Tap-O-Cap Drawings

[ofitg]

This is an attempt to provide a physical description of the Tap-O-Cap die. I apologize for the crude artwork, and I regret that I cannot provide more precise measurements with the equipment at my disposal. I am hoping that with a little luck, this might be good enough for a skilled machinist to fabricate a working copy of the Tap-O-Cap.

Note - all dimensions are in inches.

The Tap-O-Cap die consists of two major components - for lack of better terminology, I will refer to them as the cylinder (left) and the piston (right) -



The Cylinder is all-steel construction, closed at one end. A 0.157-inch diameter steel rod is mounted (apparently pressed) into the closed end.



A thin slot is cut into the side of the cylinder, immediately forward of the steel rod. This slot is cut most of the way through the cylinder's diameter. The next photo shows a paper card inserted into this slot.



The piston is all-steel construction. It consists of a hollow shaft with a knob screwed onto one end, and a set of teeth on the other end (vaguely resembling a hole saw).



At the base of the teeth, the inner diameter of the shaft is 0.31 inches. This tapers down to a 0.21-inch constriction, and then opens up again to 0.245 inner diameter.

There are 12 teeth, arranged in six pairs. The pairs are separated by pronounced notches. Evidently this arrangement enables the die to fold thin sheet aluminum into #11 caps - the skirts of the caps might be described as hexagonal in cross-section.

[jack404]

If i may ,
i think the reason for the two sets of teeth are to fold the metal thats punched out to the final shape , every second fold around the final cap is beautifully rounded and the next folded under i'll try to take a pic again ( tried before but crap cam did not play ) and show this .

Oftig , i have the dang thing here and i could not have gotten all that info as concise as you have it here

thanks a heap ( swiped )

cheers again eh

it really is a work of art

[jack404]

heres a close up of a few fresh punched caps

you'll see just how elegant it really is

[ofitg]

Wow, I never really noticed that before. Yes sir, that's elegant!

It's sad that Forster stopped manufacturing these gizmos. Now they will become "collectors items".....

[armedandsafe]

This is what I needed. Now to find some time to get the mill and lathe going.

Pops

[armedandsafe]

I hit the machine shop today to get some advice.

It looks as if:
The recessed cylinder rod is 5/32" drill rod. (0.46875")
The cylinder opening is 7/16". (0.4375")
The handle (knob) of the piston could be cut to slide into a shell holder on a reloading press and the cylinder could be made 7/8"-14 to screw into the plunging arm.

Question: what size diameter is the punched cap?

I'm not going to get on this for awhile, as I'm a little swamped just now. Maybe after the turn of the year.

Pops