PVC Capsules

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Huh. Mine works great but doesnt get screaming red like that but it sure does heat my room up nice!
 
I've used a heat gun, as well as the boiling water method. The heat gun is easier, but I get best results from boiling water. Steam didn't do much for me, and is far more dangerous than a boiling water dip. There are MANY ways to skin this cat.
 
My thermoencapsular also looks like Dan's and glows red. It is sort of pricey for such a narrow use but after I had the carboys I needed, the floor corker, etc. it made its way to the top of the list!
 
I definitely admit the tool is expensive and for people who dont have bad backs and dont mind spending more time its not needed. For me its a godsend!!!!
 
I ended up using a heat gun ...
It seems like it takes me forever to get the labels printed and applied. Also the capsules take time. But I finally got these ready for storage.
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Those are the smoothest gold shrink caps I have seen. I have done 3 or 4 batches with gold and they all crinkled up something horrible. Were those new bottles?
Fine job all the way around!
 
ibglowin said:
Those are the smoothest gold shrink caps I have seen. I have done 3 or 4 batches with gold and they all crinkled up something horrible. Were those new bottles?
Fine job all the way around!

Well, I'm glad you posted that ... they are a PIA. I ended up doing about 10 twice. I thought George sent me some defects.
 
The gold give me the most grief. I use the boiling water method and it sometimes leaves the lower edge slightly curled. Don't seem to have that with the other colors that I have used.
 
Here is a perfect example of how the gold capsules turn out for me. All other colors have turned out much better than this. They are not babies ask smooth but they are very acceptable. Something very different about the gold ones for sure!
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Huh, I have and use every color, even the clear ones and after figuring out it only needed to stay in there for about 1 second I havent had a problem since. I must admit though that the LD carlson Matte finish capsules work the absolute best!!! Thats fine with me as I think they look the best anyways.
 
WOW Mike. I have not had a problem like that. It almost seems like they needed another second in the heater. I wondering if there was a way to hook up a reostat to mine to turn the heat down by about 20%.
 
Hey Mike another thought. There are two type of capsules. For screw cap and for corks. Is it the capsule you have there is larger and meant for screw cap bottles?
 
These were just the normal ones from FVW. Have used them on 3 batches with the exact same results on all three. I use a Heat Shrink Gun (on low). Works great for every other color in the world!
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(confused, perplexed maybe some of both!)
Gold Shrink Capsules
 
Dan, not sure if the larger ones are just for screw caps. I have a few batches of bottles that are very thick on top and the smaller pvc's wont fit them so I have to but the large ones for them. I do recall having that exact problem with the heat gun on a lot of capsules, dont quite remember the color as it was a long time ago. I have not had tat problem since, just a few where if you leave it topped up in the machine the tops would burn exposing the top of the bottle bit Ive learned that you only need hit the top for a split second like as fast as you can hit the top to pull it back. that ensures that the capsule is all the way on before it starts to shrink.
 
The boiling water does better than this on the gold for me but I am only 600' above sea level.
 
So I managed to do the boiling method and heat gun on the gold capsules for the first time. Gold capsules are definitely more finicky than the one other I have done. I found boiling water method the better of the two and that is twice I have felt that way. I ended up dipping the bottle (slowly at first) for a full 5-6 seconds to maximize the shrink. With blue capsules they would be destroyed after 2 seconds! Even then I had many I had to redo. One thing I noted was the unevenness of the capsule. The top foil stamp was often not centered and the ring around the neck of the foil was often not level and some even swooped a few millimeters off the level line! This is one of the problems that may be haunting some of you. Look closely. I assumed they were all made identical.
 

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