Years ago, when scrap Al. got real money, the maintainence guys crafted up a can crusher. Not any old can crusher mind you, but a magazine fed, rapid fire jobby! Basicly a metal tube, about the diameter of you average soda can. A slot was cut in one side to allow a can to drop into the tube. The end was cut back just enough to allow the crushed can to drop out. Back at the slot end, a hydraulic cylinder was fitted. A ‘trigger” of sorts was above this ram. A can would press onto the trigger, trigger would drop the single can in the “reciever”, and hit a switch at the buttom. Switch activated the air into the ram. Can was driven into a thick steel plate. Ram would also press another switch at full “foward”, and this would reverse the ram back into “ready”. A box was fitted over the can opening to serve as a “magazine”. Gravity would make the cans drop in. When hooked up to the shop’s air supply ( about 180 psi !!!) can stood zero chance. As long as there was a can in the “gun”, it fired. That little slot up by the steel plate? It allow the crushed (flat) can to drop out the bottom of the gun. If the rig was set over a barrel, didn’t take long to get a full barrel. Sorry, no pictures, before I even had a Commodore 64! Might even be below my “need to know” level.
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No response?
I figured someone MIGHT want to hook up a compressor and make some cash. Oh well.
Do you have some ideas for how to make a pop can crusher? I have been scouring the internet and have found a guy who made one out of some PVC. But I'm interested in your idea or plans if you have them.
auto can crusher
Near as i can remmeber this thing, been awhile ago. But, they used a steel pipe about the same size ID as the can's OD. They then wellded a plate onto one end. This would be the 'anvil' the cans would hit. An air powered cylinder was added to the other end, with bolts. They had a mounting plate welded to the pipe. This mounting plate was an "L" shaped affair, with the short leg holding the cylinder, and the long end running under the "barrel". On the cylinder's shaft (the part that moves back and forth) there was another plate. They didn't even round the corners off, just cut it square to fit inside the pipe.
A slot for the crushed can was sawn out. The large opening for the can was also cut out. A "box' was added using screws just long enough to hold the box to the pipe, with out going inside the pipe. They then rigged a control valve and a trigger. a rubber hose to supply the air to the cylinder from the shop compressor.
they would "C" clamp this contraption on the rim of a barrel. hook up the air hose, and load up the box. First can down the box hit a lever in the bottom of the cylinder's "firing chamber" triggering the cylinder to crush the can. Cylinder would go to full stroke, and a second lever would flip up, triggering the return stroke. Once secured to the barrel, all you had to do was keep feeding the cans.
Whitedog,
Years ago, I worked with an older gent . He had maybe an 8th grade education, but was a mechanical whiz. "Uncle Stanley" had an old hay baler, the type that had a toggle-jointed arm that worked back and forth to press the hay into a rectangular bale. He modified it into a well drilling rig, and pounded a hole into the ground to drill his own water well at his home. That done, he re configured it into a trash masher, so that he wouldn't have to make such frequent trips to the landfill. He used to tell the story about shovelling trash into the trash baler, when one day the plunger snatched the scoop shovel out of his hand.. "Mashed it flattr'n a pancake!"
Ray
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