Soda Can Crusher

thingiverse

This actually works really well. Normally, I just slightly dent the side of the can before crushing because it makes it a lot easier to crush completely. There's no reason to print the Can; it's just included to help visualize where it goes. It was sized almost exactly to fit my print bed, and I had to print the handle with gears vertical and the handle laying down at an angle in order to fit it perfectly. Some of the teeth didn't print properly, but those teeth were not actually used. I didn't mark this as configurable yet because I've only ever tried one set of settings. This requires two ball bearings where the handle/gear meets the top piece that slides up and down. You'll need to measure the bearings you're using to make them fit; the dimensions are in the .scad file. When assembling the unit, insert the handle such that it's almost horizontal when on an uncrushed can; you need the leverage. Not the way it shows in the file. Also make sure to lubricate the top slider with vaseline or grease. It doesn't crush the can as flat as some can crushers do; it basically gets it down to about 20-25% of its full size. Each part took 15 hours to print, and I got bored waiting so didn't do a lot of experimenting with slightly better designs. Please give it a try, make some modifications or derivatives, and insert comments. I had fun making it; I hope you enjoy it. Just added two new files. I changed the top piece so that it crushes cans completely now. Basically, I made it bigger. It seems to be pretty robust; I just added a picture of some of the cans I've crushed with it. Revised the openscad file a little to allow for the handle to be a little shorter so that it would fit on smaller print beds. The lever now has two stl files that you can download.