Group Actions
Engagement
  • Author Author: element14Dave
  • Date Created: Date Created
  • Views 4562 views
  • Likes 0 likes
  • Comments 55 comments
Related
Recommended

The Ben Heck Show Needs Your Help!- Episode Live!

element14Dave
image
image
Ben Heck home page
Ben's Top 5 Lifehacks
Ben's build kit

 


The  Can Crusher Buildhttp://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-24800/l/episode-3-ben-builds-an-automatic-can-crusher-or-does-he never turned out the way Ben and team wanted it to and is in need of an update. In an upcoming episode of The Ben Heck Show,  Ben and team will be creating "Can Crusher 2.0" and they need your help! Let Ben know your idea for what he should do for "Can Crusher 2.0"  by following the directions below.


Thanks for all of the wonderful ideas around "Can Crusher 2.0" Ben and team will be going through and evaluating the comments...check out how Ben used your ideas for the build!

Episode 153: Ben Heck’s Crowdsourced Can Crusher Part 1 Episode

 

 

Directions:


Step 1:  Log in or register on element14, it's easy and free.

 

Step 2: Post your suggestion in the comments section below. Videos, pictures and  text are all welcomed forms of submission. Comments or instructions should be limited to 200 words or less and contain no more than 2 diagrams.

 

Step 3:  Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!  We will accept ideas until 12:01am Central Time  on August 18, 2014.  If you need something to do between now and then make sure to check out what is happening on This week on element14 Community, or watch more Ben Heck at element14.com/TBHS.


 

Important Notice:

  • By submitting an entry you will automatically start receiving notifications of other responses to this post. If you do not wish to receive notifications, select "Unfollow" at the top right of the post. If you have any questions, please let us know in our Feedback & Support area.

  • I'm kinda surprised this hasn't been suggested yet but why not crush in a different manner than the normal top to bottom? Top to bottom is the can's highest angle of compression strength, hence why they are shipped stacked in that fashion.

     

    I propose to use the can's weakest features to make a 'complete' crush with the least amount of effort. A side compression with a pressure angle of 45 degrees of the plane that the can is lying on should flatten the cylinder while rotating the top and bottom faces of the cylinder to be flat. See picture because it's kind of difficult to put into words. A variation could be to first dent the side of the can and then just apply downward force and you get a similar result with similar pressure but it would be an additional moving part. As for the specifics of force generation, you could get away with a pretty small motor combined with a long enough lever but I personally would go for dramatic effect of a motorized lift of a fairly heavy weight that is dropped guillotine style using gravity (or even mechanically assist the gravitational return for even more acceleration).

    image

  • Hi Ben,

     

    Linear Actuator, I have one from a old motorized recliner, very strong. Consider some "current" sensing to determine when the can is fully crushed then some weird Ben Heck way to spitting the can out using some lever method when the linear actuator come back to home position.

     

    I picked up an old recliner from a council roadside collection. The chair was unusable but the actuator still worked. I also kept the lever for the lounge could be of good use other than trapping your finger in image.

     

    Malcolm

  • Pneumatic cylinders!!!!!!!!!! and a 3 or 4 way electronic valve, you can get all the power you want very quickly and even use the air relieved from the cylinder to kick the can out. Either that or a electric windshield wiper motor(because some have sensors that make it auto home and comes with an arm) or automatic car window motor could be converted to make a custom high power servo(window and wiper motors have a worm drive with a lot of torque!!!!!) by adding a custom controller and potentiometer. As a mechanical engineer I would recommend the pneumatic method for simplicity, but as air compressors aren't that efficient the custom servo route might be best for a large volume can crusher build! Not to mention that building a custom servo on the show would be helpful to many DIY hobbyists interested in building their own robots, since large servos are hard to source and expensive compared to DC gear motors (which can easily be found in the desired: scale (aren't wheelchair motors common enough), speed, or torque). Those are my two efficient suggestions although there are some spectacular ways using high energy induction.

  • This seems to me like an ideal can crusher for most situations. http://m.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Controlled-Can-Crusher-With-LCD-readout/?ALLSTEPS It may be a bit slow but it should be reliable and, more importantly for some situations, cheap. He could even paint dinosaur feet on the 2 wooden boards. Or he could use the stepper motors on his CNC machine.

  • Andy Clark, i like that idea.

    Also i was thinking of a spring loaded thing, like a mouse trap..