little piece, big money - Page 2

NH- you can take a piece of 1" pipe, lock it in to a vise and then bend one end around making the circle , then flip it and bend the other end half way around to make the hook.

You could also heat the metal so its more pliable and easy to work with.

I prefer the traditional buckets, but also have milk jugs out there as well. no heresy here (maybe over the river in Vermont)
we tap all the maples we can, sugar maple, red maple, white maple - (what you call silver I believe), swamp maple, rock maple... think I am missing one or two but you get the jist. once it's all blended it averages out to 40-45 seen up to 50 gallons of sap to make the 1 gallon syrup.
Where the true magic comes in is in the creation of the evaporator and how efficiently you can boil off water. generally the more surface area the faster you can evaporate, although there also can be pre heaters, pre boilers some run constant sap into the evaporator some add all at once. Everyone develops their own way and it's great to bounce ideas off each other and learn from each other. It is a rewarding hobby for sure.
from stove top to million dollar osmosis machines and 24 ft stainless evaporators (really cool) there is a place for everybody

edit: Tried your tip Brass, worked great on the loop and hook. Still had to use pliers to reverse the bend coming off the loop but it certainly speed things up and made it a bit easier on my hands.
Thanks!

No thanks needed glad I can help

Another piece added to the lineup
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Basic strainer made from a piece of SS from a movie theater popcorn maker, push broom handle, small piece of copper wire, and 2 SS screws. Used for de-foaming and removing little bits of bark or whatnots from the evaporator pan. .
Foam or the concentration of impurities can be countered using modern methods of adding a DE compound and using multi chambered evaporators along with pre filters and RO's, I'm a little more old school and just scoop it off.
Could have bought one from the "Maple Suppliers" for $55 and the hardwood handle separate for another $15. The kitchen equivalent would have run $5-$10 with a handle that was too short standing real close to the evaporator heats up your legs pretty fast lol.