sends cold sap to the copper coil and a line feeding back into the barrel. The line going to the barrel allows most of the pumps flow to bypass the coil. I adjust valves, one on the hot enough of the coil and one on the recirc line back to the barrel, to control flow of sap into my back pan. From the back pan I have siphon tubes connecting the other pans.
The end result is warm raw sap entering the back and being siphoned forward making what amounts to continuous flow. In a very crude way. I should have run my siphon tubes differently so my 5 steam tables pans ran in series rather than parallel. Will do that next time I start up.
2017 25 taps on buckets got me hooked 1 gallon of sweet
2018 51 taps on 3/16 tubing/ DIY oil tank evaporator 8.5gallons finished
2019 60 taps 7 gallons finished ended season short
2020 New 2x4 divided pan ready to get away from the headache that is steam table pans
2021 off year due to pandemic and projects
2022 back at it
What are your siphons made out of?
Camp Wokanda
Peoria Park District
2023 - 210 on 3/16 shurflo, sap storage shack w/ 1100 gallon tank - 123 gallons
2022 - 210 on 3/16 shurflo, homemade vac filter & water jacket canner - 104 gallons
2021 - 215 on 3/16 shurflo, added 2nd membrane to RO - 78 gallons
2020 - 210 on 3/16 shurflo, upgraded hp pump on RO - 66 gallons
2019 - 150 on 3/16 shurflo, Deer Run 125 dolly RO - 73 gallons
2018 - 120 on 3/16 shurflo, 2x6 raised flue w/hood, homemade arch w/ AUF & AOF - 34.5 gallons
Pex tubing it's stable at boiling temps just wouldn't be good for very much pressure.
2017 25 taps on buckets got me hooked 1 gallon of sweet
2018 51 taps on 3/16 tubing/ DIY oil tank evaporator 8.5gallons finished
2019 60 taps 7 gallons finished ended season short
2020 New 2x4 divided pan ready to get away from the headache that is steam table pans
2021 off year due to pandemic and projects
2022 back at it
Looks good. Hows that new arch boiling?Originally Posted by Cjadamec
Camp Wokanda
Peoria Park District
2023 - 210 on 3/16 shurflo, sap storage shack w/ 1100 gallon tank - 123 gallons
2022 - 210 on 3/16 shurflo, homemade vac filter & water jacket canner - 104 gallons
2021 - 215 on 3/16 shurflo, added 2nd membrane to RO - 78 gallons
2020 - 210 on 3/16 shurflo, upgraded hp pump on RO - 66 gallons
2019 - 150 on 3/16 shurflo, Deer Run 125 dolly RO - 73 gallons
2018 - 120 on 3/16 shurflo, 2x6 raised flue w/hood, homemade arch w/ AUF & AOF - 34.5 gallons
Made some adjustments and added more stack for better draft, it's boiling way better than it had been. Not having to ladle sap from one pan to another is awesome. The 20 bucks for the pump seems like it was worth it so far.
2017 25 taps on buckets got me hooked 1 gallon of sweet
2018 51 taps on 3/16 tubing/ DIY oil tank evaporator 8.5gallons finished
2019 60 taps 7 gallons finished ended season short
2020 New 2x4 divided pan ready to get away from the headache that is steam table pans
2021 off year due to pandemic and projects
2022 back at it
Can you post a couple of pictures of just the siphons? I was looking into making them out of copper I've never seen them made out of PEX.
They are made from clear 3/4 inch pex tubing that I had leftover from plumbing my house and some metal 90 degree radius supports also leftovers. The radius supports hold the tube in a bend so that the ends stay in the sap otherwise the pex would just lay flat. The metal also protects the tubing from the really hot metal angle iron frame that holds up the pans. I chose the clear tubing so I can see if the siphon gets vapor locked.
The picture is what it looks like but the tubing is longer on the ones I'm using. I cut the tube so that it touches the bottom of each pan and the middle of the bend is just slightly over the top edge of the pan.
I'm already over budget on what I wanted to spend on sugaring this year so I'm making do with what I have on hand as much as I can.
2017 25 taps on buckets got me hooked 1 gallon of sweet
2018 51 taps on 3/16 tubing/ DIY oil tank evaporator 8.5gallons finished
2019 60 taps 7 gallons finished ended season short
2020 New 2x4 divided pan ready to get away from the headache that is steam table pans
2021 off year due to pandemic and projects
2022 back at it
I am over budget this year myself. Why I hadn't made my siphons yet I may try these out of PEX I've got some red and blue laying around
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