Homemade Can Crusher

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12X12 X 1/4 `` plate1/4 `` rod1/8X3/4 angle10 R188ZZ 1/4X1/2X3/16 shielded bearings (vxb.com)Bag of #10 flat washersBag of ¼ flat washers6 1/16X3/4 cotter pins1 to 6 1/16 drill bits (and a whole lot of patience)Tools:Jig sawTorchDrill pressGrinderWelding machine. In my case a Miller Econotig.Sure you could buy 4 or 5 already made can crushers for what it’ll cost you to build this one, but think of the countless hours of fun and aggravation you would miss by not doing-it-yourself. O.C.D. Attached Images
Reply:Now for the build if anyone cares. Attached Images
Reply:More. Attached Images
Reply:more. Attached Images
Reply:Wouldn't be doing that if you lived in Michigan. --Gol'
Reply:Some more of the build. Attached Images
Reply:More build photos. Attached Images
Reply:Last of photos. Attached Images
Reply:Why is that Go1lum? I live in Texas the recycler will take them flat.
Reply:That's one heavy duty can crusher for sure.
Reply:Originally Posted by o.c.d.Why is that Go1lum? I live in Texas the recycler will take them flat.
Reply:I was expecting something along the lines of a hydraulic shop press to crush 10-20 cans at once, but what you made is cool too.  I saw on the news a few weeks ago, there's this older man up north that goes around picking up cans, and donates the money from the recycler to the local HS basketball team.  Anyway, the point of that story is that he turns them in to a collection machine where they have to be in their factory shape.  This guy goes so far as to take the dented ones and pushes the dents out with a wooden dowel.  He'd probably poop himself if he saw had flat you crushed that can!Contact me for any metal polishing needs you may have, my avatar is a pic of a standard, painted fire axe that I ground, sanded polished and buffed to a mirror finish.
Reply:Neat we have a plastic crappy one at school. When it breaks I will copy your design.reber
Reply:Cool can crusher YA YA YA YA over kill Why do you put two cents in when its only a penny for your thoughts? Miller Thunderbolt AC/DC Millermatic 150
Reply:that thing is SWEEEEET.Thanks for the pics I'm sure that will be one of my projects for the future if you don't mind me copying.If it's too . get an office jobLincoln wp225g7 Lincoln 250 idealarcFrankenstein O/A set-up Weld-tech  tig set-upLincoln sp 175 plus profax  arc gouger
Reply:good job on the crusher and the write upChuckASME Pressure Vessel welder
Reply:Ball bearings and 1/4 inch plate?  I like it!  BUt you forgot to put the knurled rotating handle sleeve on it.  Cut the handle off and try again.    And remember the ball bearings so the sleeve can rotate on the handle shaft!
Reply:Yeah you could buy 5 of the plastic crushes for what it cost to make that one, but that one will be around a long time after those 5 plastic ones have broken and went in the garbage. Good Job!!
Reply:Great project.  Where's the spring for auto-return?
Reply:Thanks guy's.. The spring return is in the works, I just need to decide how I want to do it. I wanted to make an electromagnetic crusher but thought the old manual one would be less problematic, for both the machine and any stray fingers. The design was copied from pictures I found on the net for commercially available ones. If I could change anything I probably would change the handle design and the size of the bearings. I don’t know that much about bearings but the ones I ordered (on-line pic only) look a bit small when in hand. The load limits on these are:Rated in kgf DYNSTATRPM X1000--------------1064351 But I designed it so that even if the bearings fail I have some room to increase their size in the unit. Some of the welds need improvement, but some are quite nice, after ~ 60 cans I saved all welds are holding fine and the bearings are working great. We will see what happens, I’ll post if something breaks.o.c.d.
Reply:Originally Posted by o.c.d.Thanks guy's.. The spring return is in the works, I just need to decide how I want to do it. I wanted to make an electromagnetic crusher but thought the old manual one would be less problematic, for both the machine and any stray fingers.
Reply:if all else fails just drop that thing on the cans  how much does that bad boy weigh?Nice "I'm really easy to get along with once you people learn to see it my way.""I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter."
Reply:Very nice work!  I was actually thinking about making one with a small electric hydraulic pump and hydraulic cylinder (similar to a log splitter) and really compacting those suckers!Miller Syncrowave 200MillerMatic 180 AutoSetHobart Airforce 500iVictor O/A (80cf)
Reply:Very nice looking job! Cost isn't everything. A man has to be proud of a job well done. As MrRodeoCC said, "That unit will around long after five of the plastic ones have been used up and thrown in the trash" That's something to be proud of! GOOD JOB!!
Reply:That is a great build! BrentLincoln 3200HD MIGLincoln AC/DC 225 StickOriginally Posted by Go1lumWouldn't be doing that if you lived in Michigan.
Reply:or you can get a steel one on sale at harbor freight for $5.00. but not nearly as much fun.
Reply:that is a can crusher monster edition... good recycle horror...
Reply:Here is one that I built that is fully automated.  The only thing it doesn't do is drive the cans to the recycling center.Link to the vacuum extraction system:http://designnews.com/article/CA6478...dustryid=43664Link the the crusher:http://designnews.com/article/CA6328...dustryid=43664Here is a description:This was a fun project but it requires a lot of time and skill in several disciplines. The design could be simplified significantly, but it would lack the "gee whiz" factor. Having more than one remote station requires a method to control the path of air flow. I wanted to make it fully automated so each station has an optical sensor, door position switch and a pneumatically actuated air flow control door. There are also 3 indicator lights and a mode switch on each remote panel. The can crusher unit can be seen in the gadget freak archives (#84). I chose 3" (3.5"O.D.) PVC electrical EMT for the vacuum tubing. For the run from the patio to the garage I used large radius metal EMT elbows to give a faster overall velocity (the can averages about 70 MPH for the trip). For the run inside the garage I have the tubing runs around 3 walls to make it from my work bench to the crusher for effect. I could have made it diagonal but that wouldn''t have been as fun. Because I wanted the tubing as close to the walls as practical, I used 3" DWV, large radius, ABS elbows. The radius is a lot tighter than the metal elbows but the cans make the turns with no problem with a bang at each turn. You can follow the can around the walls from the banging at each turn. This slowed the velocity to about a 50 MPH average. The 2 runs are joined together right above the crusher entrance using an ABS DWV ''wye'' connection. The vacuum line enters below where the 2 runs are joined using a ''wye'' connection that is a straight 3" feedthrough with a 2" branch. The 2" tubing penetrates the garage wall directly opposite from my air compressor shed which allowed me to put the blower in the shed to reduce the noise to almost nothing. I used a Harbor Freight dust collector for the vacuum source. I added a SSR to be able to control the power to it. I also fabricated a butterfly valve in a section of 3" EMT which has a pneumatic actuator to rapidly control the application or removal of vacuum the the system. The butterfly valve is connected to the inlet port of the blower and reduced down to 2" for the wall penetration. Right below where the 2" vacuum line joins the tubing is the flow control door the can exits the vacuum tubing and enters the can crusher. The flow control door on the exit was necessary to keep maximum flow in the tubung until the last possible moment. Having the system under the control of the MCU makes it really simple for the operator. All the operator does is flip a toggle switch on the remote panel, open the access door, insert the can and close the door. The indicator lights show when the job is done (approx 1.5 seconds). The actual sequence of events goes like this: When the toggle switch is flipped to one of the 2 modes, the MCU starts the blower, opens the air supply valve feeding the surge tank on the crusher and gives a green ready light on the panel. When an access door is opened, the MCU turns off the ready light and turns on the ''door open'' light. At this point when the can is dropped in, the optical sensor tells the MCU which remote station has a can in it. When the access door is closed, the MCU opens the butterfly valve to depressurize the vacuum tubing and opens the flow control door on the remote station to allow the air (and hence the can) to flow towards the can crusher. The MCU waits for the optical "arrival" sensor to be triggered by the can passing at which point the MCU opens the exit door and closes the vacuum butterfly valve and the can coasts the last 6 feet under it''s own momentum. The can drops into the crusher''s magazine and it''s sensors and actuators finish off the can which then drops into the trash bag in a holder right below the exit of the crushing ram. The can crusher magazine is made from a large radius EMT elbow and a short section of straight tubing. The magazine has 2 small rams in the vertical section to sequence the loading ogf the cans into the breech of the crushing cylinder. The sequencer alows a user to feed cans in one right after the other in the ''multi'' mode. That way, if you have a bag of cans to be processed, you don''t have to wait for each can to be finished befor inserting the next one. When ''multi'' mode is selected on the remote panel, the MCU leaves the flow control door open on the station and the user feeds the cans in through it instead of opening and closing the access door each time. There is a lot of smarts built in to the software for things like sensor failure, access doors opened when they shouldn''t be, can stuck in the crushing exit ETC. Ther is an LCD on the control module on the crusher that reads out diagnostic messages to tell me if something isn''t working like an optical sensor failure ETC. I have 2 toggle switches on the control module for maintence so I can turn the blower on, excercise the actuators ETC. All in all there are 7 optical sensors, 2 micro switches, 7 rams with 7 solenoid valves (8 coils), 5 toggle switches, a main air supply valve, RS232 port, programming port, LCD display and a solid state relay. The 40 pin MCU has only 1 I/O port left. As I said, it could be simplified a lot but it wouldn''t have been as fun to build or operate. I wanted to make the can travel as fast as possible so a lot of features went into that effort. Cheers, Ed
Reply:Nice!!! I drink too much beer (so I'm told), but that outfit is a bit over kill for me. Looks like it was a hoot to build though, and watch.o.c.d.
Reply:hahah awesome .. way to go green
Reply:Would you please post a shop drawing of your heavy duty can crusher.  The photos are nice, but do not show dimensions.Keep up the good work.hturner781
Reply:I want to know exactly you did it, because I got mine online and I'm not sure if it's working perfectly. Has anyone of you tried this? http://www.thehardwarecity.com/?sku=2436731
Reply:I got a 40 ton press, whack em in there and it's flat as a dime when it comes out !! Now THAT'S overkill
Reply:Cool!A butterfly without wings, is just an ugly bug
Reply:Geez .... and here I used to drop the head of a 20-pound sledgehammer on my recycled cans just to avoid stomping 'em ..... nice work, pretty overkill, but nice nonetheless.
Reply:Great job you got here. However, I have a faster solution, to get a can crusher online. Less hassle.
Reply:That would be a major engineering feat for me.$300 can crusherI just dump'em out on my driveway and run over'em a few times with my truck
Reply:Shoot, I gotta get glasses maybe, I thought the title of the thread was.......Homemade Car  Crusher.    I think that would be up to the task.What goes around, comes around.
Reply:Don't think that's gonna wear out any time soon!  Nice job.(Retired) Professional firefighter, amateur everything else I try to do...Oh yeah:  Go Big Red!   (You know: one of the 12 members of the Big 10 cuz we left the 10 members of the Big 12...)
Reply:Dude! Awsome! You are a pro! But man I paid $6 @harbor frieght for a can crusher. But I really admire your pro effort! You ought to build a experimental plane! You'll enjoy that!Nice work!
Reply:Wow, that is one that will never break or wear out. Will last forever.Welder- Miller Thunderbolt AC 225-DC 150 Plasma cutter, Miller Spectrum 300O/P torch- Victor 100
Reply:I was looking for a project for my students, this one looks great.  Does anyone know the dimensions of the pieces to cut out?That would be a great help.thanks in advance
Reply:Nice. Something else I think I need.We are on our way to being farmers! Our site is always under construction so check back often for updates.  http://www.philosophyfarmstyle.com/
Reply:Originally Posted by agteacherI was looking for a project for my students, this one looks great.  Does anyone know the dimensions of the pieces to cut out?That would be a great help.thanks in advance
Reply:what welder did you use to make it?  How about to make the cuts? The holes for bearings?miller syncrowave 250hobart handler 140home made 400 amp engine driven in progress...
Reply:The OP hasn't been on here since 2009. As for AGteacher, I would have the students come up with dimensions. Have experiments to determine the force required to crush the can (linkage & handle length) and actually measuring the can and bearing for the rest. These are the skills that are missing in most of today's programs.Millermatic 200Hobart Handler 120Victor O/A & Ramco BandsawLincoln 225 ACSnapOn AD HoodMiller XMT304/22AHypertherm Powermax 1650 G3Lincoln Idealarc DC600 w/Extreme 12 VSMiller Digital Elite "Joker"
Reply:Yep, too many so called teaching programs hand out dumbed down projects. You didn't say the age of those involved.You actually can guessimate the dimensions by just putting the pixs into a drawing program and overlaying with dots / grid and scaling it off versus things shown that will have a known size as the starting point. That will get you well into the ball park.Then I would prototype in wood or even paste board to get a feel for the operation. So much easier, faster and can be modified a lot of times. Nothing like a working prototype, the first one of everything is always a bit flawed. Go to metal once the production model is fully firmed up.Actually I would go bold and try to design something using pipe. Do the entire process from an idea stage. The only manual can crushers I've seen on the web that sort of impress me after building the one I did, are made from pipe. Most of those, probably can be improved. Probably less things to consider, easier to build. The trick is to get the really killer model. Lay out the specs hoped for before starting the project.
Reply:A cool project for an ag class is to give them the picture and let them replicate it.  They can go for an exact copy, equivalent, or a modified version.
Reply:Originally Posted by Go1lumWe have a 10 cents deposite on returnables. Machines have to be able to read the bar code.