9 replies to this topic

[Calamity Cellars]

Bought an ABC Manufacturing air powered tapered nylon sleeve corker a while back but haven't tried it yet. It was a second hand purchase and the manufacturer does not offer support any longer so I am on my own here. This evening I was setting up for a Saturday bottling session and gave it a try. Not good at all.

Here are the pictures:

Cork 1 Cork 2 Cork 3


The way this thing works is you push the bottom of a bottle against a spring loaded base and then allow the spring to push the top of the bottle up into the bottom of a tapered nylon/Teflon sleeve. That part works just like my Italian floor corkers. The cork is then placed in the top of the nylon sleeve and when the door is shut the air powered plunger pushed the cork down the tapered sleeve, which compresses the cork as it goes, and into the neck of the bottle.

Here are some pictures of the corker as it operates:

Home Position Plunger Extended


And one of the tapered sleeve and plunger tip out of the unit in it's normal position and upside for inspection.

Normal Upside Down



Obviously the cork is wrapping around the plunger as it is being inserted. I cannot see if this is happening as it slides down the tapered sleeve or as it enters the bottle. My guess would be while traveling down the sleeve but that is based solely on this doesn't happen with the floor corker.

So, does anyone have any experience with these tapered sleeve units? I do have two of the Italian floor corkers and volunteers to help run them so I am not in panic mode but I would really like to have the equipment I purchased do the job it is designed for.

[Crazy Run Ranch]

I don't know anything about this corker. But the result look the same as when a conventional corker has worn parts and doesn't compress the cork enough causing massive dents in the cork. Can you tell if the sleeve is worn? Sounds like the tapered sleeve is the wear part and that you will be using the Italian corkers. Grease those pivots before you start.

[Howie]

The first corker I bought (35 years ago) was a small, tapered, plunge type that required whacking the top of the plunger with a mallet or piece of 2x4. I still use occasionally for certain bottles that are too tall for my floor corker. I used to have some corks inserted that looked like your examples. Through trial and error I learned that the best results were obtained by making several light taps instead of few heavy whacks. In your situation, perhaps you should try lowering the air pressure. As Crazy pointed out, the tapered sleeve could be worn. If the taper is supposed to be straight, it may be slightly bowed outward, causing friction. If you can insert a narrow straightedge in the taper, you might be able to determine if this is the case. You might also try wrapping a dowel, slightly smaller than the narrow end of the taper, with some fine (400 grit) Wet R Dry sandpaper, and sand in an up and down manner. In my mind, I've actually designed a tapered, plunge-type corker, and I would line the inside of the sleeve with some stainless steel veneer. Or, perhaps you could just buy a new sleeve and plunger, however, as pointed out in an earlier thread, ABC no longer supports it's wine making equipment, so maybe Hammered could machine new ones for you.
One more suggestion would be to try champfored corks.

[RSG]

Calamity, It's funny, I read some of your posts in another thread about those ABC corkers and how the company was rude to you. I live in the city where the company resides and they are the same with me. However, I now have a contact in the company that might be able to point me in the right direction regarding the design specs for the parts you need. If you want, I might be able to help. Not seeing the machine up close I can't commment on what exactly is the problem but if it is the plunger and the sleeve I can machine new ones for you out of Delron which will no doubt last longer than the ones they made originally. Might not get it ready for this round of bottling but if you want to send the old ones by mail I'll duplicate them. No charge, just postage.

[Calamity Cellars]

Calamity, It's funny, I read some of your posts in another thread about those ABC corkers and how the company was rude to you. I live in the city where the company resides and they are the same with me. However, I now have a contact in the company that might be able to point me in the right direction regarding the design specs for the parts you need. If you want, I might be able to help. Not seeing the machine up close I can't commment on what exactly is the problem but if it is the plunger and the sleeve I can machine new ones for you out of Delron which will no doubt last longer than the ones they made originally. Might not get it ready for this round of bottling but if you want to send the old ones by mail I'll duplicate them. No charge, just postage.

Ron, that is one of the nicest offers I have ever received. Thank you. I will take you up on it very soon. First I have some pretty blue Italian floor corkers that need to be cleaned & lubricated.

In looking at the design and after receiving a couple of PM's on the subject, I don't see how this corker could not leave a dimple. There are two significant forces that go into putting a cork in a bottle. One is compressing the cork into a small enough cylinder to fit and the second is pushing the cork into the neck. With the jaw type these two tasks are accomplished separately but with the compression sleeve it is accomplished from the same point of force. It seems to me to be destined for problems. The winery where I borrowed the GAI bottle filler has a very similar, but more industrial, version of this unit and I am going to talk with them about their experience with it. Could be that Ron will solve all of my problems with a new compression sleeve.

[Hammered]

All good comments above. Just to summarize it looks to me like

1. There may be too much friction on the sides of the tapered compression fitting, so like Howie said, some super fine sanding to smooth it up and maybe some food grade lubricant on the inside could reduce that friction. To test this you could try putting some cooking spray on your finger tip and rubbing a fine layer on it.

2. The plunger may be too small, so if there is a way to make it a bit larger to more closely match the bottom of the tapered fitting, the pressure in the center of the cork would be reduced.

3. Is there a way to reduce the pressure and/or speed of the plunger? If so I'd try setting it as low as it can go to fully drive the cork into the bottle. Maybe adjust your regulator on the compressor?

[Calamity Cellars]

All good comments above. Just to summarize it looks to me like

1. There may be too much friction on the sides of the tapered compression fitting, so like Howie said, some super fine sanding to smooth it up and maybe some food grade lubricant on the inside could reduce that friction. To test this you could try putting some cooking spray on your finger tip and rubbing a fine layer on it.

2. The plunger may be too small, so if there is a way to make it a bit larger to more closely match the bottom of the tapered fitting, the pressure in the center of the cork would be reduced.

3. Is there a way to reduce the pressure and/or speed of the plunger? If so I'd try setting it as low as it can go to fully drive the cork into the bottle. Maybe adjust your regulator on the compressor?

I think you summarized it well. At this point I have too much to do before bottling tomorrow at noon so I am going with the hand corkers for now. (Damn day job keep messing with my winemaking.) If I end up with some time tomorrow morning I will try a few things to see if I can make it work for me. Unfortunately I an going for a premium wine market and I cannot tolerate a less than 95% perfect cork surface.

Response to 1. I have run my fingers throughout the inside of the compression sleeve and I would say that it is very smooth. It is not a straight taper but instead has a bit of a curve to it. I attribute this to wear from the cork. Cooking spray is definitely a great idea.

Response to 2. I agree. The plunger is fairly rounded which I doubt is wear. I received a pm from someone with experience on these machines and they cut the tip of the nylon lunger off so that it was flat and that helped. I would like to try a larger diameter plunger but that will definitely not happen this time.

Response to 3. Reducing the pressure seems counterintuitive to me. When you drive a screw into wood with a cordless drill it goes in easier if you go fast. However, I will definitely give varying the air pressure a try.

[Crazy Run Ranch]

Wow, truly impressive collective trouble shooting!
I seem to remember Greg saying he knew somebody using that corker. Maybe he can hook you up with someone who has dealt with this before. I bet there is some fine tuning that could help that may not be immediately obvious.
I put up with Ferrari's denting corks for several years before sorting it out. Now mine is totally dent free. Of course its been rebuilt twice, has pivot points bored oversize with bronze bushings, but it works great.

[RSG]

Something else you could try is to soak the corks in hot water just before bottling. It makes them more plyable. I do it when I bottle. If you do decide to have them remade we can try some different dia. plungers too.

[Hammered]

Response to 3. Reducing the pressure seems counterintuitive to me. When you drive a screw into wood with a cordless drill it goes in easier if you go fast. However, I will definitely give varying the air pressure a try.

My thought is more related to the impact/force that the plunger is making on the cork. Kind of like driving your car into a brick wall -- the faster you go, the worse the damage. It probably doesn't take much force to insert the cork.