Capgun Caps

This is such an ingenious and fascinating device. So, let me see if I understand. :hmm: First you bundle the four rods together into the pipe collar and then, I suppose, you weld them into the collar. Then you drill a hold down through the center of the bundle and insert another rod. In looking at your picture of your set up, I am guessing that the center rod is free to slide up and down within the bundle. In action, on the down stroke, the center rod first contacts the copper and then slides up into the bundle allowing the bundle to punch out the cloverleaf through the clover leaf die cut into the second metal plate. Then the center rod contacts the press and is forced through the cloverleaf and then down through a hole in the bottom plate to form the finished cup in one stroke.

How close am I to understanding the machine and its operation? I know I am not yet dead on but I may be close. Where am I wrong?

Here's a photo of the parts Bill. There's a bail mounted on the plunger of the press. It swings down to press the clover leaf punch down into the die as you figured. Next the bail is swung up out of the way, and the plunger of the press is brought down a second time onto the cap punch, forming the cap from the clover leaf blank, and pushing the finished cap out the bottom of the die. The bail is swung down to catch the entire plunger assembly and withdraw it from the die so that the copper strip can be advanced to begin the cycle again. I welded my clover leaf punch, but brazing or silver soldering would probably work as well, perhaps even epoxy.

Okay. Got it. Now my next question or two. What are the rods made of and what are their dimentions? Lastly, what do you fill the caps with. I know domestic made cap gun caps will not work. Do you buy a mixture to fill the caps? How reliable are your home made caps. Even though I can buy caps right now, the price seems to be going out of the roof and I just might want to do what you are doing.

Bill, the rods for the leaves of the clover are .161, same as a #20 drill bit. They are made from spring steel salvaged from a discarded mattress which luckily for me matched a drill bit in my collection and saved filing them down on the drill press. The cap punch needs to match the gun's nipple, the trick, if you can't hit it perfectly with a bit, is to go oversized, and then use a prick punch around the circumference of the die where the finished cap exits, shrinking the opening and slightly corrugating the cap. Check your mail, I sent you some technical info on how to do the drilling in a personal message to avoid clogging up the thread.

Thanks Wicket, now all I need is an old mattress. Hmmm :hmm: Come to think of it, there is a Goodwill not far from me and people are always dumping unusable junk in their alley. They just have to clean it up and toss it into the dumpster. I hate the thought of dumpster diving in a Goodwill dumpster :barf: but a man's got to do what a man's got to do. What the heck, it ain't as bad as buying your underwear at Goodwill. :haha:

Just remember that you're on a mission Bill, and think of the fun you'll have explaining why you are cutting up a mattress out in the alley behind Goodwill. I'd go with "I had money hidden in my mattress and my wife gave the thing to Goodwill without telling me".