Making my own caps.- Upgrade

[raa-7]

Here's my upgrade from the oak block, which works well, but will wear in time like you can see in the pictures in the other thread.Also, I didn't want to put all of this in the other thread because it would make it a little confusing if it isn't already In these pictures at the bottom I used a 7/8" x 1"piece of cold rolled steel. You can cut it a little longer if you want but not longer than the bit you use to drill through it. Drill a hole in the center, all the way through it. Bevel one end of the hole 45 degrees . This will help the disk of copper or aluminum (which ever you choose) to form into the hole. You can see this in the picture.I Use a rod from an old sink (the drain linkage rod that go's up n down) to push the disks into the hole in the die . With this one, you push the cap to the very end . Put it on top of a smooth hard piece of steel (or other smooth hard surface) and give the rod a hit or two.This gives the cap a nice flat "striking end". I made about 30 caps with it and it's a lot faster than picking out caps from the wooden block ! I'll still keep one of those around though. But this steel one is much faster and makes excellent caps. If you make one correctly and try this out , practice with it and don't get discouraged.It took me a while to get fast at making them. Ask me questions about this and I'll get back to you.Thanks for reading this -ron my camera does what it wants to. I need a new one !

 

[Comrade Mike]

Now all I have to do is design a lead styphnate process flow and I can produce my own priming compound!

How fast do you think the ATF would be at my door?

 

[raa-7]

I don't think you would have anything to worry about using the paper caps I buy in the kids toy dept. Sorry about the blurry picture,my camera is now in the trash.I can buy one for 89.00 that takes better pics

 

[tpelle]

Good job! I like this die a lot better than the wood one!

So, if I understand this correctly, what forms the flat cylindrical shape on the cap is the bottoming-out against the flat piece of steel that you mentioned in the write-up above?

I guess you set the "die" on something flat and hard to serve as an anvil, tap the aluminum disk through using the sink drain plunger until it bottoms out, then just lift the die off of the anvil and push the cap out with the plunger?

 

[elhombreconnonombre]

sweeeet!!

 

[raa-7]

Good job! I like this die a lot better than the wood one!

So, if I understand this correctly, what forms the flat cylindrical shape on the cap is the bottoming-out against the flat piece of steel that you mentioned in the write-up above?

I guess you set the "die" on something flat and hard to serve as an anvil, tap the aluminum disk through using the sink drain plunger until it bottoms out, then just lift the die off of the anvil and push the cap out with the plunger?

Yep ! and with this little die, it's so much faster because there's no picking out the cap like in the wood block Glad you guys like it. It's easy to make as you can see the picture. I wanted something simple and effective.

 

[raa-7]

I'm getting there, and I want everyone to know about this ! Why should some people not be able to shoot they're BP guns ! I'm going to finish this "cap tap" up now. I'll post the rest on here when I'm finished.

 

[Bezoar]

wouldnt it be easier to simply produce them the same way the british did?

 

[elhombreconnonombre]

And how might the Brits have done that?

 

[raa-7]

wouldnt it be easier to simply produce them the same way the british did?

Can you tell us how they used to produce them ? If there is an easier way to make them we definitely want to know

 

[Gambit88]

Have you thought about seeing if this would work with musket caps? I can find pistol caps all day but musket are few and far between

 

[tpelle]

Well, the pressure is off regarding making my own caps. I just scored 1000 Remington #10 caps from Cabelas! They actually have them in stock! WooHoo!

 

[raa-7]

Have you thought about seeing if this would work with musket caps? I can find pistol caps all day but musket are few and far between

I make all my own caps. Musket caps too. I use them for my smooth bores I have 2 threads on home made caps. Check it out. thanks for your reply.

 

[ofitg]

raa-7, I tried your idea just for fun - it works great!

I made my die from a scrap piece of quarter-inch-thick aluminum. Drilled it through with a 13/64 bit, and then beveled the hole on the top side (I think I beveled it more than you did). My push rod was 0.157 diameter.

Instead of beverage can aluminum, I used soft 0.005 aluminum from a disposable pie plate. I punched out the disc with a 1/2" leather punch, and cut the four radial slits with my wife's cuticle nippers.



The cap fits good enough on my Uberti nipples that I'm sure it wouldn't fall off by itself.... just to be extra sure, I would probably pinch the cap to make it a bit tighter.

I'm not ready to get rid of my old Tap-O-Cap, but your idea is probably the "next best thing" that I've seen. Well done, sir!

 

[4v50 Gary]

Better buy your own cuticle clipper if you know what's good for you.

Thanks for sharing your experiments and those images.

 

[raa-7]

raa-7, I tried your idea just for fun - it works great!

I made my die from a scrap piece of quarter-inch-thick aluminum. Drilled it through with a 13/64 bit, and then beveled the hole on the top side (I think I beveled it more than you did). My push rod was 0.157 diameter.

Instead of beverage can aluminum, I used soft 0.005 aluminum from a disposable pie plate. I punched out the disc with a 1/2" leather punch, and cut the four radial slits with my wife's cuticle nippers.



The cap fits good enough on my Uberti nipples that I'm sure it wouldn't fall off by itself.... just to be extra sure, I would probably pinch the cap to make it a bit tighter.

I'm not ready to get rid of my old Tap-O-Cap, but your idea is probably the "next best thing" that I've seen. Well done, sir!

Hell yeah ! That's what I'm talkin about ! Good job there. Yeah I've tried the .005 soft aluminum too ! It works good. I also tried the same thickness copper sheet. Yeah once you get going on them you can make them pretty quick.I made about 1000 in the past few days in my spare time.And you can easily make musket size caps too. Glad you got it working ! Here's some copper caps I made.I fine tune the size I need when I charge them .

 

[jaxenro]

Seems like some enterprising person could make a combination cutter and forming die that would fit something like the Lyman 310 tool handles. Wish I was enterprising or had the machine tools to do it

Feed in a strip of copper each squeeze should cut the disc, form the cap, and eject it

 

[tpelle]

Seems like some enterprising person could make a combination cutter and forming die that would fit something like the Lyman 310 tool handles. Wish I was enterprising or had the machine tools to do it

Feed in a strip of copper each squeeze should cut the disc, form the cap, and eject it

That's pretty much what the Tap-O-Cap was, wasn't it? But it was made on a ticket-punch frame?

I think a Lyman 310 tool would be way overkill for the forces needed.

Regarding the Tap-O-Cap, the biggest issue I see is the pronounced flutes it leaves in the skirt of each cap. This looks like just asking for a chain fire, as I believe most chain fires are caused by loose fitting caps, and the hot gasses from the chamber being fire migrating up the adjacent cap and setting off the priming compound.

The best thing about raa-7's caps is the way he notches the blank, which lets the skirt fold tightly around itself.

 

[jaxenro]

I thought the tap o cap was two tools a punch ticket to make the blank - actually just a hole punch - and a forming die. I was thinking of a all in one die. Are 310 tools overkill? Maybe but if you recommend another common set of tool handles that accept screw indies I am all for it

 

[tpelle]

Well, you might be right about the Tap-O-Cap. I've never seen one in person, only pictures on the internet.

 

[Gambit88]

I didnt see anything about musket caps in youre other thead. Odds are I provsbly overlooked it. Anyway what size discs and rod did you use for musket caps, and how many caps? As a reenactor I go through 2-300 caps a year.

Thanks!

 

[Kaeto]

The Tap-O-Cap set was a Die punch that also cut the disc out of the metal, and a hole punch that was used to cut the paper roll cap to size to fit in the formed disc.

 

[raa-7]

I've been doing this for quite some time and for me it's easy now to make them. I see no difference in my shooting and I have no need to buy my caps any more

 

[raa-7]

I use the same exact tools. The rod from the sink and the die I described. When you make a cap from my die, it comes out at "musket size" and I size them to smaller for #11 size if I need them. I recommend using the copper sheet from http://http://ksmetals.com/31.html it's under "metal foils" stock #6020 its .005 thick 12"x 30" soft copper. It makes a stout little cap about like the production caps we buy from Rem/CCI/RWS etc. I wont use aluminum any more because for $10 I can make so many.

 

[Mike 56]

After reading this thread i got my Tap O Cap out and made some caps. I have a bunch of Big Bang caps the boxes look like yours. The caps went bang. I tried shooting some 44 cal wax bullets with 6 grs of ff they would not work. I crushed a small a mount of fff black powder and put a small amount under under the two toy caps they worked like store bought caps. Tomorrow i am going to try the caps with black powder in them to see if they work with my wax bullets. Some time next week i should be able to get to my Nephew place to try regular loads with my caps with out black powder.