I was on a trip a few years ago and the group had a can crusher in an ammo can. They called it a "canerator". Anyone know where I can find one? I think someone said it was made in Flagstaff...
Lucy
The Canibal/ Canimal is made in flag. It is a thing of beauty and perfect fro grand trips. A couple things about it that are better than rocks are that all the spray from smashing doesn't feed the ants, it goes in the box to get rinsed out later. It crushes the cans down to 1/4" thick with one push of the lever.
Downsides are that it isn't cheap and its heavy. If its not a long VERY can heavy trip it probably isn't worth the weight/ space it takes up.
PRO has a few that they rent out for grand trips.
Downsides are that it isn't cheap and its heavy. If its not a long VERY can heavy trip it probably isn't worth the weight/ space it takes up.
PRO has a few that they rent out for grand trips.
Hey, thanks everyone and even though it seems a little extravagant, what do you get rafters who have every toy and drink LOTS of beer and other canned beverages!?
This is what I’ve been using since the early 1990s built for free by Randy Ranco. RIP. I’ve had to replace the handle a couple of times. It’s actually a famous can crusher featured in the NPS Grand Canyon private permit video. The tarp captures the spooge and can be rinsed off in the river along with the ants. The featured can is one of a few perfectly crushed cans with the top aligned over the bottom and no cracks in the side. I’ll sell it for $700.00.😂
I use the same hammer - "Thor" - and you can get cans down to thickness of a nickel w/constant practice... dime is better. About 1 out of 30 or so you can achieve perfect seal between face of Thor and can and a vacuum will result, sucking can down to just about nothng... I have crushed thousands of cans, maybe even up to 100k - and can fill a rice bag w/enough crushed that it's almost too heavy to move at arm's length (60-70#?).
Keep your steel cans (canned food) separate in a ziplock or whatever size plastic works. Cut top and bottom out of 'em and you can compress nearly as well as alu ones...
Draining those beers is a challenge - but someone has to do it. If you can convince crew to rinse w/river after every consumption it is a whole lot less messy, and the ants have less to eat. Good luck...
Keep your steel cans (canned food) separate in a ziplock or whatever size plastic works. Cut top and bottom out of 'em and you can compress nearly as well as alu ones...
Draining those beers is a challenge - but someone has to do it. If you can convince crew to rinse w/river after every consumption it is a whole lot less messy, and the ants have less to eat. Good luck...
I don’t have any pictures but we used to put a bunch of regular sized crushed tin cans inside a #10 can and beat on it till it was 3 or 4 inches thick. We called them Dory Biskits.🥧
Cannibal does way better than .875. I think the slot that the can has to fall through is 1/2" and you can make it half that with a good smash. A push to get it down to an inch or so and then a good lean on the handle sends her home. Can falls in the box and a new one goes in the slot. When you cant fit the cannibal in the box with the cans, dump them in a rice bag and start over.
I dont have contact info for the cannibal but I'll see if I can dig it up. PRO in flag could probably give you some info on it.
Those hammers with the plate work awesome as well. We had one of those with a heavy steel plate on my first GC trip. Way cheaper than a cannibal but more effort on a bad shoulder. The tarp gives the ants less beer and you can give it a quick rinse in the river.
I dont have contact info for the cannibal but I'll see if I can dig it up. PRO in flag could probably give you some info on it.
Those hammers with the plate work awesome as well. We had one of those with a heavy steel plate on my first GC trip. Way cheaper than a cannibal but more effort on a bad shoulder. The tarp gives the ants less beer and you can give it a quick rinse in the river.
OARS makes crushers out of old burly thick wood oars that break at the blade. They cut the oar about 3 1/2 ft high and attach some kind of junk thick metal plate that weighs about 20 lbs on the bottom and it makes a fine crusher with a nice handle, but you need a big tubed 18 ft boot with a big drop hatch to carry it in. And you carry a 12X12 "flat piece of 1/4 plate steel to place the can onto before crushing. No smashing those rocks on the beach! And watch those toes!
A piece of steel scrap found on local RR tracks with a 1 1/2" handle welded on. Requires just a few test smashes before you figure it out, first smash goes to about 1/2 ", the second takes it to 1/4" for those longer trips. Works best without crinkles in the can. Also levels tables, splits firewood, pounds in sand stakes, anchors in slow water, a true multi-tool.
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Thank you for your post Big Wave. I think you had posted that hammer in another thread several years ago. I was inspired by the picture you posted of that hammer built for you by Randy. We have been using a mallet to pound them flat on a rock. I wanted to make a hammer like yours for a friend. So, I took a 4 pound Estwing sledge I had in my toolbox and welded it (worlds ugliest welding job) to a 5 inch disc, a friend of mine, cut for me with a plasma torch out of ¼” scrap . I had a 12 x 12” ¼” inch plate I paired it with. I ended up painting all the metal with some white Rustoleum to prevent rust.
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I have never seen cans crushed this flat. They are literally as flat is a quarter. My old lever action can crusher could not do better than half-inch because it can’t flatten the dome on the bottom of aluminum cans. The hammer destroys the dome and that’s how you get them so thin.
My friend was super happy with the gift. However, he said that he had to be careful while pounding not to rap his knuckles on the ground. He suggested angling the hammer up a little when welding it to the disc. I also realized 12”x12” ¼” plate is way too big. You don’t need nearly that much steel.
I decided to make one for myself. I went on Amazon to order an 8”x8” ¼” plate and noticed one of the options was stainless steel. It cost only $4 more so I got it, a 5” diameter ¼” stainless disc and a 1.5 kg stainless steel sledge. The stainless steel sledge cost twice what the steel hammer in my first one did. The stainless plates barely cost more than the steel options. I already had the gas to weld stainless steel and stainless wire for my mig welder. I ground an angle on the face of the sledge, welded it up (and did a much better job this time on the welding.) and here is the result.
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it crushes cans just as flat as the first hammer, but it’s a knuckle saver thanks to the slight angle, and I didn’t have to paint it or worry about rust since it’s stainless. Thanks for your post Big Wave and the pictures, I know it wasn’t really what the OP was asking about but it was very helpful for me!
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I have never seen cans crushed this flat. They are literally as flat is a quarter. My old lever action can crusher could not do better than half-inch because it can’t flatten the dome on the bottom of aluminum cans. The hammer destroys the dome and that’s how you get them so thin.
My friend was super happy with the gift. However, he said that he had to be careful while pounding not to rap his knuckles on the ground. He suggested angling the hammer up a little when welding it to the disc. I also realized 12”x12” ¼” plate is way too big. You don’t need nearly that much steel.
I decided to make one for myself. I went on Amazon to order an 8”x8” ¼” plate and noticed one of the options was stainless steel. It cost only $4 more so I got it, a 5” diameter ¼” stainless disc and a 1.5 kg stainless steel sledge. The stainless steel sledge cost twice what the steel hammer in my first one did. The stainless plates barely cost more than the steel options. I already had the gas to weld stainless steel and stainless wire for my mig welder. I ground an angle on the face of the sledge, welded it up (and did a much better job this time on the welding.) and here is the result.
it crushes cans just as flat as the first hammer, but it’s a knuckle saver thanks to the slight angle, and I didn’t have to paint it or worry about rust since it’s stainless. Thanks for your post Big Wave and the pictures, I know it wasn’t really what the OP was asking about but it was very helpful for me!
That's too simple..
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Do they make one that's gas-powered? Forget using rocks or doing the morning stomp, I want something I can feed the cans into, that'll rinse the swill out with river water, and spit out cans that are paper thin. For that matter, when's someone gonna come up with a device that'll just poop out little aluminum ingots?
The things I never knew we needed....
The things I never knew we needed....
Funny, I was thinking, how do you get portable air on a rafting trip? Duh, with a Carlson pump. Then I remembered I have this. Runs on 18v batteries.
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Dr. Andy DMV. I missed responding to your can crusher you made. Looks good that handle will never break. I use an aluminum plate to reduce weight. Used to drag around a heavy steel railroad tie plate. The canvas tarp is key to keeping spooge of the beach. Something the Neanderthals that use rocks and foreheads fail to realize is necessary.
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