DN Staff

May 15, 2006

4 Min Read
Case #84: Ed Had A Fondness for Orange Crush

For the gadget freak who thinks he has everything, here's Ed Nauman's microprocessor-controlled, pneumatic-actuated can crusher. Great for parties, it consists of a pneumatic ram, precision bore crushing cylinder with aluminum crushing piston, two pneumatic rams to control the loading of cans, and solenoid valves to control the rams.

Operationally, the user simply loads the cans into the magazine, opens the pneumatic ball valve to charge the surge tank, places the rotary mode switch in either auto or manual, and presses the run switch. In full auto mode, the crusher loads and crushes cans at the blinding rate of 1.5 cans/second. That's a lot of six packs!


Ultimate Beer Can Crusher Control Unit Parts List

Amt

Part Description

Allied Part #

1

Optical proximity sensor

807-6233

1

2X16 LCD Display

670-0036

1

Switch

948-7728

1

RJ45 Connectors

863-0064

1

Indicator Lamp

234-1038

1

Indicator Lamp

234-1828

1

Voltage Regulator

288-1297

1

Microcontroller

858-0055

1

RS232 Interface Chip

773-0041

1

3 Terminal Linear Regulator

288-0001

1

Solid State Relay

281-6010

1

10K Resistor

832-7523

1

2K Resistor

832-0405

1

330 Ohm Resistor

296-6310

1

Small Signal Diode

431-0614

1

01uF Capacitor

507-0210

1

0.1uF Capacitor

862-2142

1

47uF capacitor

613-0672

1

20uF Capacitor

591-7072

Additional parts required: Control board: Microchip PIC 16F876 microcontroller and programmable oscillator; Other: 3 pneumatic rams; precision bore crushing cylinder with aluminum crushing piston; 3 pneumatic solenoid valves; steel frame with pneumatic surge tank, air preparation filters and regulators.

For Ed Nauman's complete instructions to build your own Ultimate Beer Can Crusher, click here (Zip file contains AutoCAD drawing and Visual Basic File)

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