Hello All, This blog is to document my adventures back into making maple syrup. Its been 20 years since I made maple syrup. Finally bought a place with some land and young maple trees.

Some of the Maple Syrup made in 2009

Saturday, December 19, 2009

New Tubing Tool


Well, I need a tubing tool to attach the fittings to the tubes. So last year I struggled to push the fittings onto the tube. I looked at purchasing one, but they start around 100 dollars and go up to 250 dollars. This was the case for all of the places that sell maple syrup supplies. But wait, take a look at them, they are not professionally made, well not enough for the price they are asking. Looks like someone took some pliers and lock jaws and welded them together. I'm sure they sell the tool because doing tubing by hand really stinks and if you have 100s or 1000s of connections I can't see how someone could do it without the tool. This year I'm redoing all of my tubing, about 30 taps and adding about 30 more I thought I should have a tubing tool to make tubing a little easier. My idea for this tools was not original, I got the idea from two homemade tools on MapleTrader.  I took the best ideas from both and merged them together. This is what I made, top - left. I tested it out and boy what an improvement. I'm going to make a second pair with 2 additional changes. Nope not telling you, it is my secret until i see how well it works. If you want to make your own pair you will need the following: pair of cheap pliers, 1/2 threaded coupler, small hinge, some scrap bar stock and a 1/4 inch round rod.

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