Floor corker strip/clean

[Rich]

Managed to get an Italian floor corker from ebay. Fairly cheap too, But in dire need of a clean.

It put corks in fine, but did leave a dirty mark down the sides of the cork.

Reasonably easy to dismantle, There are 2 large springs inside, but nothing leapt out when the top cover was taken off. The brass jaws also have very sharp edges, lucky I was careful...

Cleaned it all up using some solvent to remove all the grease and most of the staining, then a little wire wool to polish it all up. Then removed all traces of wool and solvent and blew the whole lot out with an airline.

2 of the jaws have a spring behind them, the other 2 are bolted on with slight adjustment available. Once cleaned I set them up without the springs in, that's when the photo was taken, the springs went in after.

[Rich]

All back together in this pic, Tested too. Works nicely now without leaving any marks on the corks.

Next step is to get some rubber where the wine bottle sits, to stop it moving around.


Hope this might help anyone that ever feels the need to take the top off their own floor corker.

Rich

[Duffbeer]

Excelent mate you have the same Farrari that I have, this is one hell of a piece of kit. corking becomes a pleasure at this point.

[Rich]

I'll be happier when it has a round handle, just to make it nicer on the hand..

It could do with a lick of paint too, and then the bottle hold up linkage cleaned/lubed.

Some folk restore cars.. Thought I'd try a corker

Got a 5 gallon WE Barolo kit to filter and bottle tomorrow, so it'll be this corkers first real job for me! (Another reason why I got this done today!)

[rjb222]

Now you can claim to own a Farri

[Duffbeer]

Now you can claim to own a Farri

Exactly.... my claim to fame, I am the proud owner of a free standing Italian, Farrarri bottle corker and what a blessing it is too..Trust me you have to have used the others to understand.

[lockwood1956]

Excellent Rich....cheers

[lockwood1956]

I may attend to mine today, as Karl and I bottled some Montepulciano yesterday, and it was getting a bit "sticky"

[Rich]

I may attend to mine today, as Karl and I bottled some Montepulciano yesterday, and it was getting a bit "sticky"

Update? Is it fixed?

Mine is sticking a bit now on the bottle hold mechanism. Will see to that this week!


Rich

[lockwood1956]

I stripped and cleaned and re-assembled mine today ....its working juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust fine

[lockwood1956]

Gave mine another clean today, as it was leaving a streak down the corks

thanks again for a great tutorial Rich

[Rich]

The ebay corker I cleaned here was a bit passed it really, and needed new jaws. I got a new one from Duffbeer at Grapefest '09. This new one has done me well so far, but I've noticed it does need a clean, or at least some attention.

I spray my corks with a 10% sulphite solution before corking. Not loads, but some. They then sit there, excess is shaken off before insertion. This leaves the corker slightly damp though, which then causes it to corrode under the jaws.

So, should I modify my technique, or just fix corrosion?

[rjb222]

Why use sulfite on your corks Rich? Corks come sanitized ready to use in the bag.

[Rich]

Why use sulfite on your corks Rich? Corks come sanitized ready to use in the bag.

Because the bags tend to be repackaged from the home brew shops into about 100 corks or so. Also, it's not always a fresh bag I'm opening. I've been meaning to make a cork humidor for a while following some info I got off here or winepress, just not really got round to it.

[lockwood1956]

I have been thinking along these lines too Rich, and I have decided not to use sulphite solution on the corks just prior to use, but to store them in a corkodor (sp) a sealed plastic container that has within it a tub of sulphite solution so the air in there is full of sulphur fumes.

should alleviate the problem i hope

regards
Bob