Bottle stopper kits......

[sdb777]

Thought there was a posting somewhere, but I could find it after digging back through a bunch of old post.....

Was wanting to know(from the pros) which stopper kits to purchase? Which finish(model) will do the best...
Would hate to turn a great blank on a poorly finished kit that won't last for two hours near wine!?!?





Emerson and I will probably do a bulk buy...save some postage and give me an excuse to go back to his place!!




Scott (rather get good 'uns then have problems later) B

[Ruffnek]

From what I read, I'd say the Ruth Niles stainless steel #301 stopper is about as good as it gets.

www.torne-lignum.com/stoppers.html

[mcbryde]

Zac, which ones do you turn?

Cody, is it just the stainless that does the job the best in these?

E

[sachbvn]

I've used PSI kits in the past - but honestly.... now I ONLY use the Ruth Niles SS kits that Cody posted. #301.....

A couple things - though not necessary, and it seems steep for 25 bucks (the cost of the mandrel) - but get the mandrel.... in fact - get the "kit" that is a special price, I think 80 bucks for 10 kits, the mandrel, and a drill bit. The stubby drill bit is great for drilling stopper blanks and the mandrel is top notch. You can use your PSI BS chuck for these (if you have one) and yes, it is only 10 bucks, but the final diameter of the base of the chuck is larger (significantly) than the widest diameter of the RN SS bottle stopper - so.... you'll always have a lot of overhang. Some overhang is fine - but you will be limited to having X amount of overhang no matter what.

She is a great lady to work with. Those kits are nice. Solid stainless steel - a heavy chuck of metal honestly. They are made in the USA (which people really like so make sure you tell them).

I buy in batches of 20 and with the shipping included, that comes out to 5.78 per stopper.... I sell my stoppers for $25 each but could sell at $20 and still be ok with it..... I think $25 is a real good price for them.

She really is a sweet heart, it's really a no frills operation. The "packing" is newspapers and magazine pages - she sends them in a small snack size ziploc baggie for an order of 10 and a large sandwich bag for an order of 20..... my kind of operation.

You can read up on the stoppers more for yourself - but her SS is guaranteed never to pit or corrode..... even other SS stoppers that I've found don't explicitly state a guarantee, they just say how SS is the least likely to have issues with corrosion and pitting.

Well worth the cost IMO. She does offer special rates past a certain point - can't remember the number....also to clubs I think.


Zac

[Ruffnek]

May 16, 2010 10:45:56 GMT -6 mcbryde said:

Zac, which ones do you turn?

Cody, is it just the stainless that does the job the best in these?

E

Yes. The SS will not only never pit or corrode but it will also not impart any unwanted flavor to the wine. I suspect serious wine connoisseurs can tell immediately if the wine is tainted.

[mcbryde]

Well, looks like that is probably where me and Scott will be buying from then.

E

[Doug B]

Everyone has covered it pretty well already. Ruth Niles stoppers are fantastic. Stainless steel and made in the USA at a good price. And Ruth is just one of those people you really enjoy doing business with.

Zac has it exactly right too. The short drill bit is great and the mandrel is first class. Very much worth the cost for both. The only problem I have is that the drill bit is a little too big for some of the other stopper kits....I still use some other longer stopper hardware and they do not work as well with that drill bit. The Ruth Niles stoppers are no problem, but other ones can be a little loose. That is something you can work around though, and I do.

Personally, I use a Perfect Seal www.pennstateind.com/store/BS9A.html stopper, but it takes a little more maintenance. You have to oil it to keep it working properly and the white neoprene tends to discolor from the wine, but it provides a fantastic seal for wine bottles. For me, it is worth the extra effort, but I do not sell them unless I am sure of the customer's ability to maintain them properly.

[sachbvn]

One other word - when you get the Ruth Niles mandrel - you will need to use a 5/16" (I think that's the size - double check her website) draw-bar..... if you've never made one or aren't quite sure what one is - just holler at us.

Basically you will just need a 12" section of 5/16" threaded rod - you can get it at most hardware stores or any big box store. Screw it into the mandrel - place the mandrel into the spindle, the rod will now be poking out the back of the head stock - mark the threaded rod with a marked.... I leave 1" or 1 1/2" or so - pull the mandrel back out - cut the threaded rod where you marked. Now just use a washer and wing nut and it holds the mandrel tight into the spindle while it's spinning so you don't need any tailstock pressure.


Zac

[mcbryde]

Zac, I am going to need to see pics of that please! I am unable to really understand that.

E

[mcbryde]

Will the stopper mandrel that you sent out in the WOW box work for the Ruth Niles stoppers?

E

[sachbvn]

-E

It will in terms of the size and thread count - however you will see that the "base" of the RN stopper kit is much narrower than the "base" of the PSI stopper chuck. If you use the PSI chuck as a "bushing" to take the blank down to it's final size - it is still going to end up hanging over the end of a RN stopper. I'll take a pic tomorrow and show you - deal?

Oh - I'll get a pic of the drawbar too!


Zac

[mcbryde]

OK, sounds good Zac, I appreciate it! The RN stoppers say to make something to sit atop the stopper, not make the stopper be part of the art, or something like that on the website.

E

[sachbvn]

Ok E - here we go.....

The first pic is the RN stopper mandrel with draw bar attached - at the far left is a wing nut with washer.




The second pic is of the draw bar running through the headstock - wing nut attached and the mandrel sticking out ready for a wood blank.






The last picture shows you two things..... the calipers are set to the diameter of the smallest size you can turn a PSI stopper down to.... if you use the PSI chuck - that is the diameter (the caliber size) the RN mandrel is shown in the center - you can see how much larger the PSI chuck is than the RN mandrel. The RN mandrel is sized to fit the RN SS stoppers - the PSI mandrel is sized to fit PSI stoppers.... the size and thread count is the same - but diameters are different.




Make sense???

[mcbryde]

Yep, makes perfect sense, all except it's gonna suck to have that rod on my machine because it is capped on the end. I have an old Craftsman lathe. I wonder if i could just mill down the PSI stopper mandrel. What is the measurement on the RN one?

E

[sachbvn]

That is another idea E!

This weekend, let me (unless someone else beats me too it) get my calipers out and get a good measurement. I'll post when I get it.

Zac

[Doug B]

I just measured the Ruth Niles stoppers and they are .81" and the mandrel measured .815" I might have some excess gunk on the mandrel causing the slightly higher reading. But for once, precision is not all that critical. When I turn a bottle stopper I almost always leave the bottom slightly larger than the bushing and then taper down close to the bushings - just a slight bevel to make a nice transition. Sometimes I even leave the base of the stopper quite a bit larger than the mandrel bushing.

The other mandrel I have, which may not be the same as the PSI mandrel (I don't remember where I got it from?) measured out at .90" for the bushing. That bushing on this mandrel is loose and can be replaced. You could easily turn a new bushing out of wood or plastic sized for the Ruth Niles stoppers.

If your mandrel does not have a removable bushing, then you could still turn a wooden one that is smaller, but it might be a pain to work around.

And the draw bar is not something you want to skip with the RN mandrel. You will want to move the tailstock back away from your bottle stopper blank in order to finish turning the top of the stopper, and the stopper mandrel can come loose when you are doing that if you are not using the drawbar. DAMHIKT

[sachbvn]

With the draw bar I never use the rail stock for support - but the stuff I turn is small and fairly square.

I don't have a draw bar on my drill chuck (don't think it's an option) and I need to be real careful when using it.


Zac

[sachbvn]

Oh, thanks Doug for getting those measurements for me!!

[mcbryde]

My cap come off, so the headstock is hollow, and throughable, but the screw on-able mandrel sounds better to me.

E

[sachbvn]

I wasn't quite sure what you meant bt capped.....I had a plastic cap with a slit in it, but it popped right out with a screwdriver.

Sounds like you'll be going route of the draw bar - the better choice I'd imagine.

Good luck!

Zac