Customer Reviews

Top-O-Matic T2 Cigarette Machine

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I've used the Top-O-Matic to make about 10,000 cigarettes so far without any problems. After carefully inspecting the internal parts, no parts appear to be bent or damaged, but one part is starting to show a bit of wear. This part is called the "cam" on their enclosed parts list. The reason the cam has worn a bit is my fault, from overfilling the machine with tobacco and forcing the lever too hard. This causes the cam to push much harder than necessary which causes it to wear. Since the shipping cost for replacement parts is $7.50 whether you buy one part or 100, I am going to send for 3 cams since they are only about $1.50 each. These should extend the life of the machine by several years. I'm also going to send for 3 of the little black rubber tips that fit over the part near the injector tube which holds the cigarette in place. I have had this rubber tip pop off a couple of times and I want a few replacements in case the original gets lost. They are only 20 cents each.

I have found a much easier way to make perfect cigarettes using this machine. As I said above, the reason the cam is showing wear is because of overfilling the tobacco chamber, which in turn causes you to use too much force pulling the lever to fill the tobacco tube. The lever should pull easily with very little force. The reason I was overfilling the chamber with too much tobacco was because if I used less tobacco the cigarette tube would not fill completely. I originally thought that this was a design flaw of the machine, by then I figured out the reason the cigarette tubes do not fill all the way is because their filters are only about half the length of a store bought cigarette. This means that although the cigarette tube is king size in length, because of the much smaller filter you actually need about the same amount of tobacco as in a 100 mm cigarette in order for it to completely fill. I have tried about 10 different brands of cigarette tubes, including the popular premier tubes, and all of them have a much shorter filter. There is an easy fix for this problem. All you have to do is remove the "spacer" on the top-o-matic, which changes it from a king size to 100 mm cigarette maker. Because of the little bit extra tobacco you can place in the chamber by removing the spacer, the king size tubes will then fill completely, making perfect cigarettes.

Another "trick" to making perfect cigarettes is how you load the tobacco into the chamber. Cigar tobacco is chopped into small bits, whereas cigarette tobacco is cut into fine ribbons. Because of using cigar cut tobacco to make cigarettes, these small bits tend to fall out of the tube easily as compared to ribbon cut tobacco. The trick is to separate your tobacco before loading it into the chamber. If you pick though a bag of cigar cut tobacco, you will find that about 75% is cut into small bits, but the rest is cut into the longer ribbon pieces. Separate these longer pieces of tobacco from the smaller bits. When loading the chamber, fill it about 75% full with the small cut bits of tobacco, pushing it with your finger in the chamber to the front of the machine near the injector tube. In the remaining 25% of chamber space nearer the handle of the machine, put in the longer ribbon cut tobacco pieces. Now when you inject the tobacco into the tube, the longer pieces will be at the tip of the cigarette, keeping the tobacco from falling out.
Hope this helps.

Hint; load tobacco somewhat loosely.. More loosely than hand rolling.

Once you use this, and you find a tobacco blend your happy with.. You wont go back to wasting your money and time with store bought cigarettes. Even with the tax increases you'll save significant money over buying cartons.

It's simple and almost foolproof. And once you get the hang of it you can load a pack of cigarettes in about 5 minutes.

I suggest you start out with light tubes and tobacco, especially if you're used to smoking 'light' store bought cigarettes. You'll be somewhat surprised at just how much stronger 'real' tobacco is, rather than the stuff you get in commercially prepared smokes. Most find they smoke less. And no chemicals, phantom flavorings or FSC paper..

A friend of mine tried to get me to buy this machine for about a year and make my own cigarettes. He has been using his machine for over a year with no issues what so ever! I got my machine for Christmas and love it! It works so smooth and I can do a pack of cigarettes in approx. 5 minutes. I should have listened to my friend a year ago and pocketed the savings. Oh well, .... at least I got on the right track for 2010. Buy this machine if you want the very best in the market place. You will be glad you did :-)

pleased with fast service, product much better than the original machine. good price too.

Four stars because this is an outstanding machine when it is working properly. Unfortunately, it suffers from some poor design decisions. After 5 months of admittedly frequent use, the linkages inside separated and had to be reassembled by me. My son had his about the same amount of time and uses it less than half as often as I use mine and experienced the same thing even earlier on. It's a simple matter of a little spring clamp jumping off a post that connects two arms of the linkage. There are actually two sets of these inside and they have both failed on me at separate times.
I really do love this machine but another buck or two invested in the manufacturing process (as in a nut and bolt vs pot metal post and spring clamp) would have been appreciated. It is user repairable if you have any mechanical inclination at all. Just remember that when it stops working, CAREFULLY remove the rubber base so that the one or two small parts you need don't go flying.

Just got my t2 a few days ago in the mail. Me and the girlfriend have been going to tobacco stores that charge $25 for you to "rent" their machine and roll a carton of smokes. Seeing as it's roughly $8 to use this machine and make my own cigarettes (and this is going to an off-the-highway gas station where you ALWAYS get overcharged...like $2.99 for a 20oz bottle of Pepsi), I couldn't justify spending the money any longer.

To be fair...it took me a lot longer to roll cigs with a table-top injector, or probably any kind of injector, for that matter, than it does to go to a tobacco outlet and have them do it for you in their machine. But it was also the first time I had done this, and the results were pretty impressive.

I bought some Express menthol tubes and grabbed a bag brand of tobacco called "The Good Stuff - Natural blend", and yes, it is considered a pipe tobacco - but if you don't realize the reason its classified as such, then I suggest you do some Google-ing and figure it out. The t2 injects this tobacco quite smoothly and it makes for a good smoke too! Almost a mix between a Marlboro and a Newport.

The first few came out a bit loose, but after I got over the fear of overstuffing and jamming up the injector, I came off with around 1/3 to 1/2 a carton of perfectly-made cigarettes in about an hour, which I was being bugged for most of.

So, if the quality holds up, the t2 gets the thumbs up from me. It seems pretty legit.

The plastic knob came off of mine after only about a month of use. The threads on the stud that holds it on were stripped, the metal seems pretty soft and the design seems pretty weak there. I strongly suspect others will have the same problem. The chrome plating is thin and easily damaged and all the parts seem a little lighter than on the Premier Supermatic I replaced it with. The travel of the lever is also a little longer on this than the Supermatic, which I think seems to make it less ergonomic, even though it has a handle to hold the machine steady. The knob that fell off of the Top-O-Matic T2 is held on by a heavy, hard steel rivet on the Supermatic and it looks much sturdier.

You can't buy replacement parts for this on the internet like you can for the Supermatic. Shipping is more expensive for Top-O-Matic T2 parts if you send in the form. For this reason, I replaced it with the Supermatic and I don't see much difference in operation between the two machines at all. I think the Top works a little easier when it's new, but actually jams more easily than the Supermatic before long. The tubes seem to slide onto the nozzle of the Supermatic a little more easily, which has been saving me time. I think all these machines will need some maintenance eventually and being able to get parts easily on the internet at a fair price is very important. For this reason, and for the reason it doesn't really seem to be built any better than any other machine... I can't recommend the Top-O-Matic T2.

EDIT: The new handle assembly for my Top-O-Matic T2 did come surprisingly fast by UPS after I sent in the order form. The stud that stripped seems a slightly different color than the old one, so the part may have been improved. BUT, no new order form came with the order. If that's the only way to get parts, what do I do next time???!!!

I've been using injectors to make my own cigarettes for over 10 years now. I have experimented with various machines over the years and have settled on 3 basic favorites and the top-o-matic is one of those 3. The top-o-matic design is, however, an almost exact design copy of one of my other favorites; the Premier Supermatic II. And as as fyi, the third machine (my favorite) is the less expensive Premier Excel.

The top-o-matic as I stated is almost an exact copy of the old favorite, the Premier Supermatic II. The top-o-matic works very well, and functions better than the supermatic and I believe this is because of the more sloppy tolerances of the top-o-matic. Although built like a tank and will last for years, the Supermatic is a lot more prone to making bad cigarettes because it fouls up with sticking tobacco a LOT more often. Proper maintenance avoids these issues, but few people (including myself) actually disassemble and clean the machine as often as required for smooth and trouble-free operation. The top-o-matic will run a lot longer and produce good cigarettes without voids because the tobacco has less of a tendency to gum up on the cutter. It WILL eventually, but not as often as it will on the Supermatic.
Unfortunately, the top-o-matic is also made of cheaper materials and will not hold up to time as well as the Supermatic. I have broken several parts while taking it apart to clean it out... parts that should not have broken so easily. I might also add that the new SuperMatic now has a plastic cutter. This may sound like a bad thing, but in reality, it should make the machine much more reliable since tobacco has a very difficult time sticking to it and gumming it up. I have not tried one of the new ones with the plastic cutter, but they are getting very good reviews.
So, although the supermatic is a much better built machine, I find that I would rather stock up on replacement parts for the top-o-matic simply because it is a lot less finicky to use on a daily basis. Nothing can be more aggravating than trying to make cigarettes and having to re-do 2-3 out of 10.
I have to openly admit that I do tend to use tobacco that is either too moist or too dry depending on the current weather, but this is reality and most people are faced with it. When I need the cigarettes, I don't have time to wait for the tobacco to dry out, I need to use it right now.
I know this is about the top-o-matic, but if you are looking for convenience and the most trouble-free machine to use, I would personally go for the Premier Excel. It is a cheap, all-plastic constructed machine that can be purchased for around 20-25 bucks. They function VERY well, but are only good for about 5,000 smokes, then you need to just throw it away. It will go the longest without cleaning and will run real smooth for about 3 months or so. When it stops producing perfect smokes, just throw it away.
This is a personal opinion as I'd rather just pay another 25 bucks for a brand-new machine and never have to work on it or clean it. I am also a pretty heavy smoker so these machines are really put to the test. I smoke at least 2 packs a day, sometimes 2 1/2.

I purchased this machine as my first entry into making my own cigarettes. I was excited to receive it and immediately put it to work. I worked great once I got the feel for the correct amount of tobacco to use, and I was genuinely pleased. After 6 weeks of use, the machine no longer functions properly, and it is now collecting dust.

I was very careful to never force the lever and mindful of all information contained within the written instructions. The tube kicks off the injector at the halfway point now. I replaced the rubber cap on the holder arm, checked the springs underneath - and the related tension, and even went so far as to physically hold the tube in place - at the mid way injection point, the tube wants to kick out. If holding it in place, it rips the tube in half. I've checked the injector arm for alignment - it is perfectly straight. I tried different tubes thinking perhaps I had a bad batch with variances in diameter - not the case.

So, now I've got a $50 paperweight. I am trying a couple other competing machines currently. The Top machine is very well constructed - heavy gauge steel and one would think (on first impression) that it would provide years of reliable use. 6 weeks - and I only used it once a week to inject a carton at a time.

The Top-o-Matic T2 is well worth the money. It's easy to use and very sturdy. I've had it for about 2 months now and I haven't had any problems with it.