Forster is getting calls concerning their Tap-a-cap cap maker

If you are using the 1/8" paper punch you will have to hold them in the cup somehow. I use the 1/8" for the bottom of the cup but a larger dot to go on top. Even then sometimes all will fall out unless I spray it all with hairspray. If you have a cap go off in the punch out,You will need to clean the punch. I use soap and water and toothbrush(I knew I would find a use for that someday). The caps are very corrosive. You must be on your game in cleaning your guns.The rusting can be hard to deal with if your methods are not up to it.
n.h.schmidt

I just finished 100 caps and I used the hair spray trick. It works well to hold them in the caps. Thanks for the warning about the caps being corrosive. I will be cleaning my hole punch when I finish this post. I am hoping to shoot them tomorrow. I takes a lot of time to make. I hope they work ok.

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Originally Posted by n.h.schmidt

Texan I will try to get a couple of pictures sometime today. I went to a double layer pop can cup beacuse the single layer self destructs too easily. I beleive the cup helps hold the charge and force it into the nipple. If the cup is too weak you loose at least some of the effect. Last summer I went too far in making very strong cups. I used derimed 22rf cases ,sized down and shortened. These were hell for stout.In fact you could resuse them several times. All good except for one very big problem. The cup acted like a piston and would fly off the nipple and put the hammer to half cock. Even with a nipple with a very tiny hole,no difference. This was a dead end because of that alone. They were also hard to make . The double layer pop can is stout eneough to hold the charge for a while and will not blow the hammer back.Also easy and fast to make.
oftig
What you have showed us is neat. It looks like it could work well. Possibly very tedious but cheap to make. The four slits would be a problem for me.
n.h.schmidt

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Couldn't you just make the hole a little smaller, the material a punched in a circle and the hole formed in to have ridges cut in them to accept the "wrinkle"? It seems that is what a regular cap looks like, other than the top hats I use for the muskets... :grin: No?

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Originally Posted by n.h.schmidt

If you are using the 1/8" paper punch you will have to hold them in the cup somehow. I use the 1/8" for the bottom of the cup but a larger dot to go on top. Even then sometimes all will fall out unless I spray it all with hairspray. If you have a cap go off in the punch out,You will need to clean the punch. I use soap and water and toothbrush(I knew I would find a use for that someday). The caps are very corrosive. You must be on your game in cleaning your guns.The rusting can be hard to deal with if your methods are not up to it.
n.h.schmidt

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Doesn't hot water do the trick as it does with the rest of the gun?

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Originally Posted by Texantothecore

Thanks for the heads up on the Ampco and Mountain States Spitfire nipples. I was seriously considering Ampcos but hung back when I found out about the small hole. You saved me 35 bucks. Thanks.

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I learned with my caplocks, that ampco's are a pain in the butt. I used them for 1/4/28 thread musket cap nipples... but never no more. The small hole is one problem, the flat base is another and crud sticks to it... drilling it out (concaveing) helped a little as did drilling out the hole a little bigger. I didn't get blow back and hammer reset but concaving the base of the nipple I'm sure weakens the structure and it would only be a matter of time for gas cutting to do its dirty deed.... Spitfires for the #11 have been great for me... but I prefer one cap for all my guns if possible and musket caps are easier to get for me now than #11's.. that is why I'm interested in this process with tap-0 cap for my pistola's... :grin:

Rattus58
Hot water or any other cleaning method will work with corrosive caps. It's not the cleaning that will save us it's the preserving you do afterwards. I first ran into this 30 years ago with the caps made in Itlay. Stout charge ,stout cup and corrosive as heck. You do your best cleaning and still get rust.The best I come up with is to slop a heavy coat of full strength Ballistal in the barrel and parts. Also follow up later with more. Most light oils do not work.I have one exception and that is with using 3in1 oil. It's available everywhere and seems to preserve things nicely. One thing, everything must be dry before using the Ballistol or 3in1.
n.h.schmidt

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Originally Posted by n.h.schmidt

Rattus58
Hot water or any other cleaning method will work with corrosive caps. It's not the cleaning that will save us it's the preserving you do afterwards. I first ran into this 30 years ago with the caps made in Itlay. Stout charge ,stout cup and corrosive as heck. You do your best cleaning and still get rust.The best I come up with is to slop a heavy coat of full strength Ballistal in the barrel and parts. Also follow up later with more. Most light oils do not work.I have one exception and that is with using 3in1 oil. It's available everywhere and seems to preserve things nicely. One thing, everything must be dry before using the Ballistol or 3in1.
n.h.schmidt

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I've used 3 in 1 in the past and still do in my separated triggers (timmy and Bold).. but I'm starting to use marvel mystery oil now too... followed with lucas gun oil and so far that is working... but I've not shot a homemade cap yet... so the future still awaits... :grin:

Tap-a-cap field test

Ok I went and tried my homemade caps and they work great. Out of 25 rounds I had 2 that failed to set off the powder charge. The very first one did not work do to a dirty nipple and I tried to see if 1 cap dot would set off the round. The single cap dot was not successful. The magic number seems to be three cap dots. It is time consuming but I think worth it as long as I can get the paper roll caps. The hairspray as a glue worked relatively well. I think in the future I will try a heavier coat. The next quest is home made Black powder. Thank you to all the Poster's on this site, it was helpful to make my endeavor successful.

Forster still has their instructions for the tap-o-cap on their site and says 2 to three caps so it looks like you are well within the parameters.

I sure wish someone would start producing some caps like I had as a kid. I suspect hearing loss might be a problem as they were very loud.

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Originally Posted by n.h.schmidt

Rattus58
Hot water or any other cleaning method will work with corrosive caps. It's not the cleaning that will save us it's the preserving you do afterwards. I first ran into this 30 years ago with the caps made in Itlay. Stout charge ,stout cup and corrosive as heck. You do your best cleaning and still get rust.The best I come up with is to slop a heavy coat of full strength Ballistal in the barrel and parts. Also follow up later with more. Most light oils do not work.I have one exception and that is with using 3in1 oil. It's available everywhere and seems to preserve things nicely. One thing, everything must be dry before using the Ballistol or 3in1.
n.h.schmidt

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Thanks for the info. I am a believer in heavy oil after every shooting session because of rust damage to a muzzle loader a few years ago rather than a light coat.

I haven't had any problem since I went to heavy oil coating.

I shot a BP match on Sunday. I used my two layer pop can cap cups.They were stuffed with one cap dot on the bottom,a small scoop of 3F and a cap dot on top.A light hairspray cote to keep it all in. The begining 15 shots used Goex 3f BP. The last 11 shots I used Pyrodex P. I had one failure to fire on the 17th shot,using pyrodex. Three fast hangfires in the begining of shooting the pyrodex .Keep in mind that the rifle had already 15 shots of BP fired through it before going to the pyrodex.The pyrodex shooting actually got better as after a few shots.I think it was slowly cleaning the breach of BP fowling.
The rifle used was a 40 year old Jukar 45 cal Kentucky. I won the 50yd target and got second on two others. The caps were a success and the best outing I have had with home made caps. I give credit to using the BP in the caps. Just the dots alone never worked this well. Well time to put some more 3in1 oil in the barrel.
n.h.schmidt

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Originally Posted by n.h.schmidt

I shot a BP match on Sunday. I used my two layer pop can cap cups.They were stuffed with one cap dot on the bottom,a small scoop of 3F and a cap dot on top.A light hairspray cote to keep it all in. The begining 15 shots used Goex 3f BP. The last 11 shots I used Pyrodex P. I had one failure to fire on the 17th shot,using pyrodex. Three fast hangfires in the begining of shooting the pyrodex .Keep in mind that the rifle had already 15 shots of BP fired through it before going to the pyrodex.The pyrodex shooting actually got better as after a few shots.I think it was slowly cleaning the breach of BP fowling.
The rifle used was a 40 year old Jukar 45 cal Kentucky. I won the 50yd target and got second on two others. The caps were a success and the best outing I have had with home made caps. I give credit to using the BP in the caps. Just the dots alone never worked this well. Well time to put some more 3in1 oil in the barrel.
n.h.schmidt

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How much 3f bp? How did you measure? How was the fowling around the nipple? I noticed less fowling with my home made caps than with RWS caps.

The scoop was pictured in a previous entry. In this case it was made from a small pistol primer with the anvil removed and the indent flattened out. It was then soldered to a coat hanger wire as a handle. This scoop had to be filed down a little as there was too much powder filling the cup. About a third was filed off. There is more to clean off from fireing than with regular caps. No special problems in doing so.
n.h.schmidt

Ok, I took a look at your post. That's cool, I plan to give it a try. Thanks for the info

Just ordered this from this guy kevin.... http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=753136