First off, thanks to those who have posted videos, tutorials, and write-ups on this matter. I learned a lot. Here are a few things I did to make the process smoother for myself the first time around.
I. Cork Depth
You need to leave about 5/8" sticking out of the bottle. You could do this one of several ways. I first tried adjusting the handle, such that it would leave the proper amount when rotated fully to the right, but then it becomes hard to remove the cork which is still a 1/2" in the funnel. I wanted to be able to press the cork through with the lever after removing the base plate to free the bottle.
I decided to make a spacer to put underneath the edge of the cork plunger to stop it at the right place. As it turns out, 1" was the perfect size (I think my piece of wood measured 15/16").
Because it just fits under the lip, it's easy for it to slip out and the the plunger to pass it by. I remedied this by cutting off a small sliver of the bottom so it would fit over the funnel lip.
Now it will easily fit over the funnel, but it blocks the plunger from inserting the cork:
So I drilled a hole in the end to let the plunger stick through.
Finally I drilled a hole in the side of the body and in the spacer so I could tie a string through it. It hangs right by the side so it's always at hand.
And the result:
II. Bottle Removal
After leaving a cork sticking out the right depth, you have to remove the extra 5/8" cork from the funnel. To do this, you must remove the base plate and force it out with the plunger. This was looking to be quite a task, since the base plate has a few little tabs that I suppose are there in order to hold the thing firmly in place.
The problem is, you don't want it to be held firmly in place if you're removing it after every bottle to get the last bit of cork out. A little Dremel work will sort out that problem quite nicely.
I. Cork Depth
You need to leave about 5/8" sticking out of the bottle. You could do this one of several ways. I first tried adjusting the handle, such that it would leave the proper amount when rotated fully to the right, but then it becomes hard to remove the cork which is still a 1/2" in the funnel. I wanted to be able to press the cork through with the lever after removing the base plate to free the bottle.
I decided to make a spacer to put underneath the edge of the cork plunger to stop it at the right place. As it turns out, 1" was the perfect size (I think my piece of wood measured 15/16").
Because it just fits under the lip, it's easy for it to slip out and the the plunger to pass it by. I remedied this by cutting off a small sliver of the bottom so it would fit over the funnel lip.
Now it will easily fit over the funnel, but it blocks the plunger from inserting the cork:
So I drilled a hole in the end to let the plunger stick through.
Finally I drilled a hole in the side of the body and in the spacer so I could tie a string through it. It hangs right by the side so it's always at hand.
And the result:
II. Bottle Removal
After leaving a cork sticking out the right depth, you have to remove the extra 5/8" cork from the funnel. To do this, you must remove the base plate and force it out with the plunger. This was looking to be quite a task, since the base plate has a few little tabs that I suppose are there in order to hold the thing firmly in place.
The problem is, you don't want it to be held firmly in place if you're removing it after every bottle to get the last bit of cork out. A little Dremel work will sort out that problem quite nicely.