# Shredding Aluminum Cans



## Tscarborough (Mar 31, 2006)

Regardless of the other questions, shredding them would increase their volume, not decrease it.


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## bobo (May 17, 2005)

*tscar,*

*ok, yes, it would increase volume, but i really want to just make it as easy as possible to compact the cans. i plan on cutting a hole for the shredder in a piece of plywood, lay it over a large trash can lined with a leaf bag, and shred the cans, periodically compacting the shredded cans with a board or something.*

*bob*


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## Nhrafan (Mar 2, 2007)

Not to be a smart- or anything but....
_
"_*i would cut the tops and bottoms out of the can and then cut along the side and feed it into the shredder"

*Is doing all that to each and every can going to save you more work than just crushing them?

Sometimes it's best not to try and re-invent the wheel if you know what I mean.

Another note is shredded or cut alum. sheets that thin are very sharp, your typical garbage bag isn't going to hold it once it gets some weight in it.

Why not invent some kind of pneumatic crusher or somthing instead?


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## bobo (May 17, 2005)

*all critisizm welcome! im just thinking out loud, kicking around ideas. i have thought of making a can crusher, even an old, small arbor press would be suitible. i mean im not trying to be super productive, just like when im sitting on the patio drinking a cold one, i would just crush the cans as i consume them!*

*bob*


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## Tscarborough (Mar 31, 2006)

A friend has a crusher mounted on a tree off his patio. We crush them as we drink them, and he takes in 50 pounds at a time.


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## Nhrafan (Mar 2, 2007)

I remember I laughed like crazy the first time I saw this one:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91249
:laughing: :no: :laughing: :icon_rolleyes:


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## bobo (May 17, 2005)

*tscar,*

*thats what im talking about! nothing fancy, just a manual hand operated press like device. i have been just stepping on them, but it involves ALOT of bending over, up and down, just isnt fun! want something that isnt much like work, but does the job, while still having a good time!*

*bob*


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## Nhrafan (Mar 2, 2007)

I'll share with you what my dad came up with. 
(he's retired with much time on his hands, and a thing for recycling metal as well)
He mounted a crusher like the one tscar mentions, to the door of the workshop. 
Under this he attached a piece of flexible duct large enough to fit over the bottom. 
The bottom of the crusher has a hole or two drilled into it. 
Then there is a funnel attached to the other end of the duct which narrows down to a piece of rubber hose. 
The rubber hose runs down the door and out through a little hole in the bottom.
That way when he crushes if any liquid that was still in the can decides to come out it just runs down and out the door. 
I laughed when I first saw it but I have to admit it works pretty good.:thumbsup:


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## chzdanish (Mar 25, 2007)

Sounds like shredding might be to much work. How about one of these mounted within arm's reach? http://tinyurl.com/3d3mvs


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## tribe_fan (May 18, 2006)

check these out - 

http://www.littlesqueeze.net/

http://www.bzecotourism.org/cancrusher.htm

http://www.composters.com/docs/recycling.html


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## bobo (May 17, 2005)

*hello,*

*thanks for the all the links folks! wow! i didnt realize there were so many different types of can crushers! i found one that i think will suit my needs just fine. it holds 6-12oz cans, crushes cans down to about 1" thick, and then ejects the crushed can, and loads the next automatically. it is a wall mount unit, and only cost about $13, and there is a retailer that has it in stock only about a 1/2 hr drive from my house! im gonna mount it in the shed, with a large trash can under it, with leaf bag in can, and crush my little heart out! now i can tell the girl friend i really do have a reason to drink, im gonna save the planet, one can at a time! lol thanks again to all!...bob*


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## bobo (May 17, 2005)

*hello,*

*i bought the can crusher, and mounted in the shed today. works like a charm! thanks to everyone again!...bob*


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## oldgoat (Aug 17, 2005)

Do you have a link for the can crusher? My wife saves our pop cans for a friend and rather than have sacks of cans around maybe a crusher might help the situation.


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## boman47k (Aug 25, 2006)

I have an old trash compactor. going by the color, I would say from somewhere in the 60's. Very powerful! Heheh, thought about using it to crush cans. If I had enough and knew they would get stuck i n it...
Since I seldom drink beer nowadays, not sure I want a bunch of cans collecting in it with soda in them to draw bugs, flys, bees, whatever. I have used it a few times to compact garbage with all kinds of cans. They get compacted! Okay I was playing with it. If aluminum is that high here, I might reconsider this subject.


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## bobo (May 17, 2005)

*oldgoat,*

*i cant get the link to copy to this forum. i bought my can crusher at SPACE SAVER store in winston salem, nc. it cost 12.99, and holds ten 12oz aluminum cans. it uses a lever and ram to crush each can manually, and the crushed can, now about 1" thick, drops out of the bottom of the crusher. i put a trash can with a plastic trash bag in it, under the crusher, which i mounted on the back wall of my shed. do a search on SPACE SAVER.COM and u should be able to see if there is a store near u. they have other can crushers too...bob*

*P.S. there are a few links posted here on this thread too.*


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## HAASEMAN2003 (Feb 12, 2007)

*Log splitter*

I made a metal box for my log splitter. I thru a bunch in it and squeeze the rest of the life out of them. Thing wasn't being used but a couple days a year. Now just for cans got propane! :laughing:


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## dallas8863 (May 3, 2008)

*Can Crusher*

Do you have a picture of your converted log splitter/can crusher?


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## ponch37300 (Nov 27, 2007)

A couple of years ago me and a friend made a can crusher powered by my air compressor. It was a peice of pipe about a foot and a half long and big enough to fit a can in with a peice of flat stock welded on one end and an air ram on the other end with a round plate attached to the ram. We cut part of the top of the pipe off so you can drop the can in pull a lever on a valve to get air to the ram and it would crush the can against the end of the pipe. We also cut a hole in the bottom of the pipe about an inch wide so when the can was crushed it would just fall out the bottom into a barrel. Everyone loved using it and never had a problem getting cans crushed!


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## HandyPete (Mar 23, 2008)

Waste of money

Waste of gas

Waste of effort

Waste of time

Waste of space

Waste of plastic

Waste of steel

...just plain overkill for a few cents of aluminum. The planet? primary aluminum plants produce millions of tons of the stuff without any regards to what is recycled.


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## micromind (Mar 9, 2008)

I made one somewhat similar to Ponch's out of one of those oil sucker guns. The ones that look like the barrel of a grease gun. I mounted it in a box with the top open, connected an air valve to the end where the hose was, and used a 2" pipe cap welded to some 1/4" plate steel, screwed onto where the handle was for a ram. 

This was made about 20 years ago, still works even after crushing probably several thousand pounds of cans. The kids absolutely love it. 

Rob


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## Maintenance 6 (Feb 26, 2008)

Around here they pay a little more for cans over scrap aluminum. If they are shredded, they are priced as regular scrap aluminum. Just took in $91.00 worth last week. Took an hour of time and a couple bucks for fuel to haul them in. I'd have had to pay to have them hauled to a landfill, so the waste of time, gas , money arguement doesn't work for me.


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## HandyPete (Mar 23, 2008)

Maintenance 6 said:


> Around here they pay a little more for cans over scrap aluminum. If they are shredded, they are priced as regular scrap aluminum. Just took in $91.00 worth last week. Took an hour of time and a couple bucks for fuel to haul them in. I'd have had to pay to have them hauled to a landfill, so the waste of time, gas , money argument doesn't work for me.


Geeez...how much brew do you drink? 

You must be a true tradesman :whistling2:

I'm not against recycling, it just has to be done correctly. If your aware of what the score is then I say "go for it". But, when I see my girlfriend rinsing mayonnaise jars and such with hot soapy water I cringe!!!!

- pete (Labatt's Blue)


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## Maintenance 6 (Feb 26, 2008)

I'm all for recycling, but I agree that there are limitations. I, for one, will not waste water and the energy to heat it, (which are resources), to "wash" my garbage so that it can be recylcled, thereby conserving resources. They get mine with residue. After all, junk yard rats have to eat too. :laughing: Some communities have gone a little off the deep end. I know of one municipality that will fine a person for putting the wrong items in their supplied recycle bins. I cash in the aluminum cans myself cuz it's easy and I get the mad money.........think I'll go recycle another can. :thumbup:


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## Leah Frances (Jan 13, 2008)

- I take my crushed cans to a local organization that redeems them for a scholarship fund. 

- My crushing tool involves the floor of my porch and the sole of my work boots. Very therapeutic after a bad day of work.

- Oh, yeah, I wash the glass jars - ok, the dishwasher washes them - they are the perfect size to hold the screws and parts for a project, hold some paint, or keep all my snips of Cu wire I'm keeping to take to the recycler.


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## HandyPete (Mar 23, 2008)

Leah Frances said:


> - I take my crushed cans to a local organization that redeems them for a scholarship fund.


I wish someone would do that in my town. Back in the 60's the scouts did "bottle drives" to raise money. Gee, I might even get involved myself .

- pete


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## senojjones (Jun 14, 2008)

*shredding cans*

i think they pay more for shredded cans than whole cans..
Probably due to the decrease chance of buying residual water, coke, or beer.

we started saving cans and have about 50 lbs in a month. 

Crushing cans is therapuetic, but if I could double my money, i'd love to shred them..

we built a small blast furnace out of a pine log that will melt aluminum cans in about a second, i could just fire that bad boy up, wonder if they'd buy "lump" aluminum..

The furnace is easy to build, you use a ships auger to drill a hole down the middle of a large log, then run a perpendicular air line in with a smaller bit. Hook it to an air compresser and drop in a lit charcoal briquett.

Once the pitch hits it's vaporization temp, it sounds like a small jet..

and it's relatively safe...

and it will melt aluminum, once the hole gets big enough to drop a can it.

quite entertaining, esp at night..

but we're from Alabama so we're easily amused..


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## Maintenance 6 (Feb 26, 2008)

Just know that most scrap dealers will pay very little for an unknown lump of some molten metal with soot attached than they will for a known, clean product.


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## senojjones (Jun 14, 2008)

*Blast furnance*

yes, i expect that they wouldn't pay for a molten lump of aluminum over nice well defined cans.

The furnance is mainly a toy. I built one after discovering that you can use a similar technique to remove stumps. I had a large pine tree cut down in my back yard. The stump grinder guys wanted $500 to bring their machine out and they would have torn up my yard. 

so I drilled 4 holes in the middle of the stump with a large ships aguer. Hooked a compressed air line to a stell pipe and droped that into one of the holes. Threw in a lit piece of charcoal and turned the air on.

When the pitch hit it's vaporization temp I got a 3 foot jet out the middle of the stump. I'd turn it off at night. After a while you don't need the compressed air and 3 days later it was essentially gone.

This technique burns down deep, so you get much of the tap root.

and the fire hazard is low because it won't burn without air injection.

You can do the same thing with a log, if you want to show your teenager how to melt metal with a log and an air compressor.

I'm raising geeks...


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## RenderRob (Nov 4, 2009)

Tscarborough said:


> Regardless of the other questions, shredding them would increase their volume, not decrease it.


Wrong. A container of a given volume will hold more small particles than it will large hollow particles (i.e. soda or beer cans).

Shredding the cans will reduce the volume needed to store a given mass of aluminum.

Use one of these:
http://www.ssiworld.com/products/products2-en.htm
http://www.ssiworld.com/watch/aluminum_cans.htm


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## 12penny (Nov 21, 2008)

Dear renderboob...this thread is 2 1/2 years old.


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## RenderRob (Nov 4, 2009)

12penny said:


> Dear renderboob...this thread is 2 1/2 years old.


Dear Penny,

_*edited*_



> Users shall treat each other with respect at all times on DIYChatroom.com. Name calling, personal attacks, or other inappropriate behavior will not be allowed and may cause your account to be banned.


This is a forum. Old threads get read by many people besides the original poster. If you don't like old threads getting attention, then complain to the moderator and ask them to *close* old threads.

_Dear Rob,_
_Please don't quote the User agreement right after you violate it_
_-Moderater - DIY Chatroom_


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## What have I done (May 28, 2006)

I wasnt around here 2 1/2 yrs ago..thanks for bringing life into the old thread...good read :thumbsup:


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## Thurman (Feb 9, 2009)

Two issues here: 1) I also was not around here 2 1/2 years ago, and I enjoy reading some of the older post for their information. 2) This aluminum can crushing issue bring to mind another highly debated item, along the same lines: do the aluminum tabs from the aluminum cans bring higher prices per pound than the cans the tabs were taken from? A friends church collects the cans, then they take the time to remove the tabs and place them into a different container for selling as scrap aluminum. She claims the do get higher pricing on the tabs, per pound, than the cans. I had to study metallurgy back then and do know there can be different grades of aluminum, but it's hard for me to believe the tabs are that much different a grade than the can. Anyone with knowledge of this? Thanks, David


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## MONEYBAILER (Nov 10, 2009)

I have the best way for the home or club recycler to cash in on the recycling money. _link removed_. Belive me I tried them all on ways to recycle aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Now my neighbors don't even know how much money I make with their own throw a way recyclables. It's so neat that in the condo that I live in they don't even know I have a home recyling business.

Thanks Joe

_If you wish to advertise on this site please contact an Administrator_


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## MONEYBAILER (Nov 10, 2009)

It use to they weighted much more that the can but not anymore new tech. has gotten them down to .01 gram. So when I see folks take the tab and give me the can I say thanks for the largest share of the can weight lol. Thaks Joe the canman


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## Maintenance 6 (Feb 26, 2008)

And in five hundred years, you can make enough money to pay for that machine. After that it's all profit, less gas money and oil changes..........and maintenance............. and storage...........and............ say, my 8 pound sledgehammer hardly cost me anything, and I get the exercise dropping it on the cans. :whistling2:


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