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Question about maple syrup spiles

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Slackbunny:

--- Quote from: Hunts with stone on February 13, 2013, 10:29:59 pm ---I'm not up on all this but putting copper into a tree will kill it at some point if left in it.

--- End quote ---

Noted. I ended up buying like a crome plated copper tube for about 2 bucks and got cut three spiles out of it. It was a little flimsy, i wouldn't go with that again, but it will do for now. I'll make sure I remove them from the trees when I'm done.

richardzane:
the plastic spiles work good. they are tapered so you can tap them in a bored hole till they snug up.
a cheap "bucket" can be made from recycled water jugs you can hang it from the hook in a slit on the jug handle.
these you have to check regularly so you don't waste sap if it starts overflowing...rarely happens here in OKl.

stickbender:

My maple syrup boiler was confused as a still many times.

George
[/quote]

     George, are you sure, it didn't uh..... serve a dual purpose? ::) ;D ;D

                                                     Wayne

gstoneberg:

--- Quote from: stickbender on February 17, 2013, 02:38:26 am ---     George, are you sure, it didn't uh..... serve a dual purpose? ::) ;D ;D

                                                     Wayne

--- End quote ---

Nah, but it had parts that for sure could have served dual duty.  I boiled in the front yard when we lived in a Chicago burb and I had a cop slow drive by 3 or 4 times staring at it.  Never did stop and ask though.  My neighbors sure came over, of course I had most of their trees tapped too. :)

George

TRACY:
My limited sugaring experience started with SS spiles at first with clean milk jugs for collection and then evaporating in cast iron and aluminum pots over wood fire and propane.

As for making spiles, I found Tonkin boo sections were perfect and extremely affordable. Just whittle the ends to fit and bore out the nodes. My neighbor uses tulip poplar sapling and limbs sections drilled out. Copper would work if you have a bunch already, but wouldn't purchase for the principle of doing this simple and cheap. Good luck and have fun!


Tracy

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