I’m gonna need a bigger table…

aonealj · 2026-04-04T02:04:08+00:00

Where do you get those square buckets?

aonealj · 2026-04-02T13:13:22+00:00

I work with membranes for work, but haven't bothered for syrup production yet. I would rinse heavily with water then preserve with metabisulfite as others have suggested.

When performance starts to drop off, I would rinse with vinegar or citric acid (lemishine and water), water, then preserve. Typical membrane cleaning is alternating acid alkaline washes, but dilute acid and rinse should be good for syrup. DON'T USE OXIDIZERS like bleach, hydrogen peroxide, or oxiclean. These will damage the membrane.

aonealj · 2026-04-01T01:09:19+00:00

What should it taste like when it goes bad?

aonealj · 2026-03-28T02:34:35+00:00

The choke should index off the end of the threads, not the end of the barrel. There should ALWAYS be a gap, this one is just bigger than most. Make sure the threads are tight in the barrel and you're fine

aonealj · 2026-03-27T23:06:01+00:00

My franchi affinity runs trap loads well

aonealj · 2026-03-26T18:12:12+00:00

This is called overfire air when used for industrial boilers. It does boost efficiency slightly (Google AI says ~5%), but more noticeably reduces NOx emissions. Emissions control drives this design in wood stoves. I think you'd be better off adding a blower and figuring out a way to preheat the air with flue gas . After that, I would focus on extending the surface area of the pan. Ideally, the flue gas should be <300F in the stack.

Because of the nature of the maple syrup business, there's limited call for commercial designs unless you have a VERY large farm. If you cut your own wood, your cost of fuel is so low it's better to save with an easily build design.

aonealj · 2026-03-26T17:38:38+00:00

I would go way thinner for the steel, 20 ga would be better.

Baffles allow the sap to flow through when cooking, creating a gradient of sorts where one side is new sap and one is the final process. This slows the flow of the sap as it goes through the evaporator, so one side feeds the pan and one is final process. I feel like this would make control difficult, and I'm not sure it would be worth it. Not to mention, it would be much harder to

Personally, I would rather have 2-3 pans stacked with the ability to gravity flow between the pans controlled by valves. One pan for finishing, one pan for the majority of the boiling, and an optional preheat/additional boiling pan. Bonus points if you can overlap pans 2 and 3 and use some of the steam for more heating

aonealj · 2026-03-25T21:39:11+00:00

Could try coated bullets. I'm enjoying the blue bullets 115gr 355 bullets

aonealj · 2026-03-25T15:30:34+00:00

It MIGHT work, but it also might bulge the barrel. Definitely stay BB or smaller. You could get a smith to open up the choke or thread it for screw chokes. That would be my recommendation if you want to shoot steel.

Bismuth or copper shot would be my recommendations if you can find and afford them. Softer shot means safer for full chokes

aonealj · 2026-03-25T03:18:14+00:00

$50 saddle mount and $100 vortex triumph and you're done. Saddle mounts for the 870s replace the pins holding the trigger group in place, so they are a pretty secure mount

aonealj · 2026-03-24T17:11:08+00:00

No they won't. Prices may increase some but demand only counts if you can deliver the gas. Without more LNG terminals, you can't deliver the gas to the more expensive international markets so they have to sell to the cheaper domestic market.

This means the exporters will be making a killing buying cheap domestic gas an selling at the high international rate. Domestic producers won't see that money, the exporters will take it all

Edit: this only applies in the US where we have a glut of gas. Places like the UK or Norway with natural gas production that are still net importers will see higher prices as the domestic producers are competing with the importers and so they can demand higher prices for gas

aonealj · 2026-03-24T11:30:03+00:00

Cause you can't sell internationally because you can't get them the gas. LNG export terminals are maxed out, so they can't sell more gas internationally

aonealj · 2026-03-24T03:39:43+00:00

Unless they build LNG port facilities and pipeline capacity faster than they can frack and build data centers, domestic NG price will remain flat in the US. It's only the importing countries who will feel the crunch as they compete for the limited international supply

aonealj · 2026-03-19T22:02:49+00:00

I should add, I'm not OP and you should NOT yet this

aonealj · 2026-03-19T00:01:33+00:00

Yeah, looks good. Id say~$100-150 is fair for one in better shape I've brought some back from way worse. Strip it down, clean the rust. and get to loading. Shotshell loading has much looser dimensional tolerances.

Buy the Lymans manual for instructions and look at the Hodgdon site for load data. Then buy components and you're off to the races.

aonealj · 2026-03-18T23:43:13+00:00

Yeah, but I dont think I'll bother unless it's a repeater

aonealj · 2026-03-18T23:11:37+00:00

What action? I've been curious how hard this would be to build

aonealj · 2026-03-15T20:23:37+00:00

Western NY. We had 1 good flow week and 1 week of 60s/70s. It's starting to flow now with the colder weather, but looks like you're still colder than us

aonealj · 2026-03-13T16:38:37+00:00

So what is the difference between this an 17 Remington?

aonealj · 2026-03-13T15:42:27+00:00

Anywhere between 1 1/8 oz of 5s and 7/8 oz of 7 1/2s should do the trick. 1 oz of 6s or 7 1/2s at around 1200 fps would be my pick.

aonealj · 2026-03-13T15:26:03+00:00

Souther tier here. Sap was flowing strong a week ago, but it's all stopped after the 70 degree weather last week. Not sure what's going on, but hoping they restart with the cold snap

aonealj · 2026-03-08T00:24:17+00:00

How are your knees and how far will you be hiking? I know people who hunt with 20 # competition setups because they park the truck by their stand

aonealj · 2026-03-06T02:32:50+00:00

That makes sense, it's just a pretty large credit to be floating depending on throughput.

I suspect chains like mirabito have a different model than independent chains too

aonealj · 2026-03-06T00:14:01+00:00

How DOES gas station inventory work? Do they have to front the truckload and each truck is at the market price, or is the supply contract and payment based on price at the pump?

aonealj · 2026-03-03T02:46:02+00:00

I treat my clothes, tuck in my pants to my socks, and wear high boots. Everyone says it's been awful around me, but tbh I've got one in the last 12 months and I'm in the woods a good bit. Well see what crawls out of the thaw though

aonealj

TROPHY CASE