Beer Forum

because I'm a penny pinching motherfucker and because I like scouring the internet to try and save a little cash, I was frustrated with the fact a carbonator cap goes for $15....Sorry Drew, I know they come from your home town, but I can't deal with $15 a pop.

I found this video on line and it turns out it appears to be pretty easy to make your own....even for someone not very handy like myself.

So, I went to 4 different auto parts stores here and NONE of them had that bolt in style of valve stem, but I did get the air chuck and the 1/4" barb for it.

So, I turned to ebay to try and find what I was looking for and found a set of 5! valve stems listed as "harley valve stems" Don't ask me why anyone would need 5 of them, but whatever so I bought em. They showed up today and they look great and all, but they don't have 2 seals. They only have 1 and it appears it goes underneath, it's beveled a bit so it's supposed to pass through the hole, then the washer goes on top of it and the nut on top of that.





Has anyone ever made a homemade carbonator cap using something like this? I loaned my drill to my brother in law so I can't just put one together and see if it holds a seal, but it's worrying me.

In the event these don't work, I've found these on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/VALVE-ST ... ccessories

but I don't understand what the extra rubber seal is for.

I've also found these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4-CHROME ... ccessories

they seem to have that same piece, but it's on the stem, but above the nut. When installed, are these supposed to go:

metal base of stem>rubber seal>>bottle cap>rubber seal>metal washer>nut?

Any help appreciated

Matt

Reading the description of the second one you linked to, it appears the grommet on the top is for older style rims, with a larger opening. It states you will not use both grommets, so it's only in the picture to show you what you are getting. Actually, now looking at them both side by side....they appear to be the exact same valve stem, the grommet is just sitting next to the first one in the pic. I don't think you need a seal on the outside, the washer and nut should squeeze the grommet tight enough on the inside you shouldn't have to worry about leaks. (Both look very similar to the ones you already bought)

From the posting: "Note you will not use both of these black rubber grommets. One will be thrown away depending on the diameter of the valve stem hole. These stems are 1 ½ inches tall. Once installed you will only see about 1 inch of the stem on the outside of the wheel." "If you look carefully you will see that these stems mount from the backside of the wheel where you will insert the bottom of the stem with one of the rubber grommets. This is why they are classified as an outer mount stem. All the final mounting and tightening is done on the outer face of your wheel. Once inserted in the wheel hole you will slip the small metal washer over the stem and push it flush to the face of your wheel. Make sure that you do not flip this washer upside down because it is contoured to fit only one way to provide proper seating. Next you will take the threaded thin metal nut located in the picture just below the thick black rubber grommet and thread this nut all the way to the thin metal washer. Then you will use a 9/16 wrench or socket to tighten this thin nut to where it is seated. Note do not over tighten. Just snug it up. Remember one of the black rubber grommets is a throw away depending on the diameter of the valve stem hole."

All that being said, I just bought 2 carb caps instead of trying to make my own, use them every month we have a meeting, or whenever I wanna take beer somewhere, as I don't bottle.

Hope all that made some kinda sense.

all right, sounds like what I've got should be good. I'll give it a shot tonight and see how it goes.

I have one standard carbonator cap that I paid $15 for and for the $15 I've spend so far on this project, I may have 5 more

I made a few a couple years back. My only comment would be to be careful with the rubber grommets, they may make your beer taste like rubber... ask me how I know.


Now I use one of the $15 carbonator caps...

so I made a few up tonight and they seem to work pretty well. I pushed a bunch of air out of some 2 liter bottles, put my caps on, hooked up my air chuck and crammed them full of about 6psi.

It'll be about 50 in the garage tonight so I'll check them tomorrow morning and see if they still have pressure.

One strange thing though, my air chuck leaks like a mo fo. It's leaking from the end that you put on the valve stem. At 6psi I can put my finger over it and seal it, but I can't seem to get it to not leak? Am I running too little PSI to seal the thing up or do I have a bunk one?

From my experience it's the low pressure I would bet it seals up at 10 to 12 psi

Henning1966 wrote:From my experience it's the low pressure I would bet it seals up at 10 to 12 psi

that's what I was thinking too, but I was serving in my carboctopus so I didn't wan't to mess with the pressure. I have another regulator/bottle that I can set up for just transferring/carbonator caps

You got some pics of the finished product???