How should Ben continue building his automatic can crusher? Post your idea + you might get a free Ben Heck t-shirt!

Charles has the right idea.  The intial resistance to crushing will be very high, but once the thin wall start to buckle it will collapse quickly.  So, you need to hit the can first from the sides to pinch it in, then hard down the axis.  Inertia will be your friend, and keep in mind that work is define as force over distance.  So accelerate the "hammer" for a longer distance to store more kinetic energy.

I like Warren's idea as well, but the cans still should be dented on the sides before trying to crush them betweem wheels/rollers.

Take a two cylinder engine and elongate one cylinder and piston so that you can put a can in it, then turn over the engine once using the other cylinder. Bam one kick of the engine and you've got one flat can. Or a similar idea using a manual or electronic crank as with your design idea but using an actual engine piston so that you have the benefit of the pivoting piston head and shaft. Also the idea of having a worm screw with a direct connection to a gear with piston system is an idea worth investing into. but simple have a loading pipe end where you have the can size opening in the top with a magazine. And then having a bottom slot cut into the pipe the size of the crushed can. Walla constant feed and gravity ejection of crushed cans. This way you don't have to worry about how long it takes to crush a single can due to the high torque ratio of the worm screw.

Comic relief....

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81088486/

He should stick with the original solenoid idea, but he needs a better connection than that loose wire.  Perhaps use an SCR/Thyristor http://www.newark.com/vishay-formerly-i-r/180rki80pbf/thyristor-285a-800v-to-93/dp/98K6039with a fast-acting switch to trigger it.  All that sparking you see means the system isn't ideal for a high cycle life.  Also, the rod should have very tight clearance through the center of the coil, and be solid.  That should maximize your flux coupling without much leakage.

also another solution

aply the presure with a slope

the orginal idea was

--|can|---engine

but to aply like that

--\can\--engine

it will be better,

also another idea

try a vibrator engine with the solenoid

the thing is to apply force which are parallel to the can sides, but to do it with a slope,

to proof what i said: try easly standing on a can trying to be straight, now try to move yourself front and back or right and left

at first the can will not crash, after you move it will

Toxic Here, Im kind of a young innovator i guess you could say, im 18 going to school to be a computer engineer, and i stumbled upon this website/contest. I love a good contest so heres my idea :

The ultimate Can crusher would make it so you could throw a random can into the can dispenser and it would crush all the cans at once. So i had a theory:

What if you threw the cans into dispensor like this -->   |  cans            |<------kind of like if you emptied a bag of cans into this part.
                                                                                                 |  in here         |
                                                                                                  (organizer)
                                                                              crusher-->    | ["""""] |----------
              joust of some sort to weaken can for crushability        |          the joust also has a flap underneath it so when the can is crushed, it can be dumped into a bag or container of crushed cans.

The organizer could use the same concept as a change organizer i saw in a store. and then the crusher uses a pin or a needle or a rod to weaken the can on its sides so it can then be crushed.

toxict33n aka josh hoffman

Since the motor is slow and you do not want to stand there to use it, make a shoot which can hold 10 cans. When a can is crushed it drops out to a waste basket and the next can drops into place. Load up the shoot and walk away.

Whoops, did not see previous post which is very similar to my suggestion. I think the shoot method would be easier to implement, if the shoot holds the cans one above the other side by side.

The most common can crusher design is pneumatic for its efficiency, ease  of use, and ability to build in a kicker to spit out the crushed cans.

As an american I have had the soda can build problem just like everyone else. At one point I even made a can throne from old Mnt Dew cans. I have been an avid can crusher for years, however due to a recent visit to Finland, and getting yelled at by my aunt on a daily basis for crushing the used cans. Because then the bottle banks can't read the barcodes, and then you can't get your money back for them.

Sorry if my idea is not in line with the project, but I think we need to break the USA habit of crushing cans, and figure out how to get the 3-5 cents back. We are throwing away money in blue bins, in the name of being good citizens, while the rest of the world gets thier money back to purchase more soda.

Bottle Return Finnish Style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leu9m3lIglA&NR

Bottle Bank Arcade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TidfhYOfknw

Either way you decide to do the mechanics it would be nice to have it internet enabled so people could logon and pay 5 cents to remote crush a can.

Or setup a arcade interface where you have to beat a level to crush a can, or tetris/pacman where the objective is to stay alive or the can gets crushed.

I think that an automating the feed system will effectively negate the need for high speed crushing.

I have attached a quick sketch of my idea.

The system would be a fairly simple gravity fed hopper, of a type I have seen coupled with Arm-Strong can crushers. A hopper positioned above the crushing piston and would have the cans prearranged in a manner that would facilitate the crushing process.

A can would fall in place before the crushing piston and prevent any further cans from falling in. This is very very much like the ammunition feed system in a original Gatling Gun. The piston would begin to crush the can, pushing it out of the way of the waiting cans. The piston itself would prevent the cans from loading until the piston has returned. Again, much like the bolt in a Gatling Gun.

On the other end of the containment cylinder, a crushing bulkhead would provide the resistance necessary to crush the can. I understand this differs from Ben's design and would require that this bulkhead be firmly mounted to the super structure of the device.

Once the can comes in contact with a pressure sensor, the bomb-bay style doors would open allowing the crushed can to drop out once the piston begins to retract. This would need to be on some kind of delay to prevent jamming. Once the piston retracts, the crushed can can fall into the recycle bin.

The piston will then return to the original position, allowing the next can to drop into place.

just thought about how you crush a can on your head by squeezing it slightly as you smash it against your forehead, so the force neccisary is minimal.