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How i make my caps

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BeardedGunsmith said:
Well, I made a kit and added them to my Amazon store. It might take a few days to post there. They are on a tear away sheet that makes it easy to handle and load them. Also a tamp an scooper that puts just the right amount per cap. Hopefully this will help some folks out.View attachment 305731
Click to expand...
Awesome! What would be the best key word or link to your store?
 
I experimented once with resizing fired caps and adding primer mixture to them, it worked pretty good but that was the at time when primers were plentiful and cheap, so I never followed up on it. Just think of how many spent #10 and #11 caps we have just thrown away.
 
So this is not lead styphinate? I think primers for cartridge guns use lead styphinate which spews lead dust in the air (I suspect more so than the bullets themselves).

What does CCI et.al. use in their percussion caps?
 
Ordered one that is on the way... I have, though a lot of trial and error, set up my system and have come up with a very useable #10 cap and a musket cap.. They slip on like a glove.. I am having to print them on a raft as the individual caps don't have the adhesion to keep them on the plate. A little more plastic but it works good.
I do about 30 #10's per batch and 14 musket caps per batch.. Can't wait to try them out. Got the mix that you listed and will try mixing for a syringe injection... On my way !!
 
So far everything has went as planned, I cut the measurement down to a third of the Beardedgunsmith's amounts in his first post and it loaded 10 of his 3D printed caps with some spillage.
I wanted to make a small batch so if I screwed up I would have less waste.

The toothpick method of filling the caps is messy and where all the spillage came from, someone mentioned filling them using a syringe or similar tool and if anyone has the ideal method of filling the caps please let the rest of us know.
Some of the dental syringes on Amazon look interesting.

They are drying now and I will test them Asap.

Thanks Beardedgunsmith and all who have posted!
 
French Colonial said:
So far everything has went as planned, I cut the measurement down to a third of the Beardedgunsmith's amounts in his first post and it loaded 10 of his 3D printed caps with some spillage.
I wanted to make a small batch so if I screwed up I would have less waste.

The toothpick method of filling the caps is messy and where all the spillage came from, someone mentioned filling them using a syringe or similar tool and if anyone has the ideal method of filling the caps please let the rest of us know.
Some of the dental syringes on Amazon look interesting.

They are drying now and I will test them Asap.

Thanks Beardedgunsmith and all who have posted!
Click to expand...
You can buy some of the larger syringes that have the needle that unscrews from the body of the syringe, pull the plunger out and fill them up from the back with your wetted priming compound and then reinsert the plunger while pointing the needle upward. If it's a large enough gauge needle, you can screw the needle back onto the assembly and use it to finely push the compound into the caps. I'd highly recommend to sand the needle dull before doing the above though. Definitely don't want to accidentally jab yourself with a toxic mix of priming compound.

This is somewhat how I do it, except I fill the syringe with duco cement and use it to place a small drop inside the cap before dumping the dry powder into it and tamping it into a hardened puck.
 
BeardedGunsmith said:
You can buy some of the larger syringes that have the needle that unscrews from the body of the syringe, pull the plunger out and fill them up from the back with your wetted priming compound and then reinsert the plunger while pointing the needle upward. If it's a large enough gauge needle, you can screw the needle back onto the assembly and use it to finely push the compound into the caps. I'd highly recommend to sand the needle dull before doing the above though. Definitely don't want to accidentally jab yourself with a toxic mix of priming compound.

This is somewhat how I do it, except I fill the syringe with duco cement and use it to place a small drop inside the cap before dumping the dry powder into it and tamping it into a hardened puck.
Click to expand...
HUUMMMM

So what you are saying you have changed your method from the first post in this thread?

In the first post you were mixing the dry ingredients with alcohol and while wet adding the Duco cement.

Are you now mixing the dry ingredients while dry, putting Duco in the caps and adding dry ingredients? No alcohol involved?
 
French Colonial said:
HUUMMMM

So what you are saying you have changed your method from the first post in this thread?

In the first post you were mixing the dry ingredients with alcohol and while wet adding the Duco cement.

Are you now mixing the dry ingredients while dry, putting Duco in the caps and adding dry ingredients? No alcohol involved?
Click to expand...
A little bit. I still mix the compound wetted with rubbing alcohol to get a thorough mix but then I let it dry. And there's no adding the duco into the mix. Just put a drop of the duco into the cap and then dump the dry powder on top of it and tamp it down, then let dry. It'll harden and look like a real percussion cap.
 
BeardedGunsmith said:
A little bit. I still mix the compound wetted with rubbing alcohol to get a thorough mix but then I let it dry. And there's no adding the duco into the mix. Just put a drop of the duco into the cap and then dump the dry powder on top of it and tamp it down, then let dry. It'll harden and look like a real percussion cap.
Click to expand...
Very good, I will try that next time. I will not be able to try the ones I have already made until the weekend.

EDIT
So you are not concerned about setting it off after the powder is dry?

Double EDIT
When this new method dries is it powdery or chunky?
 
French Colonial said:
Very good, I will try that next time. I will not be able to try the ones I have already made until the weekend.

EDIT
So you are not concerned about setting it off after the powder is dry?

Double EDIT
When this new method dries is it powdery or chunky?
Click to expand...
It won't detonate just by pressing on it. It needs a sharp blow for that to happen. And it dries into a hard and solid puck.
 
If 3D printed plastic works, then injection molding should also work, and would be vastly cheaper.
 
I know I've asked this before but I've sold a ton of these and nobody leaves a review. I have 3 reviews and one person left a bad one and didn't say what the problem was. That one bad review really lowers my rating. If you all have purchased from me, please leave a review because it really helps out.
 
BG Have you made any of your own Filament ? There are lots of videos out there using plastic pop bottles to make filament. That plastic is very tough. I have put as much as 130lbs. of air in them before blowup. That would cut cost considerably.
Molding could work but who would put the effort into making mold blocks to do a hundred at one time? For myself I do the double pop cans and am happy with that.
 
n.h.schmidt said:
BG Have you made any of your own Filament ? There are lots of videos out there using plastic pop bottles to make filament. That plastic is very tough. I have put as much as 130lbs. of air in them before blowup. That would cut cost considerably.
Molding could work but who would put the effort into making mold blocks to do a hundred at one time? For myself I do the double pop cans and am happy with that.
Click to expand...
No, at the prices that filament are at its not really worth it to make my own.
 
So...

As I reported earlier I made a small batch of the compound using the BeardedGunsmiths recipe, I reduced it to 1/3 and filled up 10 of his plastic caps that I ordered from Amazon.

I finally got a chance to try them out today, out of 10 caps 3 of them did not ignite on the first strike, however all 3 went off on the second strike. My ASSUMPTION is that I had way too much compound in the caps, some of them were almost 3/4 of the way full. I ASSUME this was because I filled them when the compound was too thick.

I will try again and use more alcohol and make sure the compound is thinner, maybe even a little runny on my next attempt.

The caps were VERY energetic, I noticed no change in the POI versus standard CCI caps.
 

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