Aluminium drinks cans make a great source of thin sheet metal which can be used for all manner of interesting projects, but it’s safe to say that retrieving a sheet of metal from a can is a hazardous process. Cut fingers and jagged edges are never far away, so [Kevin Cheung]’s work in making an easy can cutter is definitely worth a look.
Taking inspiration from a rotary can opener, he uses a pair of circular blades in an adjustable injection moulded plastic frame. If you’ve used a pipe cutter than maybe you are familiar with the technique, as the blade rotates round the can a few times it slowly scores and cuts through the metal. Doing the job at both ends of the can reveals a tube, which cna be then cut with scissors and flattened to make a rectangular metal sheet. Those edges are probably sharp, but nothing like the jagged finger-cutters you’d get doing the same by hand. The full video can be seen below the break, and the files to 3D print the plastic parts of the cutter can be found at the bottom of a page describing the use of cans to make a shingle roof.
Great work. I was planning pretty much exactly the same thing but never got around to it. :)
Next step…make 3d printed forms to press housings and shielding from them.
Also, don’t forget they are often (always?) plastic coated on the inside.
At a place where cans have a 20 euro-cent collateral, this is not a very economical way to roof
It would cost me more to ship the cans to Europe than it is worth.
B^)
Maybe, but Coca-Cola doesn’t make shingles.
This doesn’t (didn’t) work in all countries, though.
Here in Germany, we used to have very sturdy aluminium cans (you know, those forbCoca Cola, Fanta, Sprite etc).
You couldn’t squash them with your hands, by any means.
Some cans were so sturdy that you could stand on them.
Taking them apart with scissors was dangerous, it wasn’t sich soft material as shown here.
Drinks cans in Germany are aluminum (I live in Germany.) You can certainly crush them with your hands.
Older cans were made of “Weißblech” – thin steel sheet metal, plated in tin. Those were difficult to crush by hand. You had to use “tin snips” (special metall cutting scissors) to cut them open.
Steel drink cans were normal in many countries until the 1970s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drink_can
I’ve cut open an (empty!) Revell compressed air can (those are used with airbrushes instead of compressors), I thought the aluminium would be very thick because the can was quite hard. But it turned out pretty flexible when cut, and it was somewhat thicker than ordinary beer cans but I believe still much under 1mm.
The Netherlands recently introduced a return fee on aluminum cans. A win for the environment, probably, but it does remove a cheap source of aluminum for hobbyists. At 15 cents a can really isn’t worth it to scrap them instead of returning them.
provided that You can actually buy
a) this kind of sheetmetal at all
b) price per m2 is less than 0.15€
c) shop is willing to sell less than 4m2
so comparing by price only – yes, not worth. But then comes in availability..
Internet solves lot of availability problems. But with 0.15/0.20 eur deposit, reusing cans seems surprisingly economical. Standard 330ml can should give about 90mmx205mm sheet, or 0.01845m², or roughly 10 eur/m². The closest thing I could quickly find is aluminium flashing, I think you can get 6″x50′ roll for about 30eur, or about 13 eur/m².
Sure, the flashing is almost double the thickness of typical can (0.2mm vs 0.1mm), but if you just need some Al sheet and the thickness doesn’t matter much then cans don’t seem all that bad.
Germany (where I live) has had a deposit in aluminum cans for quite some time. The deposit is 25 cents.
As a source of raw materials, they are far too expensive – you’d do better to turn the cans in then buy sheet aluminum from the returned deposit.
Given a deposit of 25 cents per can, and a weight of 18 grams per can, the cans are worth about 13.9 Euros per kilogram if you turn them in for recycling. That’s 56 cans.
I find aluminum roofing for 6.10 Euros for a sheet that weighs 2.25 kilograms.
As roofing material, cans lose by a long shot.
On the other hand, on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon when there’s no place close by to buy sheet aluminum and I need a small piece to finish a project – well, the can is gonna get whacked.
Do they give the return fee if you just return the top? They should.
I’ve always just used a Stanley knife. As long as the blade is sharp, it just slices through with no jagged edges or hassle.
FYI they make stanley-style blades with a brazed carbide insert, stays sharp much longer (provided you don’t chip it)
I was waiting for the part where the inner plastic liner was removed. That never happened, so… plastic coated aluminum sheets.
Hydrochloric acid will remove the plastic sheet.
B^)
Interesting approach – remove the plastic sheet by dissolving the metal. The sheet is then likely to be much more flexible and less likely to cut you.
For larger sheets of thin aluminium i used offset plates from a printing shop
why wouldn’t spring loading the mechanism solve the multiple diameter issue? Or perhaps a screw drive to adjust as needed.
Sheet “Metal”???
More like Sheet “Frankenstinian monstrosity of plastic and metal”. But hey, that might make it even more useful for some applications.
Cover one side of these aluminium sheets with high strength double sided tape (leave the backing on ’till needed) and you create an adhesive metal sheet that can be wrapped around cylindrical things for repairs or reinforcement. Allows you to instantly fix light duty tubing in some circumstances. I keep a few sheets of this stuff in my materials collection as it’s proven handy over the years.
Two hose clamps around it and you can repair a rusted out exhaust pipe on your car and drive another 200km. That got me out of a bad situation once.
IIRC, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” mentioned that a beer can makes a 1/1000th thick shim.
Well this seemed like something much easier 3D printed than injection molded. But, hey, he [supposedly] makes the STL files available. But first you need to create an account and verify your email and the email validation is not working. But I got to the downloads once the acct was created (without verifying it) and there is a mandatory-voluntary donation required. I’m not paying 5€ for his STL files.
I know how to remove the top of the can using a can opener but do you know an effective way/tool to remove the bottom so that you turn those cans into stackable tube ?
Yes, it’s called a “topless can cutter”, “bear,soda can cutter” and other names. Some designs have one, two or three circular blades. I have one that is sort of round with three blades. It cuts both tops and bottoms from a can.
I thought the same thing, that you could stack cans to make a pipe. Perhaps make a solar hot air heater. Never did it, as I have no use for one.
I downloaded it just fine by creating an account. Maybe try an adblocker?
Nice as roof cover tile?
I think wind and hail would like to have a few words with him.
I’ve used these for a few things… shim material, as “paper” for small art pieces, for pinholes in pinhole cameras. Also tried (with varying degrees of success) scratching the inside with my vinyl cutter and etching (copper sulfate + salt + water) to cut pieces out. Probably easier to sand off the paint on the outside than to remove the plastic inner lining if you need bare metal.
I’ve used pop can material for quick and dirty solder stencils. The thickness worked out well to deliver a suitable amount of solder paste to each pad. I sandwiched the thin sheet between a quite thick lower piece of aluminum and a relatively thin (maybe 3mm?) upper piece, then drilled holes of suitable sizes for each opening. If done carefully, there are no burrs and it just works. Round instead of rectangular openings is a non-issue.
Pop can shims are also good for adapting bicycle seat posts to slightly larger seat tubes. Just roll to top edge a few times so the shim doesn’t slip down inside the frame.
Yes, there must be too many seat post diameters. Done that, dielectric corrosion doesn’t seem to be an issue. Lever clamp now has grip and seat stays up.
Not that I’m saying this isn’t original but it’s almost like an enlarged wine bottle foil cutter tool.
Several years ago, I made use of soda cans for a few purposes. I made the usual messy cuts with knives and scissors, but I cleaned up the edges with one of the old guillotine paper cutters, which was also useful for cutting them cleanly into strips.
I like to melt my aluminum cans in a steel bean can (as a makeshift crucible) in the woodstove, where the temperature is high enough. then i get these hockey-puck-shaped aluminum ingots
Seems like that might be dangerous to be breathing around, as the plastic coating combusts?
There should be a contest on useful objects made from aluminum cans!