First time press questions

[Alex Davies]

Hi,

I bought filter press and I will be using it for the first time to filter a barrel of syrup.

I bought it in Quebec from a lad who doesn't speak much English, and my unfortunately my French is no better.

So I've got 4 questions I was hoping for clarification with

1: It's a full bank 10" press with 8 sets of plates (8 spacers and 8 of the honeycomb looking plates). He recommended putting 2 sheets of the filter papers for each plate, but he said that will amount to a total of 16 papers. However, now that I look at it, I don't know which side of the plate to put the papers. If I put them on both sides of each plate then that will amount to a total of 32 papers...
Does it matter what side you put the papers on? Is this correct that you should put 2 sheets together on each plate?

2: I have also gathered that if I don't have a whole lot of syrup to filter than I can use less plates. I was wondering how to do this. The rod that holds the plates is not threaded all the way through, so if I was to only use say 4 of the plates, then I wouldn't be able to tighten the press together because I would have run out of threading... Do folks us bushings for this? Or should I get another set of threaded rods?

3: During the season, how do I put the press to sleep for the night. The fella said that it'll do up to 3 barrels of syrup before you need to change the papers. I'm lucky if I can make a barrel of syrup in a day... Therefore, do I run 5 gal of hot water or hot sap through the press at the end of the night, put that back into the evaporator and start pressing again the next day? OR do I leave syrup in the press overnight?

4: Lastly... at the end of the season, what do folks do? I would suspect that the press would hold a gallon or more syrup, do you discard this syrup after the last pressing? Or run hot water through and re-boil?


THanks for your advice!

[Haynes Forest Products]

OK this is easy

1) Each side of the plate gets a paper. Each separation gets a paper. each opening gets a paper. One each and that's all only one.

2) You can make spacers out of simple black pipe from the hardware storeIf you decide on 4 plates then install them and mesure the space between the end plate surface and to the wing nut and washer and get 2 matching pipe spacers.

3) When your done filtering for the Day, Month or year with the drip tray in place just crack the wing nuts back a few turns and pry the plates apart and go leave it for a few hours and you will get 95% of the hot syrup to drain from the press. YEA you can play around with hot water and do a real good clean up of the last 5% but its time consuming. Just filter till the plates are full of crap and filter aid. Crack the plates and go to bed in the morning you will have a tray full of over density syrup that you can drain into the finisher/reheater. Yes yes you can suck/pump hot water thru the press to get the last little bit out

4) End of year cleaning is just like your end of day cleaning pull all the plates and hose off with hot water and run the pump sucking hot water thru it.............................YOUR DONE.

Now at the end of the year Ill hose the entire housing, pullys and belts to get the sugar and grease crap off it then cover it.

[Alex Davies]

Thanks Haynes!

So, just to clarify: There's 8 plates and 8 spacers. So if I put one on each side of each then that will be 16 papers total

Filter aid is the DE powder?

I'll make the bushing spacer out of pipe as suggested! Thanks

Let's say for example that I do 1 barrel in a day. I crack the plates and drain syrup at the end of the day. If it's not clogged, next day I can just go ahead and run another barrel of syrup through it no cleaning or changing papers necessary?

Ratio for DE is 1lbs/barrel?

Thanks again!

[Haynes Forest Products]

Correct every plate or chamber surface ges a paper (16)

There are to many variables to say how much syrup you will filter on a set of papers. Papers are cheap and DE is cheaper. You will clean the press after every use. You don't restart it cold or after it clogs. Its not worth the pain of cleaning your shack from the syrup mist that will blow all over the place from hydraulic pressure.

If you take the time to heat the syrup be it 10 gallons or 50 you filter till the press slows down and becomes clogged. Then you break it down, clean and reinstall new papers. This process will take you about 10 Min. With the press still hot ro get back to filtering. You don't wait for it to cool

[maple flats]

Figure out how many pairs of plates your existing rods will tighten at, is it 5,6,7? Then make up 2 spacers to equal 2 sets in thickness ( a set being one waffle and one hollow plate). Since you may be doing some small batches you may even want a set of spacers that equal the thickness of 3 or 4 pair too. That way you have lots of ability to shorten the press to fit that day's need. That being said, I started with a 3 bank press and later added 2 more pair of plates (2 waffle plates and 2 hollow plates) so I now have a 5 bank. While I could run it as a 3 bank, especially when I process a barrel of syrup (which was filtered as it filled the barrel) I still use it as a 5 bank. As Haynes said, papers are cheap and DE is cheaper.
With my seasonal production at between 180-350 gal of syrup, a bag of DE still lasts me 3-4 years and a box of papers a little longer. When I buy a new bag of DE I repack it in food grade 5 gal buckets, with a new trash bag liner in it. I use about 1 bucket every 14-16 months or so. I sell everything retail except any commercial I might make. This past season I made no Very Dark or Commercial syrup.

[JoeJ]

Alex,
Here is the formula that I figured out for the DE.

The formula for dry DE to fill your plates is .0819 cups per cu in of the total number of cu inches in all of your hollow plates. My 5 plates 10" press is full of DE at 70 cups. I pre-charge it with 14 cups. I then add about 2 cups to each new 5 gallon batch until a total of 70 cups had been put in. If you over fill the plates with DE, the press will stop working

This formula works for Dicalite DE which is a finer grade of DE. I use Celite DE which is coarser and use 30% less DE. 56 cups fill all my plates using Celite.

Joe

[Haynes Forest Products]

OK this is crazy I had to get up early to get the wife from the airport. My alarm wakes me up and I have this stupid revelation that with a full bank press you have 8 plates you share every plate with a paper so you only have 5 papers but Holly molly you have chambers that can't be right.....................Dang Chuck get up and think man did you just give out the wrong info for all to see? Wait that cant be right OK OK use your fingers and do the counting you still groggy 12345678910111213141516 OK got it it ain't 16 papers its 17 you end plates! OK OK get to the computer before someone yells at me. quick OH crap there is one less plate because of the end plate being waffled so that cant be right so were back to 16...................right? now I'm late for the airport............................SEE YA I need new fingers these are screwing me up

[Alex Davies]

Alex,
Here is the formula that I figured out for the DE.

The formula for dry DE to fill your plates is .0819 cups per cu in of the total number of cu inches in all of your hollow plates. My 5 plates 10" press is full of DE at 70 cups. I pre-charge it with 14 cups. I then add about 2 cups to each new 5 gallon batch until a total of 70 cups had been put in. If you over fill the plates with DE, the press will stop working

This formula works for Dicalite DE which is a finer grade of DE. I use Celite DE which is coarser and use 30% less DE. 56 cups fill all my plates using Celite.

Joe

Wait a second,
So, that's 70 cups of the dry DE powder each time I press? Seems like too much no? I was thinking it'd be more like 2 cups or so or 1 lbs /barrel of syrup?

Confused...

[Alex Davies]

I'm at 2000 taps now, so it seems like 8 bank is a little overkill for me... Especially if I have to replace papers and DE everytime I press.

I can usually draw off around 6 gal of syrup per hour off the evaporator... When do folks usually do the pressing? Wait until the end of the day boiling, and press the whole batch at once? Or press as it comes off the evaporator (around 6 gal/hr)? If I wait until the end of the day, then the syrup, having sat for hours, will likely be under 180 degrees. Is the press able to process syrup at say 100 - 150 degrees?

[Alex Davies]

OK this is crazy I had to get up early to get the wife from the airport. My alarm wakes me up and I have this stupid revelation that with a full bank press you have 8 plates you share every plate with a paper so you only have 5 papers but Holly molly you have chambers that can't be right.....................Dang Chuck get up and think man did you just give out the wrong info for all to see? Wait that cant be right OK OK use your fingers and do the counting you still groggy 12345678910111213141516 OK got it it ain't 16 papers its 17 you end plates! OK OK get to the computer before someone yells at me. quick OH crap there is one less plate because of the end plate being waffled so that cant be right so were back to 16...................right? now I'm late for the airport............................SEE YA I need new fingers these are screwing me up

Hehe,
I think it's 16 papers... Though now I have to run down to the sugar shack and confirm...