Wing Capper Goes Crooked and Breaks Bottles - Why?

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koenigwi

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Probably 50% of the time, when I start to clamp down with my wing capper, the bottle twists to the side. It's like the the clamps on the capper slip off the shoulder on one side. If I were t keep going, it would break the bottle. I can get around it by rotating the bottle 1/4 turns and clamping a little more each tie until it goes all the way down. I don't always catc it in time and broke the tops off of 5 bottles yesterday.

Is this more likely to be a problem with the capper or the bottles? I got the bottles off of Craigslist, so I don't know the brand. All appear to be in good condition.

The jaws on the capper aren't exactly in line when they'd first meet (off by maybe a 1/16"), but they finish nice and even.
 
Maybe a little bit of both. If you have a LHBS, take a bottle and a cap in and ask them to let you try out a capper. If it works fine, then I'd say the problem is your capper. If it does the same thing, then your bottles may undersized neck rings. Or you could just go with a bench capper and not worry about it.
 
The distance between the lip of the bottle and the (clamp) rim is crucial. On some bottles that distance is shorter, which may cause the twisting. Check them against each other.

Or you capper is defective.
I find the all-plastic cappers way too wishy-washy, flimsy, and use an all-metal one.

A (good) bench capper is probably best. The ones generally for sale now with the red plastic head are crap too. The heads tend to crack.
 
I picked up a super agata bench capper off amazon a couple months ago. Works way better and I'm not scared of bottles smashing or slipping out under me anymore.
 
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