Pneumatic Bottle Capper - Just...because.

[greenbirds]

Gotta love that "pfff, ka-chung" sound.

Definitely tops it off right there.

Awesome, just awesome.

 

[ThePig]

Badass. Simply badass.

 

[Hang Glider]

Badass. Simply badass.

+1
really no other words to describe it.

 

[jburdett]

Awesome...


I think i need to build one... any suggestions on where to find an air cylinder? Would a smaller bore work just as well at higher pressure? or should i look just for a 2"? -John

 

[oceanselv]

What an awesome machine. I agree with you on the glass breakage will not be an issue. Glass is a fragile material only when you place a sudden sharp change in pressure on a very focused point. Much like a hen can sit on her eggs, yet an eggshell will crumble when you hit it on the edge of a bowl. When a hen sits on her eggs the force is applies evenly over the surface of the egg. Yet when you strike the egg against a bowl you are placing enough force on one very focused spot to break the eggshell. To shatter the bottle you would need to do the same. However as the cylinder descends it is placing pressure evenly along the top of a properly placed bottle the pressure is evenly distributed throughout the bottle. If the bottle is not properly aligned the bottle may still not break. It will initially develop a crack. The crack will develop because glass is a crystalline structure and the unequal pressure has created a fissure in the crystal structure. With enough applied pressure the crack will indeed cause a breakage, but it is in unlikely to cause flying shrapnel.

Keep in mind glass in the correct crystal form is used to cut steel.

 

[Hang Glider]

yeah, I think we're going to need plans....
materials list, suggested vendors, ....

 

[-TH-]

Well you know I just HAD to model this in CAD before making it...

I don't have a detailed drawing though (but could easy enough )

The air cylinder is manufactured by American Cylinder, p/n: 2000SN-2.00. I see you can buy it direct from their website for about $65 here: http://www.americancylinder.com/mm5...ode=A&Product_Code=JAA0200&Category_Code=K_SN. Of course you might be able to find it cheaper somewhere else. Other cylinders will work fine too, but the nice thing about that one is it has a 5/8-18 threaded rod end which allows a standard capper bell to screw right on.

Cheers!

 

[diatonic]

Can that software export to something AutoCAD can work with? I'd imagine it would export to .dwg. That would be rad if you could post a link to a dwg file... I'd even add the dimension annotations

EDIT: Also, does anyone know a source for capper bells other than taking one from an existing bench capper?

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Excellent work!

 

[humann_brewing]

sweetness! Now you just need to rig up a line feed to slide the bottles in and out

 

[klyph]

Can that software export to something AutoCAD can work with? I'd imagine it would export to .dwg. That would be rad if you could post a link to a dwg file... I'd even add the dimension annotations

EDIT: Also, does anyone know a source for capper bells other than taking one from an existing bench capper?

I'm 99% sure ProE can export to .dwg or at least .dwf

 

[Hang Glider]

what would be the drawback of a 1 1/2" bore, 2" stroke? (half the price!)

 

[diatonic]

what would be the drawback of a 1 1/2" bore, 2" stroke? (half the price!)

You'd need about twices as much air pressure for the same force. 2" bore has 3.14 in² of surface area, and 1.5" bore has 1.77 in² of surface area.

 

[wscott823]

I'm 99% sure ProE can export to .dwg or at least .dwf

.dxf is supposedly the universal drawing format. Just about any design program can import it.

 

[-TH-]

Here's the dwg file:

http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/files/pbc1.dwg

If you really build your own keep in mind that you may want to modify the height dimension to match the bottles that you will be using.

If you need to know anything else just let me know!

 

[camiller]

EDIT: Also, does anyone know a source for capper bells other than taking one from an existing bench capper?

LHBS perhaps?

 

[diatonic]

This is awesome. Thanks so much for the CAD drawing. When I finally get around to building a room for my brewing stuff, it will have one of these.

 

[EarthBound]

OMG TH, you kick ass.
I want one of these ASAP.
Are you a mech eng?

 

[InfernoBrews]

That's Kick Ass!! I want one!:rockin:

 

[-TH-]

Well I've used it to bottle two batches so far and it has definitely made bottling much more fun (now if I could only eliminate the clean-up afterwards!!!). I plumbed-in a compressed air line to my brew room from my detached garage so I can hook up to the compressor out there instead of running my little pancake unit. This way I can bottle after the little ones go to bed too!

 

[klyph]

TH I was wondering if you have a .SAT file or some other solid model format that I can import into the Google Sketchup 3D warehouse. I have AutoCAD 2010 and Sketchup, I could model it from the CAD file you posted, but I'm lazy

Thanks.

 

[-TH-]

TH I was wondering if you have a .SAT file or some other solid model format that I can import into the Google Sketchup 3D warehouse. I have AutoCAD 2010 and Sketchup, I could model it from the CAD file you posted, but I'm lazy

Thanks.

Here's my choices for exporting from Pro/E, which one would you like?

 

[klyph]

IGES or STEP will work for me, thanks.

 

[Bpts_finest13]

Just watch the id.. thats awsome

 

[cinderbike]

This thing is pretty rad.

 

[camiller]

Was just thinking about bottle height variations and such and it occurred to me, couldn't you design a support at the top of the bottle, sort of how a wing capper grabs the ridge of glass, and not worry about a platform for the bottle to sit on? Then the top of the bottle would always be a consistent distance from the bell no matter if you are using 12, 16, or 22 oz. bottles.

 

[klyph]

You could but then all the force of the cylinder would be concentrated on that glass lip. It might work just fine, but I'd feel better with the way it's designed now.

 

[bschot]

I was wondering if you could use a cylinder with a longer stroke. Of course I don't really know anything much about pneumatics, but if you would set the required pressure to crimp a cap, the cylinder would stop at whatever height the bottle is. So you could crimp tall or short bottles, although I would slowly turn up the pressure, experimenting to find the correct pressure for the crimp and then turn it up a hair more like 1 or 2 psi to make sure it happened ever time.

Awesome invention anyway.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Awesome! Can't wait to see what the automatic capper looks like! While you're at it, why not create a "line" that jacks a new bottle into place as each is capped and moved out of position? Makes bottling look cool.....(even though it's a PITA!).

 

[SankePankey]

For those worried about bottle breakage, you could just make a 'telephone booth with no roof'...kind of mechanism- whereby you put the bottle in and close the door. Maybe even a cylinder that slides open like those things at the bank drive-in (vaccuum transport thingy).

I think if you were planning on selling this like some suggest, you'd have to address that- liability.