# Pneumatic Bottle Capper



## Tony (19/12/05)

Hi All

Ducatiboy Stu and i were having a beer or 2 the other weekend and we got talking on how we could cap lots of bottles a bit easier.

The thought of hand capping all those hundreds of stubs was giving him blisters just thinking about it.

I Came up with the idea of mounting a capping bell onto a small pneumatic ram. I thought i could hook it up with a push button that operates a solenoid to push the ram down. I was worried about a high speed ram breaking bottles so an adjustable SMC flow restrictor was put in line with it to slowly feed air to the ram on its way down.

I put a preasure switch on it so i can set the required preassure to cap the bottles and then the ram will automaticly retract all by its self.

I have built the top half of the capper and am currently making an adjustable base, all out of stainless of course 

So operation is simple. Sit the bottle underneath with a cap on the top. Push the button and it will come down slowly and build preassure gradually to the preset level then it will retract at full speed by its self  

A few of the boys at work that are into brewing are keen to se if this beast is going to work, i sure hope it does :unsure: 

I will update pics as i make progress and will try to pick a less busy background for photos in furure. My old tool box makes it hard to se detail, sorry.

cheers all

tony the mad inventer :super:


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## peas_and_corn (19/12/05)

how would you ensure the height is right? with my hand one, I pull it down all the way to see where the bell is in relation to the top of the stubbie.


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## Tony (19/12/05)

bottle height doesnt matter.

The ram has 100mm of travel and i have made it to cap anything from a small stubby to a king brown.

It travels down till it meets the top of the bottle and then it starts building preasure in the ram, which pushes the cap on.

It will take a certan amount of preasure to crimp the cap over and you set the preassure switch to stop it pushing down when this is reached.

easy 

cheers


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## peas_and_corn (19/12/05)

ahh, it all makes sense now! takes a lot of the hassle out of capping right there alone


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## Doc (19/12/05)

Fantastic Tony.
I love nothing more than taking something that is simple (ie. manual and boring) and over engineering it (ie. making it geeky).
You should submit it to BYO magazine as a reader project when it is all complete.

Top work.

Beers,
Doc


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## JasonY (19/12/05)

If it can load the bottle caps automatically and have a foot pedal to operate it then it will be the ducks guts! Single handed operation


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## Jye (19/12/05)

> have a foot pedal to operate it



Go for a pressure pad where the bottles sit


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## Doc (19/12/05)

and a Red flashing light (that lights up when it is capping) 
One like this.




Beers,
Doc


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## Lukes (19/12/05)

Great idea.

I started to make one out of an old paint tin lid press from a paint mixing machine but ended up converting it into a die cutting press.

I got the idea from St pats in Texas.

Check it out.
St Pats

Must watch the Video.

Luke


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## Rex (19/12/05)

That looks very cool... If you could work out a way to load the caps automatically, then it would be even easier!


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## mika (19/12/05)

At least with my little capper, you have to have the bottle "just so", if it's a bit off line the cap goes on crooked and doesn't seal properly. I presume you'll have a centering die to hold the bottle central to it all ?


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## Scotty (19/12/05)

That is a great idea, when i first started brewing i had no idea how much stuff i would have to design and construct related to brewing.

I cant stop building stuff!!! Im sure everyone has the same problem as me, lol.


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## Tony (19/12/05)

yeah it will have an adjustable guide on the bottom to hold the bottles in place.

I was thinking of putting a micro switch on it so when you push a bottle into the guide the ram comes down by its self.

Actually now that i think of it, the guide will be a 90 deg V shape that slides back and forth so it can be adjusted for any sive bottle. I might put 2 limit switches on it, one on either side to ensure that the bottle has to be in the right position to come down.

And now i wont sleep tonight :angry: 

I am going to have to work out how to load the caps automaticly

ahhhhhhhh this is getting out of hand .

Im not to sure of the red flashing light though Doc, i kind of like a strobe better. Would certanly keep you awake during extended capping sesions 

The push button lights up but its not as bright :huh: 

cheers

tony


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## tangent (19/12/05)

i've used one of these and after 2 minutes i was sick of the noise from the compressor and still thought hand capping was almost twice as quick.

my bottleneck (a pun but very apt) in bottling is filling.

what pressures are you running and how long from activation to release?


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## Tony (19/12/05)

it isnt finnished yet mate

will let you know.

Im not trying to build the better mouse trap here, its just something that was thought up and i thought, 

"hey that would be something cool to try and build"

Its not so much the time it saves and i agree hand capping would probably be as quick but the ease of operation is what im after.

And as for the compressor, put it outside and run an air hose in.

would cost about $10 for 20 meters of air line.

cheers


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## johnno (19/12/05)

Thats brilliant.


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## barfridge (19/12/05)

If you're having flashing lights, you need a klaxon to go with it.


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## Ducatiboy stu (19/12/05)

Regardless of how quick it is to hand cap....when you have to do batches of 500-600 bottles on a weekly basis anything mechanical has to help...




I will still have to place the caps on by hand unfortunatly...but maybe somesort of conveyer belt can be set up...


Tony...If/when I ever make any money from this Micro and I expand, you will have a job as chief gadget maker...


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## redbeard (20/12/05)

perhaps u can have 2 machines. while placing a cap & bottle in one, the other is capping. have a magnet on the capper to hold it. depends on how automated u want it.


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## PhilS (20/12/05)

A Top notch project Tony. Would love to see the video of it in operation once you have finished it


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## ianmcgregor (20/12/05)

I've been thing of something similar using a much smaller bore cylinder (I have access to a few due to a failed system) with a very long stroke (450mm good for all height bottles, (Yeah I know I don't need this stroke to cover all bottles - but it's what I have access to))

I have not worked out the P/F needed yet, was thinking with such a small bore (20mm) might have to increase acceleration to get enough force to seal caps...
if I do this will need to make sure of aligning bottles VERY well

Ahh Amber dreams - I will get there 
- I already have my linux controlled fermentation/CC/Beer fridge 
- the full HERMS (or RIMS) mash->boil->fermentor->CC->Fridge controller will get there one day

I have the control system just need hardware from SWMBO  

Cheers

MACA


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## Tony (20/12/05)

thays why i put the adjustable flow restrictor in line with the top of the ram.

It comes down at a lesser pace that it goes up with no restriction. 

THe ram travels down easily with almost no preassure behind it but when it contacts something it will build the preassure slowly (over 2 or 3 seconds) to crimp the cap on.

I am worried that it will knock the cap crooked when it contacts it but it should be ok.

Only one way to find out

Build it hey  

Stu............... what sort of wage am i going to be looking at

i want at least 6 stubbies / hr

I recon i will have to invite you round to help empty my keg and then we can talk individual contracts.

cheers


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## Boozy the clown (20/12/05)

I feel quite the dope amoungst these engineers, geez, i just load up my beer with fermentables and wait and see what happens a few weeks after bottling, still get Pi^&ed!  

(and thats why i am boozy the clown) :beerbang:


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## Ducatiboy stu (21/12/05)

6 Stubs/Hr seams like a fair rate...with OT at an extra longneck


Ross might want in on the Micro to...I told him he could have 1 share with drinking rights only

Then when I get big I am going to take over Lion Nathan......


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## Kramer (22/12/05)

What about putting a set of scales underneath your normal capper to find out how much pressure u need to crimp the cap properly and start from there?


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## Darren (22/12/05)

Kramer said:


> What about putting a set of scales underneath your normal capper to find out how much pressure u need to crimp the cap properly and start from there?
> [post="99069"][/post]​




An outomatic bottle capper/washer and I wouold throw away the kegs (maybe)


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## dickTed (22/12/05)

good point there darren.

Hey. Reckon you could buy a 2 keg setup for what one of them contraptions would cost.


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## timmy (22/12/05)

You don't happen to work at an abattoir, do you Tony?

Half of my brewery was built at the abs where I used to work. h34r:


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## Tony (26/12/05)

scales measure weight, not preasure.

I have a preasure switch that looka at the preasure on the ram while it capping and stops the ram pushing down when the required amount of preasure has been reached.

Timmy.......... Not in the abs mate but close.

We chop wheat flour up into its little bits instead of cows  

We have been upgrading a lot of equipment latly and i had a clean out of our spare parts and found all sorts of goodies that were obsolite 

But if you were paying for it all new i recon it would run into the $#### mark

cheers

More pics when i do more work next year.


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