Problems capping with the Colonna capper/corker

I know there have been threads in years past about the Colonna capper/corker but I can't find an answer to my particular problem anywhere in the archives. I just bought the thing and it corks like a pro! I love it for corking, but I just can't get it to cap correctly. It came with two capping bells and I'm beginning to wonder if there might be a third that I'm missing.

Using the smallest of the bells I can get the cap on the bottle, but it won't crimp properly. Sometimes I can even pull the cap right off with my fingers using very little pressure. The cap's sides still appear to be somewhat flared even after I put as much pressure on the capper's handle as I dare considering the gearing is made of plastic.

So I figure it's either a malfunction with my technique, I'm missing the proper bell, or the capper just doesn't work as well on this beast as the corker.

Any ideas or input you have would be awesome. I'm a beginning brewer (2 batches bottled so far) and I'm starting to dabble with wine.

I have the Colonna. Mine came with two bells. One is marked 26.5 and the other is marked 30. For a standard beer bottle I use the 26.5 and have not had any problems getting a good crimp. It works best if your bottle is dead center on the plate. If dead center I only need to pull the handle once. If I am off a little I let the bottle come off the plate enough to center it and give it a second pull. It might be as simple as not having your plate high enough. For a standard 12 oz bottle my plate is in the 17th notch from the top.

Thanks so much for the advice, Oldyote! I played around with the thing tonight and finally realized that it was a combination of plate placement and the fact that I was being a little too easy on the device out of fear of breaking something.

Once I gave it a good try I got a good crimp and it lifted the bottle right off the plate when I pulled the lever back! Now all I have to worry about is what to brew next!

Cheers!

Linda

Happy if it helped - I have my mounted to a work bench. I consider it one of my best investments. Before buying it I was using flip top bottles and still like them but now I almost prefer the simplicity of the caps. I hope to make a Belgian and use the corker in the near future. I might have some questions for you when the time comes.