Crushing beer cans

ksor · Oct 13, 2012

Here is my new project for a "beer can crusher" mounted on a exercise bike !
The bike is stripped and ready for the additional chruncing unit.
Now I have to make the chrunch unit - here is the plan:

(Translation in the upper right corner !)

http://kelds.weebly.com/daringseknuser.html

dave-in-england · Oct 19, 2012

Hello Ksor,

This is an extremely old design !
I have used exactly this type of machine back in 1967 for crushing used 1 litre oil cans in a car repair garage.
( Although the cans were steel and the machine was air operated at 120 P.S.I. )

However, even the humble, super thin wall aluminium beer cans are extremely strong in compression in their initial state.
A 80 Kg man can stand directly on top of an empty beer can without it crushing.

Your crank design would need to be much more of a butch construction than the video suggests.

And crushing three cans in succession ?

I don't think that a pedal bike would give enough torque without a huge amount of gear reduction to drive that crank.

Why don't you use a 50 mm diameter double action hydraulic cylinder, with solenoid valves, using the water supply from your house.

If the water supply is about 80 P.S.I This will give you about 115 Kg force, and you don't have to pedal all day !

dave
( design eng )

Rex · Oct 19, 2012

Ever since I bought a shaper I've had a plan running around my head for a magazine-fed beer can crusher.
One day I'll do that.

Brian Rupnow · Oct 19, 2012

I have seen a design similar to yours working (I believe on this forum). The drive motor had a small diameter pinion which was held by friction against the bicycles rear 26" diameter tire. This seemed to give it adequate mechanical advantage/gear reduction to crush cans quite well.

KIMFAB · Oct 19, 2012

dave-in-england said:
Hello Ksor,

However, even the humble, super thin wall aluminium beer cans are extremely strong in compression in their initial state.
A 80 Kg man can stand directly on top of an empty beer can without it crushing.

dave
( design eng )

Here's a pic of a the can crusher that we used at my son's place when he was redoing his shop. Quite effective.

Dunno how you would attach it to a bike however.

Brian Rupnow · Oct 20, 2012

Here is a link and a video to the other can crusher I mentioned.
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/f16/what-do-old-bicycle-17235/

LuvToFish · Oct 24, 2012

Here's some pics of the can crasher I made. I seen a really old one in a friends barn and decided to make one just like it. Not sure who or what company had the original design.

I call it the can crasher because it literally compresses the can to nothing

-ltf

peter2uat · Oct 25, 2012

Hello ksor,
nice idea (maybe apart from mechanical problems). I see just one minor issue - I would not like to feed the machine manually when it is running at full speed, whatever that may be. So why not combine it with a sliding valve plate in the 'head' -similar to ETW's Sirius engine- in order to throw out the crushed cans after the 'power'stroke, and then design some kind of vertical magazines above the ports to automatically feed in the next can when the piston runs back - call it the "machine can crusher'

I use a much more easy approach to the problem - crush the can twice at about right angles with yor hands and step on it with wooden health sandals - 160 lbs of bodyweight will crush them flat in no time
Peter

Crushing beer cans

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