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

I am suggesting that the power source should be "green".   Solar, water, and/or wind powered.   Get real exotic.   Design and build a machine to distill your own fuel like ethanol from commonly found, yet appropriately picked, plants.   Use that fuel to power the crusher.   See what kind of power you can generate, and design the back end can crusher that works within that power budget.

I'd prefer a "fun and noise" approach, like a big sledge hammer that's pulled up by a tiny electric motor and a ratchet mechanism, taking a minute or so at least to lift the hammer, then crushing the can with a maximum of noise and violence, maybe with a decibel-controlled LED display!

(or make it piezo-driven from the impact)

Let the drive power be green, why not photovoltaics -  ( I'm a renewable energy installer), just the better, but a lot of basically useless machinery is always fun, and let the can "survive" for a few (just as useless) seconds before it goes down into a made-to-measure dumpster or a clear cylindric container.

To finish it all neatly, I'd add a Wall-E type crusher that makes a compact cube of the cans that you can bring to the metal scrap for real.

Bye

Johan

If you really wanted to go "green" you could use an old wind mill.

The wind mill would deliver an up and down action.

Combine that with a ratcheting mechanism for power and a spring return at the bottom of the stroke and you'd have a 100% green device.

Then add a hopper and mechanical loader and you would have a green can crusher... outdoors too!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Controlled-Can-Crusher-With-LCD-readout/

Hi Ben, you should try a bench vice assembly witha a stationary flat metal plate and a movable flat metal plate connected to a leadscrew. This lead screw is then connected to a gearbox being driven by a sero or induction or dc motor. The aluminum can fits between the two metal plate.

Aluminum cans are really hard to crush without first denting the sides.  its possible for an average person to stand on two empty soda cans if their weight is distributed evenly.  If you dent the sides first the can will collapse easily so maybe the crusher could have something to dent the sides as it crushes the can.  Or, one could always dent the sides before putting it in the crusher as i do before i crush my cans.

A method of crushing cans while also stimulating people to get excercise and relieve stress woudl be to have a hopper attached to a modified "Bash the gopher" machine.

Once the machine had collected enough cans for a game it would start flashing and playing music.

Everyone would cheer and haul themselves off the couch to lumber over to the machine and then they would discuss who was going first, stimulating healthy conversation amongst the family members.

Once Dad had decided he would go first , he would take the mallet in his hand and the machine would pop cans randomly out of the holes on the top of the playing surface and he would bash away as the family cheer and offer advice.

Each member of the family would take turns until all the cans were flat and they would all smile at each other and offer hearty congratulations or mock teasing as they returned to their TV, tired but happy.

TRM

All great ideas! I would like to pitch in that my original design intent was a wall-mounted "home appliance" type machine.

Certainly there are many ways to do it, but small size, and safety, are important.

Some sort of "pre-dent" mech, that bends the sides of the can in slightly, would significantly weaken the can making the main crushing move much easier.

How about using atmospheric pressure?

Some kind of plumbing would be required to deal with left over soft drink.

Possibly, if this youtube video's information is correct then it could be applied to crushing cans and moving 3 ton coral blocks with ease.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EPlyiW-xGI