Capping Instructions for the Layman

[DBBT]

The thought of capping got you intrigued? Confused? Your not alone, enter CAPPING 101. This is 100% how I cap my herbs and supplements, and after years of use I can testify that although simple, it works so follow it blindly

First, it is important that we all use common sense here. We are going to skip all the mundane and nonsensical bullshit. Sound good? Lets grab our supplies.

Calculator
Scale, with at least 0.1 accuracy (0.01 is preferred)
Cap-M-Quick capping machine (note capsule size, I prefer '0')
Empty gelatin capsules (compatible size with cap-m-quick, again '0' is preferable for a range of applications)
Dextrose (filler). It is the best filler bar none, plus its cheap as dirt.
Supplement powder

Testing your caps
This only needs to be done once. It is crucial however to do your own testing to ensure that YOUR caps come out nice a pretty.
Weigh 50 empty gelatin capsules on your scale.
Separate those capsules, and place the long end of each capsule in the holes of the cap-m-quick. Set aside the short cap end of each capsule.
Check to be sure that all 50 holes are occupied.
Begin to pour small amounts of pure dextrose over the empty caps. It will fill them as you move the dextrose around with a credit card or similar tool. If you cannot visualize this process please purchase the cap-m-quick before telling me you "don't understand."
Fill the capsules, and tamp them down a bit by either repeatedly hitting the cap-m-quick on the table surface or by using a tamping tool, pencil eraser etc. Basically, you want slightly packed caps, dont go crazy. Just a nice fill.
Place the cap-m-quick in the lowered position so you can place each one of the 50 capsule tops on, thus "capping" the powder inside the capsule.
Weigh the 50 full caps.
Subtract the weight of the empty caps from the weight of the full caps.
As a reference, I get a weight of 21.5 grams. WRITE THAT NUMBER DOWN.
Divide that number by 50, you now know how much dextrose 1 average capsule can hold. (Why did we cap 50? To minimize error and familiarize you with capping.) WRITE THAT NUMBER DOWN AS WELL! You will be referencing these numbers every capping session from now on.
(As a reference, I use 430mg as a benchmark for how much dextrose I personally fill a size '0' capsule with.

Mathematics and Powders
I highly recommended you do batches of 50 caps. That means mix only enough supplement and dextrose for 50 caps at a time. Doing more at once just begs for human ERROR!
Decide on a cap dose. Lets say you want 50mg caps of supplement.
50 caps x 50mg = 2500mg total supplement
Weigh out 2.5 grams of supplement powder
Take your reference weight of pure dextrose (21.5g) and subtract the weight of total supplement (2.5g). The result is the weight of dextrose to be used as a filler. Here, 21.5 - 2.5 = 19g dextrose
Weigh out 19 grams of pure dextrose
Combine in a sandwich size ziplock baggie and be sure you seal it WITH air inside, like a big bubble.
Shake like a madman.
You now have 21.5 grams (in this case) of evenly distributed supplement and filler, ready to be capped up. When split evenly into 50 parts, each part will contain [2.5g/50]=50mg. Everything checks, onto the capping.

Capping, the final frontier
Separate 50 empty capsules, placing the long end of each capsule in the holes of the cap-m-quick. Set aside the short cap end of each capsule.
Check to be sure that all 50 holes are occupied.
Pour the mixed baggie of supplement and filler onto the cap-m-quick surface. Smooth the powder over the surface filling each hole. Some supplements make the dextrose fluffy and volumous. In this case, a pressing motion is used with the scraping tool (credit card or similar item).
Tamp the CmQ against the table surface of with a tamping tool of choice. The main objective is getting ALL the powder into ALL the caps EVENLY as possible. Its a art form, and should be regarded as such. Its up to you to do produce quality caps.
Place the cap-m-quick in the lowered position so you can place each one of the 50 capsule tops on, thus "capping" the powder inside the capsule.
DONE

One item of notice, you may have extra powder as waste product that fell between the cracks of the cap-m-quick. I always just weigh out a few extra milligrams of supplement to account for this small error. If done correctly, you will only need to adjust the total supplement weight by a 50 or so milligrams (0.05g) and you can now see why we prefer a 0.01 accuracy scale.

 

[b_light]

No offense bro but shaking it up in a bag has no way of being sure remotely that its evenly distributed.

 

[DBBT]

No offense bro but shaking it up in a bag has no way of being sure remotely that its evenly distributed.

Really? No way remotely huh.
I disagree. When you are doing this method as posted, you are only mixing enough powder/filler for 50 caps at a time. There may be a small amount of difference in mg per cap, but it aint gonna be much especially when you're making 25-50mg caps. Making 2.5mg caps would be tough and I dont advise it because of the obvious possibility of error with such a low dose. Considering the cost of powder...lol...you are really not playing with fire here maing. Give it a shot, let us know how it works for you. Get it sent to SRCS then post back here.

 

[DBBT]

for practice, just so you can see how well this really works, you should get something like Tang or some colored powder/crytals stuff. Mix it in a bag with some sugar/white. Get some air in that bag, shake it up, cap them and tell me it aint half and half swoles.

 

[b_light]

I know but as you said theres gonna be a small mg difference and not perfect. If i'm gonna put something in my body i wanna be pretty damn sure i know the exact amount not a ballpark but maybe its just me.

 

[DBBT]

I know but as you said theres gonna be a small mg difference and not perfect. If i'm gonna put something in my body i wanna be pretty damn sure i know the exact amount not a ballpark but maybe its just me.

So you must be using human grade only based on your comments. Son, human grade or even the most "legit" UG lab products you can find do not have exact doses as their label claims batch after batch. They can be off too. Pressed tabs or caps, whatever it is, if it's UG you'll have some +- mg's. That article about capping, it is used by many UG's dude. So like I said unless you use human grade from pharmacies overseas, nothing is perfect. And if you are so sure about your argument that measuring your own powder out doesn't work, wtf are you doing in the homebrew forum? Go get yourself some amps and pressed tabs..shit, its your money. 'If im gonna be putting something in my body' lmao guy, this is a steroid site. 90+% of guys on the net use UG labs bor.You must be new to the game and if you are this aint the thing for you to be looking into trying without a LOT more research. And keep that body healthy and dont think about putting UG steroids in it.

 

[DBBT]

spend a dollar, get a gram of accutane,dbol,drol, proviron whateva, dose it out for 50mg caps...weigh out 2500mg of the hormone on ur hand scale and ~21g of dextrose depending on what size of cap you're using to provide the filler...I likey size 'O'. Here's your dollar experiment, and I promise your body will not disintegrate b/c of it..lol. Do you know what 2500mg or anything powder looks like???? How about 21g of dextrose? Measure both out and look at it maing. There is a reason why this method of measuring is the best for a 50 cap cap m quick machine bro. Its as close to human idiot mistake proof as you can get. If you try to measure out >50+ caps at a time the chances of your mistakes increases alot. 50 caps that's the ticket, guy. What chu want a cookie?

 

[b_light]

I'm not familiar with steroid powders per say but IMO it would depend on the consistency of the powder. There are some powders that clump together and others that flow like beach sand. It's a good method just saying you can only get so accurate but you already pointed that out.

 

[BigBastard]

Good post. Thank you for the information.

 

[DBBT]

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