Corking Wine w/ Big Ben

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Buetow

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I have a vintage Big Ben bottle capper -

Big Ben Capper.jpg

Any thoughts on how I could use this to cork wine bottles?
 
I don't know, but that is the COOLEST piece of equipment I have seen, in a while!!!
 
if it is a capper then you cant use it for wine because wine bottles need corks, I would just put it in your brew room or something, its very nice if you hold onto it for 20 years or so you could probably score a sweet deal at an antique shop.
 
Buetow said:
I have a vintage Big Ben bottle capper -

Any thoughts on how I could use this to cork wine bottles?

Can we assume that the 'piston' in the middle moves up and down by turning the wheel? If so, how far does it travel?

As a side note, I agree that's like something out of a time machine! (In a good way)
 
you guys are missing the point, he said it was a vintage bottle CAPPER not vintage bottle CORKER, huge difference in how they are made, if it has a magnent in the inside of the plunger then it is for sure a capper and no you cant use it cork bottles.
 
Honda88 said:
you guys are missing the point, he said it was a vintage bottle CAPPER not vintage bottle CORKER, huge difference in how they are made, if it has a magnent in the inside of the plunger then it is for sure a capper and no you cant use it cork bottles.

Honda has a point in the sense that the turning of the wheel does not provide enough leverage/pressure to push the cork into the bottle. You could jerryrig a base to hold the bottles in place, but the torque will most likely snap off the wheel at the first gear. You also have no way of compressing the corks (that I can see from the photo), so that's working against you.

You COULD use it to put crown caps on champagne bottles. Lol, that would be a way to 'use it for wine' in a sense.

Nice thought though! And still a great conversation piece for partys.
 
it has the torque to cork (hmm rhymes ) its a steel pinion and rack gear
But corking with one is a 2-man operation and you're missing the compressor.
It is basically a long pair of pliers with a cylinder, similar to a 3 lever gilda corker without the plunger.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I had actually never corked a wine bottle before. The key to corking wine bottles seems to be compressing the cork. Big Ben just doesn't cut it. I was able to cork a few bottles by pushing the corks through a couple of copper fittings with progressively longer sockets using Big Ben as an arbor press. I will be purchasing new equipment if I have to ever do any significant quantity.

Big Ben does do an awesome job of capping. The wheel looks just like an old tractor steering wheel.
 
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