alu cans

has any one ever tried to use a wood chipper to shred alu cans, I have about 2 loads but could make it one if the chipper will work

Olddude, You might want to try what we do here, we dump the cans out on the ground and use our lawn tractor and lawn roller and roll them out flat. There's less to cut your fingers or whatever like there would be with chipping them.

yea, i think that the chipper would make a mess of them, try the lawn tractor or i just stomp them, Wheredo you get so many cans if you dont mind me asking?

I just smash them one by one as I empty them. Not sure what I would do with a big bunch from someone else, but I have done the "dump 'em all in the driveway" thing and ran over them with my truck. this method requires a big scoop shovel for clean up.

I smash 'em by foot, then pick them up with this:



If I had the money and knowledge, I'd like to build a pneumatic crusher.

That lawn roller smashes them flatter than a fritter, and saves a lot of wear and tear on the foot and ankle, I'm not as young as I used to be,

I know this is an "oldish" thread; however, I have a question about this tool. I'm 6'2" tall, is this thing longer enough where I can walk straight up and still pick up a can? What about if I'm riding a bike?

Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper

I smash 'em by foot, then pick them up with this:



If I had the money and knowledge, I'd like to build a pneumatic crusher.

I found these website comparisons:

Grabber comparisons

Different sizes


Anyone use these?

I had 2 old log splitters that I sold awhile back. I should have kept one and built a box/hopper, then a plate on the ram to crush 'em.

I did a google search for pneumatic can crushers. there's one company selling them for $275. Problem with the design for this model is you have to open and close the door for each can. I also saw another video where you can stack multiple vertically, which seemed a litttle bit more user friendly. But the videos on utube show a fairly basic design. Seems its nothing more than a piston connected to a compressor. My issue is I don't have access to air so I'm old school with the foot.

As far as the lawn rollers are concerned, are you talking about a manually pushed roller? I checked home depot they sell them for $99. I'm tempted because the majority of what I get are cans from the forest preserves where a lot of people barbeque.

Mine is an old one that is full of water or sand?? and is pulled with an 18hp lawn tractor. We just dump them in the driveway.

I jack up the back of my 500cc polaris fourwheeler about 1 inch off the ground and start spining the rear tires. I have someones else start shovling the cans under the tires.

a can is a can in my opinion! I had someone give me 52 lbs of cans I never crushed one of them! I made .55 a lb for them!

I don't crush them if they are... nasty. I have a one-at-a-time manual crusher. It's pretty sturdy, all metal and mounted on the garage wall. I place the uncrushed in a bucket up high to grab from and place in. The crushed ones auto-drop and fall into big plastic garbage can. I've been wanting to build a feeder... but I've haven't been getting too many cans at once.

If I find any when out and about, they get the step-on treatment and tossed in the back of the van. When I show up at the yard, most times half my cans are crushed and half aren't. All get tossed in. All weigh the same.

Originally Posted by DCMinor

a can is a can in my opinion! I had someone give me 52 lbs of cans I never crushed one of them! I made .55 a lb for them!

It is a matter of space. If I can haul $50 of uncrushed cans and use $12 in gas, I would rather wait and take in $150 of uncrushed cans with the same gas.

When I get some parts and free time, I think I'll build one of these.

Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper

When I get some parts and free time, I think I'll build one of these.

They make tables for the can sorting business, kind of a large funnel top with a hole in the center, I'd get one of those with that bad boy underneath it, that way you just dump a bag of cans into the funnel, and it auto loads the crusher. I've seen the funnel top tables at one redemption center, the others just have big stainless tables with a hole cut in the middle of it, and a tube welded to the bottom. Either way keeps your fingers from the large crushing wheels.

This is the one that i would build if i had the supplies.

problem here is , we re talking 2 pick up loads one load crushed and one lode not crushed, im trying to figgure a way to maximize the fuel for a 120 mile round trip.