anyone ever build a wooden can crusher?

[LCHIEN]

Looking at this Harbor Freight crusher, I wonder what Oregon, Iowa and Michigan have against crushed cans.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=46406

I wonder if those states don't have 5 cent deposit on the cans.
You need to be able to read the cans so that the stores pay only for cans sold in those states lest they start paying for cans imported from other states where there is no deposit. Crushed cans would make it real hard to prove or disprove the 5 cent deposit was paid on those cans.

From Wikipedia:

US States with Container Deposits
According to 2004 U.S. Census Bureau statistics, approximately 30% of the U.S. population currently reside in states or territories with existing container deposit laws:

• California (5 cents; 10 cents for bottles 24 fl oz or greater), implemented in 1987 and increased 25% in 2007; listed on containers as "Cash Return Value" or "CRV"
• Connecticut (5 cents), 1980
• Delaware (5 cents), 1982
• Hawaii (5 cents), 2005
• Iowa (5 cents for containers that held carbonated beverages), 1979 (also applies to wine bottles)
• Maine (5 cents, also applied to fruit juice and bottled water; 15 cents for some wine bottles), 1978
• Massachusetts (5 cents), 1983
• Michigan (10 cents), 1978 (beer bottles were 5 cents until the 1980s)
• New York (5 cents), 1982
• Oregon (5 cents), 1972
• Vermont (5 cents; 15 cents for most liquor bottles as of 1990), 1973

[rosesunkist]

If you get the HF crusher, you must be nice to it. My 8yo has bent the heck out mine to the point where it can barely be used. It bent the first time he used it. The grey part of it holds up well, but the arms on the side are pretty flimsy. Hmmm.... Maybe stiffen them up a bit with some metal and they might hold up. I think I will try that with the next one, soon.

[TheRic]

No plans on making one. I do have one I bought a long time ago, I'll crush about 1/2 dozen cans a day, more after a party. Here are some random thoughts, observations.

Plan for the handle to be plenty away from the wall. Finally built mine out away from the wall after slamming my knuckles into the wall too many times.

It's easy to crush the side of the can as you put it into the crusher. This will allow it to be crushed easier. Don't need to over design it to crush this way. Even a slight indentation will weaken the wall enough to allow easy crushing. I have found too much of an indention is actually worse, the can will shoot out as it it being crushed.

If the top and bottom are not correct they may shot the can out of the crusher. Putting a slight lip around the top might help. If you put a lip around the bottom you would have to lift it out to remove verses a slight movement, or it falling out on it's own.

The angle on the one shown earlier I would think would mean you would have to hold the can in place as you put pressure on the top. Verses a level one you could set the can on and crush as you reach for another. Then brush off the crushed one as you put the next into place (have the collection tub under the can crusher).

All cans are not made equal, height, diameter, strength, material, etc. and they do change over time from within the same brand.

Make sure the finish will stand up to what you plan to use to clean it (soap & water, bleach, Lysol, etc.). Yes it will get cruddy, smelly, etc. It seems no matter how much you try to get everything out something always remains.

[LCHIEN]

crushed about 100 cans tonight!
maybe i'll post pictures, movies, US Pat.No I copied...
I guess I'll need a stand... just held it in a vise tonight...

[mschrank]

Looking at this Harbor Freight crusher, I wonder what Oregon, Iowa and Michigan have against crushed cans.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=46406

Loring's pretty much got it.

We have a 5 cent deposit on cans/bottles here. All the grocery stores have machines where you can deposit the empties. After you're done, the machine spits out a voucher you can then take into the store to get your refund. If the can is crushed, the machine can't read the upc code and verify the deposit.

[LCHIEN]

Loring's pretty much got it.

We have a 5 cent deposit on cans/bottles here. All the grocery stores have machines where you can deposit the empties. After you're done, the machine spits out a voucher you can then take into the store to get your refund. If the can is crushed, the machine can't read the upc code and verify the deposit.

hmmm, didn't realize that the cans were machine readable - makes sense, though.

In my nefarious mind I could print out stickers with the bar code on it and attach to cans from neighboring states... but I guess that's a lot of work to steal 5 cents...

I do sort of approve of the principle. Wiki notes a large reduction in littering in the states that have the deposit. If the can is not worth 5 cents to recyle for you, it certainly will be for someone who picks up after you. My wife is ambivalent about the recycling , it takes up a lot of room (The biggest current problem for us) and is a bother. But me, I think us humans need to be more conscientious about recycling and cleaning up after ourselves. Somehow recyling has to be made economically beneficial.

Interesting about the HF crusher... you can't even trust them for that item.

[mschrank]

In my nefarious mind I could print out stickers with the bar code on it and attach to cans from neighboring states... but I guess that's a lot of work to steal 5 cents...

Just feeding the cans into the machine is a lot of work for 5 cents, IMO. There'e usually one machine that is a "bulk feeder," and you can dump in a whole grocery sack full at a time. But for bottles, or when the bulk feeder has a line, it's one at a time. The machines always seem to reject a high proportion of them...I think because the label is too dirty/torn, whatever. Most of the time, I donate the cans to local organizations or just leave them in bags by the machines for somebody who's willing to feed 'em in.

[atgcpaul]

I was a maniac about selling my cans at the Alcoa station down the street
when I was a kid. In the mid-80s, my biggest haul was nearly $100. I think
that was for 200lbs of cans. I'd watch the price/lb trend and jump on it
when the price peaked. Pretty good money for a kid. I also enjoyed
watching them dump the cans to see them travel up the conveyor belt, go
through the magnet sweep, and then get shot out the back as a flattened
can into a semi-trailer.

[Daryl]

hmmm, didn't realize that the cans were machine readable - makes sense, though.

In my nefarious mind I could print out stickers with the bar code on it and attach to cans from neighboring states... but I guess that's a lot of work to steal 5 cents...

I do sort of approve of the principle. Wiki notes a large reduction in littering in the states that have the deposit. If the can is not worth 5 cents to recyle for you, it certainly will be for someone who picks up after you. My wife is ambivalent about the recycling , it takes up a lot of room (The biggest current problem for us) and is a bother. But me, I think us humans need to be more conscientious about recycling and cleaning up after ourselves. Somehow recyling has to be made economically beneficial.

Interesting about the HF crusher... you can't even trust them for that item.

If my memory is still working I think I remember sombody getting arrested for pulling the Seinfeld can scam, maybe in Michigan.

[jackellis]

Somehow recyling has to be made economically beneficial.

Our SF Bay Area community has curbside pickup for cans, bottles, mixed paper, cardboard, newspaper and yard waste every other week. The benefit is in lower tipping fees (paid to the landfill for dumping trash there). We don't really have room for more landfills so there's been a huge effort to cut down on what goes into the ones that remain.

I used to hate making the effort it takes to recycle but over time, it became a habit. Two of us generate no more than a pair of 13 gallon bags of trash a week, and half of that is used cat litter. If we didn't recycle, we'd be putting three or four times as much stuff in the landfill, not counting the yard waste.