Check Valve adapters

[Russell Lampron]

I bought a tap removal tool at Bascom's a couple of years ago. It works great and cost $12 at the time. It is sort of like a crow bar with an opening wide enough to go over a 7/16" spout between the 90 degree and the tree.

On the check valves that I have looked at while removing taps while under vacuum I could easily see where the ball was sucked back to close the hole. It has been warm here this season and I'm not seeing as much bacteria as I used to either.

[upsmapleman]

I know we still have some time to go on the season in some areas. I was wondering if anyone is getting close to the advertised gallon per tap? It looks like it is going to freeze here for a few days and I will know if they work or not. I put 1500 on 10 year old tubing where they were suppose to gain the most benfit.

Dale

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

i have the same observation as sapman. pulled 8 cvs that were on reds and 7 were stuck open either with small wood chips from tapping or sugared up. if i use them next year tap hole will need to be washed or blown out

[sapman]

A buddy of mine (who may actually read this) is VERY careful when tapping. He taps, with a pretty slow bit, hands off the drill, then cleans the hole with a twig. Probably takes 15 seconds or more per tap. He does 300+. I know I'd be tapping a LONG time if I did it that way.

[brookledge]

I'm at .25 gallons per tap and will in no way come close to a gallon per tap. The yr for me has been disaterous as I usually get no lower than .4 gal of syrup per tap. On the other hand I have made more per tap than others around my area. It is being reported as one of the worst yrs ever.
I have 1150 taps and to date have made 300 gal of syrup. Of the 1150 taps 800 are with CV and the rest is on another line with out. I did it this way to see if I could see a difference in flow. Well the last runs I got back on the 18th and 19th I got a little less sap per tap on the line without the cv adapter. But the real test will be in a few days the temps are suppose to go back to sugaring temps instead of 70s
Time will tell
Keith

[maple sapper]

I think if you used cv adapters or not, this year just was not in the cards for sap collection period. The year played out just like last year and was a total failure. To bad the clean up is the same for a failure or a good one. It just makes it feel even worse having to do so much cleaning of bucktes and tubing with no reward.

[danno]

[QUOTE=Russell Lampron;107168]I bought a tap removal tool at Bascom's a couple of years ago. It works great and cost $12 at the time. It is sort of like a crow bar with an opening wide enough to go over a 7/16" spout between the 90 degree and the tree.

I had the same tap remover and it worked excellent - unitl I lost it in the woods a couple of seasons ago. Amazing how the woods just can eat up your tools.

[maple flats]

I made my own removal tool. I bought a $1.88 wonder bar look alike and with a dremel tool using a small round sander wheel I made a notch for taps in the end of the short leg. I cost me $1.88 + 2 sanding wheels (@.25ea) and about 5 minutes time. It works perfectly. Those prices are from about 6 yrs ago. I still have it.
As far as the CV's I have not checked yet, but my taps started running again today. I went to wash tanks to get ready for tomorrow when I expect 26 degrees overnight. When I got there the tank at my 400 tap woods was running fairly well, but I am sure it had not run for too many hours. It was running at the estimated rate of 1 gal/3 minutes but I only had 80 gal in the tank. I dumped my wash water and collected the sap which was only very slightly cloudy in spite of being 5 days since it last ran. I am looking at weather that says I may get 7-8 days flow in a row with one too cold day on friday. If this comes to be I will more than tripple my years production. After finding this I checked my other woods by my sugarhouse with 175 taps and nothing was flowing. Must be cold air rose this time. My sugarhouse is at 475 elevation and my 400 tap woods ranges from 1040' on the lower end and just short of 1160' on top and all is on a slope of 5% to 55% with lots of place for cold air drainage to go off the side of the hill. I never expected it when I had mid thirties down below. This year is really confusing me.

[KenWP]

I so far for normal taps use a cresent wrench and it works great but those stupid adaptors are hard to get the wrench behind. Also I used a bunch of stubbies I had for taps and they work fine but they are tight against the tree. I know what idiot uses stubbies for taps.

[maple sapper]

I pulled a bunch of my cv's out tday and really like the wing dings on the sides. They came out so easy. Some I was able to pull out by hand with a twist. I am going to be sad when I have to pull out the old style I replaced them with that are just round. But if they give me sap this weekend I wont care.