Herringbone Gear Can Crusher

www.stevengarrison.com A reduction gear train made of pine plywood sheathing scraps laminated together with screws and powered by a 3/4 h.p. electric motor. Herringbone or Chevron gears are stronger than spur gears and do not have any tendency to move along the axle even under heavy loads. There are no bearings other than the center hole drilled through the plywood turning on half inch diameter smooth steel shafts lubricated with axle grease. The gear ratio is 72:1 not including the belt drive, the belt drive makes the overall ratio around 172:1 (About 10 rpm output with a 1720 rpm input from the motor). The gears are made using a technique I developed - visit my web site for more information.

This gear train was built for fun and to use up some small scraps of plywood laying around in my workshop. It demonstrates that wooden gears are capable of handling some load, but certainly not as much as metal gears. It is obviously an extremely dangerous machine and could easily crush hands, arms, etc... www.stevengarrison.com

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• wood
• gears
• can
• crusher
• diy
• plywood
• dangerous
• electric
• motor

[KapteinOpel]

Why did u do that, now u dont get no recycling fee for the cans!(Idk if you have the same arrangement as we do here in Norway though.. You get 1 nkr back for a can or small bottle, and 2,50 for a big bottle if you deliver them back at the store. Bigger stores have recycling automats..(google Tomra systems if ur curious :) 6 nkr equals a dollar, so if u have six soda cans, you have a dollar!

[steveg769]

@KapteinOpel We don't have that recycling arrangement in my area. We take the cans to the scrap yard where they pay by weight, so it makes sense to smash the cans to take up less space and put more in a bag.

[martine773]

why not make the gears run a piston. then piston can crush can horizontaly in a tube. this looks like it would be dangerous to pick can shreds up after. just a thought. looks cool btw.

[steveg769]

@martine773 - Most of the metal falls into a bucket underneath the crushing gears. A piston type crusher would be more complex to build and probably weaker because the axle would need a bend for the connecting rod. I just wanted to keep it simple and more unique. Thanks for the comment.

[guillaumeO7]

amazing and unbelievale machine ! :D I would learn to make this chevron gears for my wooden clock gear. All the best

[steveg769]

@guillaumeO7 - I watched some of your videos of your wooden-geared clocks - very nice work!

[kueldudepaul]

good job!

[therealTohmar]

nice crusher. Needs an emergency stop tho.. :-P

[KapteinOpel]

@steveg769 Well in that case it makes sense ok.

[MrLeonard55]

Excellent. I love it.

[Workmule4ever2day]

That's rad! How to keep tbhe crush teath from wearing out tho. I like the pisten idea from down below... but no shaft... just a pin off the side of a wheel to a arm with anvil. But I over complicate things. I like that design of yours. Cool stuff man!

[ComPrt3]

I wouldn't wear a neck tie around that thing.