Tubing Started

Today I was able to get haft of the tubing installed.So far I have 100 feet of main line and 500 feet of 5/16. I have another run of 5/16 line (10 taps) to be added to the end of the main line. This will make that section of the woods have 38 taps. All of these will run down to a 55 gallon barrel. There are some stragglers (maple trees) that the tubing did not reach that I will add buckets to. All total there will be 45 - 50 tap in this section.   I thought I would be done by noon but I spent from 8am to 5 pm putting this all in. I did tubing last year in this part of the wood, but I put it up in a hurry and was not satisfied with it, so last spring I took it all down and started fresh. The plan is to leave it up year round. It sure will save a lot of time come next year.  This coming weekend I will finish up this part of the wood and move to the next part.  I will be doing this a little different.  There will be about 34 taps all on a single 5/16 line down to a 55 gallon drum.  There is a significant drop in elevation and I figure it will produce 3-7 HG of vacuum at the upper end.  Well, we will see.

Last Monday I picked up the rest of the firebricks and finished installing them into the arch. On Saturday I moved the arch from the shop out to the sugar house. Boy was that heavy with all of those bricks in it. MLK weekend I had spent a lot of time in the woods trying to figure out the best way to run the new tubing. Never was satisfied with what I came up with, So this Saturday I took all of the line string down. To get a better idea of where all of the trees are and best way to run the lines, I wrapped all of the maple trees that I plan on tapping this year with pink florescent Flagging tape. Sunday I was able to run the layout quite nicely. The woods also look real pretty with all of the fluorescent string and flag tape everywhere. Looks like Christmas presents ready to be opened. Next weekend I will get the other section of the woods laid out. The rest of this week I will spend time clean the 5 gallon pails and 55 Gallon barrel out after work.

Fire Bricks are being Layed

I worked on the laying the fire bricks today. I have everything done except for the ash pit. I'm 5 bricks short to finish it.

Panels are On

I got all the panels painted over the last few days and screwed back on to the arch. It is starting to take shape again.

Arch all back together

Here is the arch welded back together. It has been wired brushed and a fresh coat of black stove paint. Something I should have done last year but ran out of time. Sometime this week I will get the tin panels painted and screwed back on.

Modifying the Evaporator

I have cut the front of the evaporator off so that I can extend it by 6 inches. The fire box last year was 18"x18" once you took into account the fire brick it was down to 15"x15". Now I should be able to get a hotter fire in the arch. This was also done because I have gone to larger stainless steel syrup pans this year.

New Smoke Stack base

Here is my new smoke stack base. Last year I ran out of time and just used what I could find. Some of you may recognize what this is from. Give up? This is an old computer case that I had laying around. It must be 18 - 16 gauge thick, it was a tougher to cut and bend. I made it in four pieces. the front and back trapezoids and the two sides. Quickly welded them together. The top was figured out by measuring the circumference of the round stove pipe and using that number as the outside edge for the top of the stack base. Not sure if I explained it well. It will look good with a fresh coat of black stove paint on it.