Disassembling a floor corker

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Boatboy24

No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
Joined
Mar 18, 2012
Messages
17,136
Reaction score
29,803
Location
DC Suburbs
A few months back, I picked up an Italian floor corker from @mainshipfred. Mechanically, it appears to be in great shape, but it has some age on it and a few cosmetic dings. My plan was to disassemble it, clean it up, give the painted parts a fresh coat of paint and put it back together. I'm sort of stuck. There's a rod attached to the handle that goes down through the upright tube and is attached with a couple nuts and a washer. There's some sort of spring action on this and I can't get the nuts to turn. Is there a trick I'm missing here?

E0A29BFD-AE04-4935-8BDA-1C2F6B670E9D.jpeg

8B5053FC-862B-4444-852C-E2C29D7BA44A.jpeg
 
The bottom nut is acting as a jam nut. Need two wrenchs each sized to fit the nuts. Hold the upper nut (per your photo) stationary and attempt to unscrew the lower nut. May take some PB Blaster or WD-40 to help loosed. Otherwise, find someone with a size 2 hat and size 18 shoe to help.
 
That did it. Thanks Mike!

Next question: what's the preferred grease/lubricant to use on the jaws?
 
Got everything taken apart and started cleaning. Hit the brass pieces with Brasso and the other, non painted metal with brake cleaner. Went to Lowes and got some stainless steel nuts and bolts to replace the hardware. Also grabbed some sandpaper and Krylon Colormaxx paint. The gloss navy blue is pretty much an exact match. Moving right along. Hope to have it all done and put back together by Monday or Tuesday.
 
Got everything taken apart and started cleaning. Hit the brass pieces with Brasso and the other, non painted metal with brake cleaner. Went to Lowes and got some stainless steel nuts and bolts to replace the hardware. Also grabbed some sandpaper and Krylon Colormaxx paint. The gloss navy blue is pretty much an exact match. Moving right along. Hope to have it all done and put back together by Monday or Tuesday.

Jim, two things:

1. be very careful to thoroughly clean any of the metal that was touched by Brasso. You would not want that to get into the wine on a cork.

2. Check out this alteration to Italian floor corkers that NorCal developed and which I did to mine. It never worked better:

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/fixing-my-ferrari.57447/https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/italian-floor-corker.69907/
Good luck!
 
Jim, two things:

1. be very careful to thoroughly clean any of the metal that was touched by Brasso. You would not want that to get into the wine on a cork.

2. Check out this alteration to Italian floor corkers that NorCal developed and which I did to mine. It never worked better:

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/fixing-my-ferrari.57447/https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/italian-floor-corker.69907/
Good luck!

Thanks Rocky. Appreciate the tip on the Brasso - hadn't thought about that. Just a little water, or something more involved? I've thought about yours and NorCal's mod. Does that involve drilling? To be honest, I'm only mildly handy; so taking apart, cleaning and putting back together was my limited agenda here.
 
Thanks Rocky. Appreciate the tip on the Brasso - hadn't thought about that. Just a little water, or something more involved? I've thought about yours and NorCal's mod. Does that involve drilling? To be honest, I'm only mildly handy; so taking apart, cleaning and putting back together was my limited agenda here.

I would use a strong detergent and rinse well with hot water.

As far as drilling is concerned, NorCal and I did slightly different mods. Mine only required drilling 2 thru holes in the frame to mount the bearing. I believe NorCal also drilled and tapped a hole for a screw to secure the shaft.

100_1346.JPG
 
What a difference a day makes.

These two wing nuts were holding bolts that attached the back legs to the rest of the frame. They looked identical 24 hours ago. The one on the right was soaked in white vinegar overnight, then washed with soap and water. Almost as good as new. I bought new stainless hardware to replace these and the bolts, but it's nice to know they could be cleaned up. I finished the painting a bit ago. I'll let everything dry until at least tomorrow before reassembling.

EE1ABE30-0017-4B60-9D9C-959F5903CC46_1_201_a.jpeg
 
Question: Is there an order to follow when putting the jaws back in?
 

Thanks Rocky. Fortunately, I took a 'before picture'. I did manage to get everything back together, but now the pin is just slightly coming into contact with the jaw on the southeast corner in your pic. I'm going to take it back apart and swap the NW and SE pieces. I thought they were identical, but maybe there's a slight difference.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top