Can Crusher ?

[grizzley30814]

Any one have a set of plans I can use as a basis for a project with my 6 year old?

I would like to build a can crusher he can use to recycle cans and save the money.

I think it would be a cool project for us to work on and he may even learn something!

I did a search on here and all I saw was rock and car crushers, cool but a little big for this project. lol

thanks

[Tom Zachman]

The gods are telling you to jump to where the real money is....

[Greenbuggy]

Originally Posted by Tom Zachman

The gods are telling you to jump to where the real money is....

Be careful there...I hear lots of methheads around here are going for the "real money" and cutting catalytic converters off of cars in the wal-mart parking lot...

[grizzley30814]

Funny you should mention that. My nephew took off to atlanta a while back and ended up having his little honda car stolen, got it back about 2 weeks later and it was missing the stereo and the converter. Looks like it was cut out with a sawsall. They only made it a couple of miles in it since it was leaking oil so bad the death rattle probably scared them. But they took the converter.

Later

[Roundrocktom]

At least in Texas, if you come down the drive... better not plan on steeling anything. My wife keep asking when I am going to have our 200' driveway paved. Simple, never. Any sound wakes the dog, which wakes me. I'm not a pretty sight during the day, let alone if someone wakes me at three am.

Back to the can crusher:

Hunt around and use scrap metal. Rusty scrap is good.

Can's are about 2 3/4" diameter. Pipe with 3" inside diameter will work.

Plunger to fit inside of the above pipe. Overall about 8" of pipe, 14"
of plunger. Bottom 6" of the pipe is cut away... about 200 degrees. Keeps a can from getting pinched by the sides if you made the opening only 180 degrees. Bottom plate on the pipe can have a 2 degree angle towards the back. Keeps can from falling out.

Mechanical advantage. The plunger will move about 6" (Can is about 5" tall). Have your six year old hold his arm up high, then bring it low. Probably about a 24" movement. Your pivot point will 6" back from the center of the can. Crusher arm then is about 24" long. Give the kid a good advantage on his weight.

Perhaps a return spring (screen door type) to lift up the lever so he can put in the next can.

I can think of a whole bunch of ways to add "can eject" and other things, but simple is best. Main issue is to make sure he can not get pinched by anything (advantage in the mechanical arm length is he hast to stand back from the crusher).

Mount the whole contraption on the walls (sturdy) inside the shop/garage. Ideal area allows everything to hose down to keep bug downs and shop clean (after a 100 cans of mountain dew looks like you spilled a full one).

Alternate, mount to a wide board (kid can stand on the board) while crushing, and big enough the thing doesn't fall over). Check to see hand clears everything.

Oh... if you google "can crusher" and hit image.... it should give you more ideas. I like the "auto feed" one. Save it for when they are 12.

[randydupree]

i kinda like keeping it simple too,also then maybe he/she can dream up a better way.so i would start with a BFH.let them smash em with the hammer,then see if they can improve on that!
Randy

[OZWELDER]

I built one of the at trade college where I taught with my apprentices Unfortunately no plans where ever drawn up.The design won my apprentices prizes in a national fabrication contest run by a major welding company here in Oz. We made the unit to give to one of the disabled kids associations and entered it in the contest as an after thought.

Perhaps a good description will do for you.
Firstly a pipe roughly the id of a standard can was selected.
It was made about 30" long. This was mounted horizontally on a saw horse like tand. On each end we mounted inclined "magazines" to roll - load the cans by gravity.

The cans were crushed into solid ends welded into the pipe, by a solid sliding piston driven from one end to the other by a lever pivoted on the central top section on the pipe. the pipe top was slotted to allow for this and a pivot lug welded on.

The crushed cans dropped out of a slot in the bottom of each end of the pipe into a receptacle.

The lever had to be of a length to give mechanical advantage to the lightly built kids.

It could crush 30 cans in 20 seconds. No scanner at the moment so I can't even send a sketch.

Best I can do
Grahame

[Gadgeteer]

Have any photos of the crusher?

[boilerman]

wait till 55 gallon drum is full....empty in drive way...continue to use drive way ....pick up cans that get smashed every other day .....well this plan works for me

[grizzley30814]

"wait till 55 gallon drum is full....empty in drive way...continue to use drive way ....pick up cans that get smashed every other day .....well this plan works for me"

Main problems:lol
1. Pretty sure his legs can't work or reach the clutch in my F-250
2. Ain't no way momma is going to put up with the cans poured out in the drive way.

I guess I will look at the one from HF and come up with something from that. I do like the magazine loading idea though

Thanks for the help. I'll post some pictures when I come up with something.