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

I liked his electromagnet beginings... I would stick with that but use a lever for increased force, and a simple foot toggle switch to trigger a larger relay, which would then trigger the magnet... Add in a return spring to the magnet, and the can crushing could be pretty quick...

Wow, I came into this late so I'm guessing the can crusher project was  scrapped. But, just to throw in my 2 cents, I would suggest a windshield  wiper motor and an Hbridge high power servo board to actuate and  control the can crusher. Car windshield wiper motors are pre built with a  worm gear, can operate at 5-12 Vcc, and have (usually) 2 or more  connectors to operate at different speeds, plus they have MONSTER  torque! This can be made into a hi power servo by linking the motor to  an Hbridge circuit from Parallax.com which is around 15 bucks. A wiper  motor is about the same price (15 bucks) new, but pulled from grandmas  car (she refuses to drive in the rain anyways, right?) you can get it  for free. The challenge would be mounting a 5V POT to the rotation shaft  of the motor for position feedback to whatever servo controller board  you choose. You could even use a remote control model airplane  controller to make the servo work, or you could ditch the whole servo  idea altogether and take advantage of the parking feature that SOME  windshield wiper motors already come with. This means that the wiper  motor shaft will return to the original position after one rotation of  the shaft and would allow the motor to be actuated with a simple relay.  Just a thought.

It may be too late but I think it should be as cheep and simple as possible so everyone can build one. I vote for locomotion / crank piston with hopper and slot for smashed cans to fall out. small enough it can be mounted (set) on top of a garbage can.

Here is my model of how I think the can crusher could be made. It uses dual sissor jacks on both ends, a can hopper, a rotating can stopper/releaser; it can be mounded to a wall so it is out of the way and releases the can out the bottom after crushing so it can fall into a wastecan. I made a little hole so a limit switch can be installed, I think this would make it possible to be fully automated with a microcontroller, which is neccessary for us lazy people. I apologize for the dead-space.

I'm thinking a little heat and melt the cans down to a puddle,  slide a can through a "furnace" and out plops and ounce of aluminum.... doesn't get more compact then that.  No mechanical moving parts just a propane tank and an oxygen tank some adjustments and BAM 1300 degrees...  Cans go in aluminum puddle comes out. 

My idea... which works...  is to have 4 counter-rotating wheels on each side of an enclosed, angled, "V".  As the cans pass down through the "V" the wheels, which are powered, crush the cans flatter and flatter.  This does not make a hocky-puck style crushed can, but does move a high volume of cans and they are flat when they shoot out the other side.

Strap a PIC on top of each can and the AVRFreaks will stamp them flat for you... Heh Heh Heh!!!

Urbie

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

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My recommendation is to use a gear driven system. 2 gears with arms, lobes, or cylinders extending from them.   I've created a mockup animation on an extremely rough draft. I'd recommend first indenting the sides of the can to reduce the structural integrity of the can, allowing it to crumble with ease. I've made one simular to this years ago using a 1/2 hp motor that crushed a can in less than a second, complete with hopper and auto-eject when crushed all off a continous motion.

I am looking at all of the replies and I am reminded by something pounded into my head during my engineering classes.  The basic idea is reliablity and efficiency favors simplicity.  With that said a possiblity would be to use a simple pneumatic cylinder.  A cylinder and compressor would be easy to obtain and control with electronics.  If your thinking that noise is a problem you could also look into quieter compressors.  Basically it would be simple, cheap, and effective.  We did a project similar to this in high school with a pneumatic cylinder, a solenoid directional control valve, and a button and it worked incredibly well.

The key to getting a flat can with the minimum amount of energy supplied would be to use a rotating cylindar.  The Can would be held firm at the top and the cylindar would grab the bottom of the can and twist it as it pushed towards the top.  This way you would have only one moving part, you would use only enough energy to flatten the can.

You could use an old electric drill, stick a screw head onto the shaft.  Use a steel cylindar with a notch that fits into a curved spiral as it advanced down the screw to get the twisting motion and the pressure to flatten the can.

Thanks

DAB