Pneumatic Bottle Capper - Just...because.

CornyKegs 728
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Ran mine at 85 psi and it worked great for the 13 cases we did in 2.5 hours. No broken bottles. I am going to dial it down to 80 psi the next time we bottle as it is putting a little indent in the caps and see how that goes.

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grupe said:
clone:

Ran mine at 85 psi and it worked great for the 13 cases we did in 2.5 hours. No broken bottles. I am going to dial it down to 80 psi the next time we bottle as it is putting a little indent in the caps and see how that goes.

483946_10151049756524476_717067784_n.jpg

304779_10151049758069476_2010168739_n.jpg
Click to expand...

very nice!!!!
 
Just curious..what's about the minimum force to push the bell over the cap and seal the bottle? I know between 250-300 lbs works but would 200 or even 100 work? Just trying to dial in a cylinder here. Thanks
 
If someone has a basic fish scale you could figure it out. Hook it on the handle of the capper, pull down and see what the force required to put the cap on is, then use the calculations the OP used to figure out the force a hand capper is capable of.

Just a thought if anyone had some spare time.
 
So I finished my capper and ran a couple of bottles at 80 psi which should be around 251 lbf.


It seems to hesitate a bit too long so I'm going to turn it up to 85 psi and run it there.

As far as bottle failures, I used to work at AB in St. Louis part time, running fillers and such on the weekends. When a bottle failed on the crowner at anywhere between 800 and 1200 bottles per min. most of the time there was just a crunch with no flying glass, sometimes the glass would fly out but since it was a rotary crowner it was likely just centrifugal force flinging it outwards. These crowners were mechanically driven and designed to descend a set amount so they could exert tons of pressure in a very short amount of time on any misaligned bottle.

That being said, there is a very low chance of flying glass. Safety glasses would be a smart choice and gloves to handle broken glass if you feel inclined, I may even install a safety shield if my kids want to use it for bottling root beer, but it is a fairly safe machine if used with a bit of common sense.

Louis
 
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-TH- said:
^^^ Very nice job!
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Thanks, built it totally out of scrap during a couple of lunch hours. The cylinder is a 2" dual acting heavy duty palmer w/a 3"stroke. I had to drill some holes in it veeery carefully to mount it, then I brazed the capping bell onto a 1 1/4" nut to thread onto the end of the shaft. I used your idea for alignment and used a giant forsner bit to bore a hole into a chunk of phenolic (that stuff is awsome! But it stinks when you cut it).
 
CoalCracker said:
What compressor are you using? Or are you just filling a tank and limiting the pressure with a regulator.
Click to expand...

I use a standard 26 gallon compressor with the output pressure set at 85psi
 
Ha! what I mean to say is do you measure from the cylinder head when it's fully engaged or just somewhere in the middle of the maximum stroke?
 
rvklein said:
Ha! what I mean to say is do you measure from the cylinder head when it's fully engaged or just somewhere in the middle of the maximum stroke?
Click to expand...

Sorry - I couldn't resist! Anyway yes I just went with somewhere in the middle of stroke or actually near the end of it. I wanted the cylinder as high up as possible to provide room to load and unload the bottle and cap, but making sure that the cylinder did not hit the end of its stroke when capping. I didn't want to risk the cylinder stopping before the cap was sealed properly.

Hope that helps...
 
rvklein said:
Ha! what I mean to say is do you measure from the cylinder head when it's fully engaged or just somewhere in the middle of the maximum stroke?
Click to expand...

I set mine up so short bottles are near the end of the stroke but longnecks still have clearance to cap, my cylinder has a 3" stroke instead of a 2" which makes this possible. I also kind of guessed on the placement since i didn't have the capping bell at the time of my build.

Here is a photo of it.

IMG_20120914_201717.jpg
 
I am all kinds of excited to build this. Looks like the thread has been idle for a few months though. Anyone, find a location with the bell heads? That is still available. Williams Only has the larger Belgian style. And what are you guys using for the control valve? Did that foot petal have all of that combined?
 
expressline99 said:
I am all kinds of excited to build this. Looks like the thread has been idle for a few months though. Anyone, find a location with the bell heads? That is still available. Williams Only has the larger Belgian style. And what are you guys using for the control valve? Did that foot petal have all of that combined?
Click to expand...

Austin Homebrew is where i got my capping bell, http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=13200
I just brazed the bell to a nut that fit the end of my cylinder because the shaft was way to big to fit the bell.
As far as the valve, im using an old 2 position valve i found. Since the cylinder is dual action the foot pedal cost was a bit prohibitive.
Hope this helps.

Louis
 
Subscribed!

This thread, in combination with the semi-auto bottling line thread, has me thinking dangerous ideas.....

Using solenoids, I suspect a near-auto bottling line could be built using a basic controller, like Arduino. Although the thought using a Mindstorms system does make me giggle.
 
RadicalEd said:
Subscribed!

This thread, in combination with the semi-auto bottling line thread, has me thinking dangerous ideas.....

Using solenoids, I suspect a near-auto bottling line could be built using a basic controller, like Arduino. Although the thought using a Mindstorms system does make me giggle.
Click to expand...

I guess that's why they call you RadicalEd :D:D:D
 
If RadicalEd/someone else is going to make semi-automatic bottling line, this is one of simpler systems I have seen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZiiDPr5XV0

That filler seems to contain only few moving parts + couple valves and sensors and still it seems to be quite efficient.
Little more automation and you can build Meheen Merlin clone.
 
Well I changed my mind about the cylinder and got a stainless 4 inch stroke. Beware it has a different shaft thread. I had an adapter that worked. I still need to make some bottle alignment blocks for 12's and 22's but I ran it and capped both sizes.

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