This is my vacuum releaser. I built it from 12" PVC watermain that I pulled out of the garbage pile at a local construction company, aluminum that I bought at my local metal supply company, lexan that I bought and had machined at a local plastic supply company, and blumbing that I bought on Ebay, Amazon, AliExpress, and at local hardware stores. The large white pipe and the clear check valves are from CDL.
I spent the day today cleaning everything, replacing a couple of o-rings, and putting the machine back together. I had a big vacuum leak that it took me a while to find but I eventually managed to get the main releaser chamber down to 26.5 inhg.
This is awesome! If you dont mind me asking, why did you build this?
I'm happy to answer any questions.
When we first moved to our property and built our (strawbale) house my wife decided that she would tap the few maple trees near the house to try to make maple syrup. She and the kids hung half a dozen buckets on spiles. They were right in our back yard so it was easy to collect them every day. In subsequent years we increased the number of trees we tapped until collecting small buckets on foot was impractical. I switched to using spigots and hoses to 5 gallon buckets. That reduced the number of trips necessary to collect the sap. As our hobby expanded I was making four or five trips in twice a day carrying two 5 gallon buckets. Our property is on the floodplain of the local river and is covered in up to a foot and a half of water in the spring. I would inevitably end up tripping and falling into the water at least two or three times a season. A fwe years ago I decided to automate the collecting using a vacuum system. Commercial systems are extremely expsneive so I decided to build it myself. The first releaser was built with a piece of 3" ABS and some parts I ordered on Ebay and sat on top of the IBC. This machine is the second releaser I've built. I plan to build another making some adjustments to the design of this one to make it more efficient and easier to clean.
What a great solution! Thanks for sharing.