Aluminum can crusher

[Wyo George]

I use an old garbage compacter and it works great.

 

[Poboy kartman]

BTW....Don't want to make this complicated....but....you know....that motorized YouTube can crusher was powered by a winch motor......good luck getting one of those cheap,,,,,,

 

[Orange Krate]

Drink more beer, gain more weight, get more cans to crush. Win-win-win!

Though I like the idea of making more Manco and Rupp wheels better.

A friend got into aluminum casting. I took him all kinds of ladders, door and window frames, long extruded parts he could feed into his 6" crucible.

He poured mine into an ingot mold for the future use of... Recasting Hands wheels¡

We toyed with the idea of a can crusher (like the above video) that would extrude rods of crushed cans, ready for the crucible.

In the end I just made Manco wheels into Hands knock offs. Hence the need for... more Manco Wheels! Too bad the mold is no good anymore.

http://youtu.be/iOT58oepJ44

 

[silforty]

What are some spare things you have laying around that we may be able to make the crusher out of?

 

[Poboy kartman]

In the process of making one now.....I think it's going to work well....and be a machine gun.,...

 

[java230]

In the process of making one now.....I think it's going to work well....and be a machine gun.,...

We need pictures! I kinda want to build on for S's and G's, i dont actually recycle cans, but I guess I could start. My beer comes from kegs unfortunately.

 

[Poboy kartman]

I'll take some pics....new phone and having some issues posting on forums.....could be the photo editor...

Will post when I can......

 

[Poboy kartman]

Wow.....right at the moment....I think it's somewhere around 4 cans per second.....

Wow....so a 20 can magazine won't take long.....

Oh... well...you guys already knew I was crazy......

 

[java230]

Wow.....right at the moment....I think it's somewhere around 4 cans per second.....

Wow....so a 20 can magazine won't take long.....

Oh... well...you guys already knew I was crazy......

Sounds Sweet! Can't wait to see what you came up with

 

[machinist@large]

We'll need video as well; that way, the Darwin awards committee will have way less work to do....

 

[Poboy kartman]

Well...here's some pics of the early going....

 

[Young One With A Manco]

I see where you're going with this...
How is it going to be powered?

 

[Poboy kartman]

Electric compressor motor....

 

[Badot]

Will you be using a larger crank pin than in the photo?

Also, can't tell if you're using one or not, but a slight angle on the pusher can help reduce the force required to start crushing as it attacks one side of the can first rather than the whole thing at once.

 

[Poboy kartman]

Will you be using a larger crank pin than in the photo?

Also, can't tell if you're using one or not, but a slight angle on the pusher can help reduce the force required to start crushing as it attacks one side of the can first rather than the whole thing at once.

Yes...the crank pin will be larger....but not a lot...this is a prototype so I'm going what I feel is minimum but strong enough....

The pusher is a single piece of MDF and still needs another piece...I made 2 but left one out in rain..

I was thinking about angling the face down...

There will be lots of experimentation on this one and improvements on the final machine.....

 

[Young One With A Manco]

Nice!!

 

[landuse]

Looks like it should work!

 

[Poboy kartman]

Well....I went to Tractor Supply today and picked up a couple of pullies to make a jackshaft....I found some 1/2" bar on a jobsite so I bought a 1/2" pulley and of course it didn't fit....so I ground the shaft down on my bench grinder with a fine stone.....then drilled a shallow hole for the set screw....

I cut a spacer/bushing from 1/2" copper water pipe....soft and sloppy but good enough for now....I wanted some fairly tight washers....so I grabbed some 3/8" washers and spent 20mins. trying to find my unibits....so another 20 enlarging the holes with twist drills....

So....while I was at it...decided to tackle the motor pulley....the only bit I found was 5/8" so I wallowed ot out as best I could with it....then turned on the motor and reduced the shaft by holding a bastard file against it until they fit...drilled a shallow hole for that set-screw....and bolted it up.

Cut a couple of sides to house the crank assembly and gpt tired of messing with it for the day....The rod prepped for the half inch pulley:

 

[Poboy kartman]

Well....I spent most of the time working and not shooting pics....but I still have to disassemble this thing and tweak a ton of stuff....

Basically have the piston/crank....(crusher ram)....assembled....and as I feared....there is a point on rebound it wants to bind.....

The drive pulley is way too wobbly....piston track is too low in relation to the drive pulley.....but mainly....it's just too sloppy everywhere......

So....It's going to take a little tweaking and I post more pics later.....

I knew that this wasn't going to be one and done....but I think I'll still get the prototype to work.....but I didn't anticipate quite this much trouble.....

 

[fowler]

Looks good so far
More pics

What do u mean by it wants to bind
Should be an easy enough fix if u tighten all joints exept the piston to bore


Cans are no good

Junk grade ally

A bloke in the buggy club castes up his our transmission housings and machines the gears

Tried casting with cans for a laugh
First he collected a few hundred cans
Melted them down
Used some sepeciel proccess to remove slag and casting by products

Then had about 300 ml of ally in the furnace
That he poured into a cube and threw away

The best ally for casting is the high grade stuff
He uses ally pistons as the oftern have titanium added as an alloy
Or touque converter internals
Or turbo impellers