How do you crush your cans?

[James-W]

NICE - I love your build. Very cool, nice job. Your wife looks like she could use a step-stool though.

Actually, that's not my wife, it's my oldest daughter. See is about 5' 6" tall but the can crusher is sitting on the radial arm saw that I seldom use. That's why it is rather high off the floor, but being that high off the floor also makes room for the large container the cans fall into.

 

[James-W]

Yeah, but they're not in a landfill & were reused to make new products...

Tommy

That's a very good point. Even if recycling is a net loss it is still good that we re-use the resources we have instead of just throwing them away.

 

[JCQuick]

well I admit I drink a lot of beer. The county picks up recycle bins once a week but if I put all the cans out for collection its a mountain so I fill the bin up and crush the rest with a HF single can crusher which when we get lazy that's too long to crush a lot of cans. We fill up a 55gal plastic drum of crushed cans then empty into large trash bags. we just started doing this a few months ago so I don't know how much it will bring but it makes the wife happy that I don't show the neighbors how much beer in consumed here.

James-W I would love to know more on that crusher build that looks simple and easy

 

[404]

I built a can crusher so I could condense the cans into a smaller space. That way I can take them in to sell less often than if they weren't crushed. Below is a link to a video that I made, the young woman is my oldest daughter. The idea on how to build this came to me while I was in Iraq. When I returned home I built the can crusher and have been using it ever since.

This is a rather large file so depending on your Internet speed it may take awhile for it to load.

http://www.windemuth.org/video-files/Can-Crusher.wmv

That is fantastic. Well thought out design. Do you have an engineering background or are you a natural mechanical genius? The kinematic design is ideal, the individual parts are being used in the direction they are strongest. Well done.

 

[Will S.]

I use to think that stomping on them with my foot, did a pretty good job of flattening the cans, until a friend showed me his version of a can crusher.

He took a piece of 6"x6", cutoff about 10" or so long, and drilled a 3/4 or 7/8" hole down through the center of one end, about halfway. Then he drilled a hole, just the diameter of a marble (1/2 or whatever a marble is), through the side, so that hole intersected the other hole. So now there is an air passageway. Drilled into the center of the other end, about an inch or so, the glued a piece of wood dowel into it, to serve as a grip.

When he lifts that contraption up, and drops it onto a can, the air released from the crushing can, blows up through the bottom hole and out the side. The can is literally 1/3 the thickness of what I can do with my the bottom of my heal.

I said why the marble-size hole? Turns out that spray paint rattle-cans, which he also scraps, have marbles in them. He put a marble in the side hole, lifted the thing straight up, smashed a can, and that marble shot out and hit the wall, like a slingshot. Pretty funny, even if you haven't had a few beers.

 

[Zick]

We use a trash compactor, works pretty well.
Got an old one free from a friend, the motor was siezed up. Put some oil on it and it started working. That one stays out in the garage. Also bought a new one for inside too.

 

[67carl]

James-W - any other places you've posted your vid? It won't open for me on my iPad ( must be a flash issue).

 

[rmmiller]

I usually have the wife crush our cans.......

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCEQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fm.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D58oum1UmMA8&rct=j&q=crush%20cans%20with%20breast&ei=JuKVVNe_HNOQyASK4IGgAw&usg=AFQjCNGmAeD0n0qbTMkX08pDXtQXaDuETQ&bvm=bv.82001339,d.aWw

I knew the Garage Journal wouldn't let me down!

 

[NUTTSGT]

I quit crushing mine. One of the local places didn't like them crushed before they went into their crusher. They claimed they didn't crush right and stay in the post crushed aluminum block.

 

[James-W]

James-W - any other places you've posted your vid? It won't open for me on my iPad ( must be a flash issue).

What type of file could you open? Possibly I could post it in a different file format.

 

[James-W]

That is fantastic. Well thought out design. Do you have an engineering background or are you a natural mechanical genius? The kinematic design is ideal, the individual parts are being used in the direction they are strongest. Well done.

I don't have a mechanical engineering background exactly, I am a farm kid who did a lot of 'improvising" when we couldn't get the right stuff on the farm. I have a tendency to do a lot of inventing, mostly stuff that I can use myself and have fun with.

 

[James-W]

James-W I would love to know more on that crusher build that looks simple and easy

If you want, I can take some close-up pictures so you can see how it works a little better.

 

[Fordman7795]

We have deposit here so there is very little i have to crush. But when i do i have a homemade sand tamper made out of 3/4" iron. Makes quick work of em m

 

[Sharpest]

I use a HF crusher. Works well enough but if you get gorilla with it, the arms will bend. I've been meaning to copy its dimensions using heavier material but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll usually hoard cans until I have a few hundred pounds and then scrap them. Last time I took enough in at $0.90/lb that I got ~$300 for it all. I have a 5000 sq ft shop and don't mind the pile in the corner. Back in the day, the recycler I took them to payed a higher rate for higher poundages of cans so "saving them up" made good sense. They don't do it any more but between the pain in the *** factor of driving to the scrapper and actually getting enough money to justify the trouble, I still do it. A 30 gal trash bag of crushed cans is 5-7 lbs.

 

[kenners]

I crush them with a can crusher attached to the garage wall. They go into a 5 gallon bucket, occasionally putting 10 under each car tire. I back out of the garage and some time later put flattened ones in a 35 gallon barrel. I have several 50 gallon barrels out in the shed.

 

[AMCguy]

Everywhere in the province a beer can is worth ten cents. They won't take them if they have been mangled. I just take them back to the liquor store when I go to buy more.

I always figured my lift would make a good crusher. Today I decided to give it a try. It's kind of slow, but it's a hell of a lot faster than I could possibly drink them.

This little test cost me ten cents. I hope you guys appreciate it.

 

[Tronyadorable]

The only cans around here are aerosol.I only drink fresh beer and don't do sodas and don't eat any canned food.
Mostly WD, CRC, Loctite, paints and primers.. **** like that.
They go to recycle about twice a year.

 

[Tronyadorable]

They're worth ten cents each.....might not sound like much, but over the year it amounted to $1800 just for picking up a few, walking the dog and riding my bike around the local parks.

There are many public parks with baseball diamonds......baseball=beer!!

Really worthwhile in my area. I have many new tools in my garage and a few bags of dog food in the shelters, thanks to all those beer drinkers.

That's 50.65 cans per day.

 

[lilredex]

That's 50.65 cans per day.

That's easy when you have a weekend police baseball tournament that yields close to $500 of that figure. It is a fun weekend when those guys are around.....they are no longer cops, just ordinary guys again.

 

[Chris4x4Gill2]

I use a hand crusher from ace hardware. Its a little more heavy duty than the HF model.

We generate a good bit of cans during the summer from guests (with beer) that come visit at the lake. Just have a seperate garbage can for the cans and I crush them later to save on storage space.

Recycle them at the scrap metal yard. I think they paid around 60 cents /lb last time.

 

[Dancing Bear]

A well-placed kick with a bare foot on a splintered wood surface .. like a boss!

 

[dlcwent]

I'm still LMFAO from BigBlueandGoldie's post. Did any of you guys actually watch it?

 

[homebuilt burner]

i have built a couple of them over the years one place i worked the soda cans paid for the Christmas party bar tab. That one was an electric motor with a large pulley with an offset rod on it similar to a crankshaft connecting rod type of setup pushing against a metal block. It took two people hustling pretty good to keep it crushing on every stroke. I also built an air operated crusher out of an old dump truck tailgate ram and control valve. That one hangs in my father's shop over a can full of cans and gets used everyday. I'll try to get pictures and upload ina day or two I should be over there.

 

[CCer]

I stomp on them once, so they don't blow around, let 'em lay on the shop floor 'till they're run over by the truck, then they're well flattened.

 

[Steevo]

What are "cans"?

 

[AMCguy]

I was waiting for this. ^

 

[LennyTheLizard]

I saw an old mechanic that built one similar to James' with old car parts and an electric gear reduction motor.

He had a piece of pipe about same dia. as can laid on side. the gear reduction motor had a pin welded on a disc off-center. Then an old small engine crankshaft with a piston still on it. That thing worked like a dream. He had a funnel system that dropped the cans down horizontal into it, and smashed them flatter than a pancake.