Okay folks, as promised I will now reveal my lack of photographic skills. No wait that is not what I promised; I promised the press was ugly but works.
But first, a small disclaimer on my under 20 minute per string rebulbing stated in a prior post. I have very quick motor skills as compared to average so "your mileage may vary" The overall process goes like: 1) debulb a bunch of strings (don't laugh and don't tell the wife, but I use a dremel modified fondue fork to pull the bulbs [no pictures please]), color sorting into old butter tubs as I go, repopulate a bunch of strings with just enough finger effort that they won't fall out of the sockets, then use the press to fully seat the bulbs.
Attached is a PDF with a series of pictures showing the press.
If you decide to cobble something like this together, take note that the turret (wooden piece [scrap of hard maple] the bulb goes into on the lever) is set up to allow some swivel motion to make bulb/socket positioning less critical and the turret hole is just slightly larger (1/64" as I recall) )and deeper (1/8") than the glass portion of the bulb with a slight shoulder (1/64" larger diameter yet). This makes certain that the pressure exerted in seating the bulb is applied to the plastic bulb base and not the glass eliminating the chance of breaking or scratching the bulb.
Also, the slot in the aluminum plate the socket slides into is too small for the larger string end sockets to fit into. I just rotate those bigger sockets 90 degrees, set the socket on top with the wires passing through the slot lift the lever a bit higher than for regular sockets and then seat the bulbs in the socket.
Ugly but functional enough for me, I've done tens of thousands with this thing.
Greg
