Magazine feeds strips of filter media into a die cutter which cuts 96 plugs at a time. Conveyor feeds and escapes a container with 96 pipettes under the die cutter and press which transfers the cut plugs into the pipettes and seats them to a predetermined depth. The container is placed in a second die which pushes the plugs to the final depth. The container with 96 pipettes are escaped back onto the conveyor for offload. The machine includes three cut and seat dies for different size plugs. The media is side shuttled on the next cycle for maximum use.