Bench Capper vs Hand Capper

[Gravity]

Lol. I'm an idiot. I was already thinking this thing was a piece of crud because I thought the little red thingy was critical to keeping this thing locked in the right position. Then I locked it in as shown in the video by accident.

Good to go!

Do you see the red notch, that shouldn't be there; its getting in the way of you trying to move it up and down. Once you remove it, lift the handle up and make vertical, it should easily move up and down to adjust to the height of any bottle.

You should be alright, it looks so nice!

 

[Yesfan]

^^ You're not the only one. I thought the same thing with mine when I got it.

 

[TrubDude]

I hate my double handle capper. It's difficult to use and even broke the top of a bottle once. Or maybe I just don't know the right way to use it, but it shouldn't be difficult. I just bought an Agata bench capper and it's awesome. Super easy to use and does a great job!

 

[ancientmariner52]

I bought the Agata capper a few batches back. Much better than the wing capper but still feels a little flexy, if that's a word.

Recently I found an old bench capper in a Fort Smith antique store. Built like a battle cruiser, weighs a ton, no flex at all. Mine for $4.50.

 

[eric19312]

I splurged on one of these. I keg 95% of my beer but love using this capper.

 

[Vandulus]

I switched to one of the cheaper Ferrari bench cappers (@ $50) and had many problems keeping it adjusted due to its flimsiness. I splurged on a Queen Lux capper and it's been a joy to use. It's much quicker, gives a better seal and so far no broken bottles!

 

[kh54s10]

I must have gotten a very good Red Baron 2 handled capper. About 2,500 bottles, no breakage of either bottles or capper.

 

[ancientmariner52]

I have two hand cappers, and they still get used when I have extra hands available on bottling day. They just feel flimsy. If I can only have one capper, I want a sturdy bench model.

 

[BlackDog56]

I splurged on one of these. I keg 95% of my beer but love using this capper.

I went with this one also. The key feature for me was all metal construction in the head. Zero flex and makes capping very quick. It is a bit of a pain to adjust for different bottle sizes, so I've culled my bottles so they are all the same height and I don't have to adjust the head.

dp

ps I got mine from William's brewing.

 

[radwizard]

Breaking bottles with a wing capper is not that hard to do. I recycle bottles at home, have not bought new bottles.
I have also broke a wing capper on bottling day.

Now I keep one around for a back up. The MB Deluxe Capper kicks ass

 

[Black Island Brewer]

I switched last March to this: https://jet.com/product/j/e6c530069a4740a68657d036a1a17855

Easy to adjust for height, zero flex

 

[plepper]

I looked thru 2nd hand stores until I found a vintage bench capper ( It didn't take very long). A little clean up and it works perfectly, is all metal nothing gonna break this thing, and only 15.00. One of my best brewing purchases.

 

[z-bob]

Mine looks very much like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-EVEREADY-WINE-CORKER-BOTTLE-CAPPER/253259240281 except it's not painted red. Contrary to the ad listing, it's just a bottle capper and not a corker. It works extremely well, but it won't take a 29mm champagne capping bell. Some day I'll try putting a 29mm bell loose under the 26mm (?) standard bell and see if that will work.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

I looked thru 2nd hand stores until I found a vintage bench capper ( It didn't take very long). A little clean up and it works perfectly, is all metal nothing gonna break this thing, and only 15.00. One of my best brewing purchases.

I did this twice, but my mistake was not testing them before I bought them (who carries an empty bottle and unused cap?!?) . I bought two different ones for the same $15, all metal, looked solid enough, both stunk. If they're in a "vintage" store, somebody, somewhere, got tired of putting up with it.

 

[ancientmariner52]

Not necessarily. I have a room full of beautiful old woodworking tools from vintage stores, and the all work just fine

I think it's a generational thing. The old folks pass away, their tools lie around for half a century or so, then off to auctioneer or thrift store.

That being said, you must keep in mind that the manufacture of cheap crap is not a recent innovation. A lot of old stuff was just as bad as the latest import.

 

[triethylborane]

That being said, you must keep in mind that the manufacture of cheap crap is not a recent innovation. A lot of old stuff was just as bad as the latest import.

This is for sure. lol.

 

[seatazzz]

I have both a wing capper and an old bench capper i got from a friend. For some reason the bench capper has chosen a hiding spot in my house where I cannot find it for the life of me, so had to use the wing capper last weekend in my first bottling venture in a year. Where oh where did my bench capper go???? Messed up a few caps due to lack of practice and I was low on them anyway. Darn thing is here SOMEWHERE....Love that old thing.

 

[ancientmariner52]

Go buy another one. That's how I find tape measures and utility knives.

 

[balrog]

Go buy another one. That's how I find tape measures and utility knives.

And socks

And 7/16” wrenches

Etc

 

[z-bob]

And socks
And 7/16” wrenches
Etc

I do that with scissors, screwdrivers, and little flashlights.

 

[MaxStout]

I have the Agata, which works well, though the column deflects a bit under pressure. It doesn't appear that the caps are seated off-axis, but I still don't like the Agata's "flexibility." I wish it was a little more rigid. It has a series of detent stops and you need to manually set one for the height of your bottles. However, I use all the same type of bottles, so I don't need to adjust up and down. Set it and forget it. If you use different kinds of bottles in a batch, you might want to get the Super Agata, which has a spring mechanism that automatically adjusts height.

I previously used a Red Baron wing capper, which worked well, and was more robust than some of the other cappers many places sell. But I started bottling in stubby bottles and the wing capper can't reach the top with the short necks.

 

[mongoose33]

I must have gotten a very good Red Baron 2 handled capper. About 2,500 bottles, no breakage of either bottles or capper.

I didn't have a lot of luck w/ the wing capper in the beginning. It was only after I bought a Super Agata that I figured out what I was doing wrong with it.

As I press the handles down w/ the wing capper, there's a sort of a kind of a "thunk" (no noise made) where the cap is seated. When I was a newbie, I wasn't sure that was enough to completely seat the cap, so I kept pressing down to be sure. Cracked a number of bottle necks that way.

Now, I understand how that cap seating and sealing over the mouth of the bottle is supposed to feel.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

For years I used a 2 handled "wing" type capper and now have a Super Agata bench capper. Now I'm getting occasional bottles that don't carbonate (perhaps 1 in every 20) with the more expensive bench model. That never happened with my hand held capper. But at least I'm not cracking bottles, which happened on rare occasions with the hand capper.

 

[DarkStarNJ]

I broke two bottles with the wing capper. Second instance even resulted in a broken capper (Ok maybe I'm using a bit too much force)

This was caused by bottles that have slightly different neck size (Distance from lip to neck rib that the capper grabs). Not sure of exact name of parts of the bottle. Never noticed this at first but on the second incident i figured it out.

 

[IKR]

I had two red "wing hand cappers" that I used forever but using the newer Agata bench capper that self adjusts like the one you linked and a Blichmann bottling gun i actually had a fun and speedy bottling session. It greatly improved my bottling sessions.

 

[ancientmariner52]

For years I used a 2 handled "wing" type capper and now have a Super Agata bench capper. Now I'm getting occasional bottles that don't carbonate (perhaps 1 in every 20) with the more expensive bench model. That never happened with my hand held capper. But at least I'm not cracking bottles, which happened on rare occasions with the hand capper.

This made me curious. I just went downstairs and took the, I dunno, bells, or dies, I guess, off of my Italian wing and bench cappers. Yes, they will interchange. No they are not the same. The die from the wing capper is goldish plated and looks round. The die from the bench capper is silverish, and so not-round the durn thing looks square. I put the goldish one on the bench capper.

This could account for leaky bottles, Silver. If you want to check it out, be aware that the male threads are plastic, and REALLY hard to get back on straight.

In passing, I noticed that my antique capper had seen so much use that the bottles had actually worn through the plating on the base.

I'm gathering parts to build a pneumatic capper. Based on what I learned today, I'll machine my own dies, thank you.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

Since getting the bench capper I linked to above I've bottled 22 cases of 12 oz bottles, and until yesterday had not broken a single one. I can't say that now: one bottle just burst apart at the middle!

As for speed, I find the bench capper to be faster, maybe due to the way I bottle: I fill all the bottles at once, leaving the loose cap on the top, then cap them all at once. The one-handed lever action and ease of lining it up make it faster for me than when I wing capped them all.

 

[ancientmariner52]

I've noticed a lot of variation in glass thickness thus I suppose bottle strength. I've got enough bottles now that I am culling the wee short ones. I wonder if I couldn't pick a medium-thick bottle, weigh it, and toss anything that weighs less?

 

[Black Island Brewer]

I've noticed a lot of variation in glass thickness thus I suppose bottle strength. I've got enough bottles now that I am culling the wee short ones. I wonder if I couldn't pick a medium-thick bottle, weigh it, and toss anything that weighs less?

I think that's my plan too. That was a bit unnerving. The shards showed some of the wall was way thinner on one side of the bottle.

 

[ancientmariner52]

Ever see bottles being made? Manual or machine, it's just a blob of hot glass blown in a mold. No practical way to keep the cavity centered. So some will be thin on one side, and some of those will slip paste qc. Scares me too.