Anyone ever rigged a splitter to..

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Haywire Haywood

Haywire Haywood

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crush aluminum cans? When I was collecting aluminum years back, I always thought having one of those kitchen trash compactors would be the trick.

Now that I have a hydraulic splitter, having something rigged to hold 50 or more cans and then using the hydraulics to smash them would be downright entertaining. 20 tons would make a nice block of aluminum too.

Ian
 
Maplekid

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Why would you want to crush aluminum cans when there worth 5 cents each. A shortbed with a toolbox in it holds $50-$75 in cans.
 
slowp
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Don't smash them! I saw some plans on the internet, of course, for making a solar heater out of them. Of course, I haven't read the 28 page instructions nor can I find where I downloaded them on my computer. Where is that Temporary file located?

You shouldn't be feeling like doing such things until February. That's when the cabin fever, or I'm Tired Of Winter And Want To Do Strange Things If I Can't Go To Hawaii season kicks in. Like making solar heaters out of pop cans. :)
 
Haywire Haywood

Haywire Haywood

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Why would you want to crush aluminum cans when there worth 5 cents each. A shortbed with a toolbox in it holds $50-$75 in cans.

They may be worth 5c deposit each in taxachusettes, but they are only worth scrap weight here. Ya crush'em down so each trip to the scrap yard yields more than just the gas money it takes to drive them there.

The REAL reason I thought it would be neat to rig a crusher is for pure entertainment value. :cheers:

Ian
 
Haywire Haywood

Haywire Haywood

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I've heard that too. Too many people cheating and adding weight.

I found a guy on you tube that made a can crusher with a 4x24 hydraulic cylinder and he got 1500 cans in a 12x12x18" cube. :clap: He ended up with a 40lb bail.

From his design, I figured out a pretty easy way to rig one with a hopper to feed it if I had a run of the mill h/v splitter with the foot on the beam. Won't work with the wedge on the beam like mine has though.

Ian
 

SkyP

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The scrapyard near me won't buy them if crushed into a block. I suppose they are worried people will hide something heavier in the middle. They will buy individually crushed cans though.
 
Curlycherry1

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Of course there is no reason to take aluminum to the scrap yard on a rainy day. No, no reason at all to take all that used aluminum siding in when it is soaking wet outside. Nope, no buckets full of water in that truck. ;)
 
biggen0_8

biggen0_8

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Of course there is no reason to take aluminum to the scrap yard on a rainy day. No, no reason at all to take all that used aluminum siding in when it is soaking wet outside. Nope, no buckets full of water in that truck. ;)

Yeah used to work for a junk yard that would shovel dirt into the cars before they crushed them, then would turn a water hose on them before hauling them in.
 

rex

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.10 cents a can here...took back 275 dollars in empties a while back i was at walmart for well over 3 hours cashing in empties one by one....i will never let them add up like that again...


my ex used to take back cans and when we broke up i dedicated the shed to cans it was a mess....
 
turnkey4099
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.10 cents a can here...took back 275 dollars in empties a while back i was at walmart for well over 3 hours cashing in empties one by one....i will never let them add up like that again...


my ex used to take back cans and when we broke up i dedicated the shed to cans it was a mess....

Heh! I am at the tail end of a project to smash my 2 year accumulation. I built a manual can smasher back in the 80s. It smashes them sideways so they aren't as compact as the usual end to end crush. FWIW a 35 gal barrel will hold about 22 lbs of my smashed cans :). I have 6 of those barrels on the truck now, one waiting in the shed and a perhaps 2 more to go. No fair calculating my intake :).

Harry K
 
Slick

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I saw an electric log splitter used to small gallon autobody filler etc cans. In CA businesses have to pay to have them disposed of, they pay by the 55gallon drum so they smashed them to get more in.
 
Iska3

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Back when I first started using my homebuilt splitter I was debating it but someone told me that scrap yards won't take baled cans due to thepossibility of hiding rocks, etc in the bale. Dunno if true.

Harry K

When I worked out, we baled up pop cans in our cardboard baler. The don't crush up as nice as a person thinks. Plus! Just like Harry said, You have to have a good working relations with the place or they will not take them in bales.
 
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