Shredding And Melting Soda Cans With A Paper Shredder - Simple DIY Recycling At Home

[@ArtByAdrock]

Hey everyone! So a lot of people have requested that I do this so I finally did. Some said it would be better and faster and I would get more clean aluminum. Well, I think it was faster to melt overall, but I had more slag than usual and simply shredding all the cans took a while itself. I don’t think it saved me any time by doing it this way. Let me know your thoughts and what else you would like to see in the future. Stay healthy and safe and I’ll see you all next week!

[@ComputerGUY27332]

It was cool but kinda pointless I think. The numbers tell the real story. Now do a melt of 75 cans no shed and compare the difference

[@ComputerGUY27332]

I would have like to have seen the weight before and then the weight of the dross

[@MarksGoneWicked]

I've seen so many of those shredders broken. The plastic fingers that clear between the shredders are garbage.

[@mariodiforte]

I'm curious how you can have more slag due to shredding. Could it be that maybe your ingot is more pure since slag is the impurities? Also how much gas do you think was used? This is a hobby I have been considering getting into and I'm curious what the gas costs would be.

[@ArtByAdrock]

About $3 in gas

[@Rocky-sy9zt]

MAN! Changed my life. I welded up an aluminum frame and build a press using parts from an old hydraulic jack just to compress cans down enough to fit in my electric foundry. I had an unused 16 page shredder and did the modification (cut the lid open) and it just rips through cans. I walked passed that thing every day, even the days I was pressing hundreds of cans and never thought about using it to shred cans. Thank you!

[@RandomTaco15]

You remember the brand of paper shredder and how long it lasted? Scared it'll shat out after a few hundred cans if I bought a nice one

[@davidhasslehoff4726]

Now get yourself a trash compactor and you'll really blow your mind 😉

[@Nopaants]

All someone had to do is try it?! I’ve been looking at $2,000 machines and you break out the goodwill special paper shredder and done. It was so obvious yet didn’t think of it. Genius!

[@KittyKeypurr]

This is me too 😂

[@mattyal9347]

I wouldn't have believed a paper shredder would be able to do aluminum cans so easily. Theres always something to learn watching your videos

[@BigBlack81]

I wanna see the BigstackD remix of this technique. With as much as that man can go through, I think he'd make some sweet work as well.

[@zube6996]

I just want to say that it was very satisfying to watch the cans go through the shredder. I could watch that for hours.

[@CODEMANTHEUNDERDARK]

That was seriously genius using a paper shredder like that!

[@timothymatthews7028]

Always astounded by the amount kf slag/dross from cans. Thx bruv slainté

[@andreaamplified]

It is amazing how compact the aluminum is once melted.

[@John_Be]

Every day I look at my shredder in disappointment. I showed this video to the shredder and tried to encourage it to perform at higher level. I guess I'll just have to get a puppy if I want things shredded.

[@TheUltimateTuffGuy]

Your a funny man bro, I can tell. 😂

[@redmadness265]

Man, before puppies are trained, they are destructive adorable little menaces. But then they usually grow up awesome.

[@schlomoshekelstein908]

oil them and lube the gears. use wd-40 for extra fun

[@clintdoolittle1576]

ADAM always nice to see a good pop can melt that shredder worked awesome i really enjoy that part of it do more stuff you can shred 👍😎🇨🇦👍😎🇨🇦👍😎🇨🇦

[@caseywood9781]

Dude, that is such a great idea using the shredder!! Kudos

[@RJM1011]

I saw a video last week where someone shredded the cans tens times before melting them I thought this was just a waste of time and money. Thank you for the video and thumbs up.

[@Andrew3der]

I was looking to do just this, thinking it would melt faster and save me fuel so thank you for saving me wasting $20+ on buying a second hand shredder! Great video!

[@MC-1173]

Cool idea. I never thought of using a shredder. Nice compact shreddings.

[@jeffholmes1362]

What great idea, melting cans is a pain, love it

[@zartan7779]

Love that paper shredder idea

[@joshschneider9766]

wow i never saw this one. very cool repurposing of a paper shredder i wouldnt have thought they could do that lol

[@thesusboomerroblox6516]

Finally found the mold I was looking for it was on your website out of my current budget for it but I will be buying a few within 2 months

[@andreabrown1260]

I've literally been waiting all day for this video love it so cool

[@richardmclean7973]

Great video!

[@stevewoods8116]

I might shred mine to keep. Save in boxes. Right now I throw them away. That is a Bad Ass Paper Shredder!!!!!

[@Bu2Spike]

You answered my question with this video, nicely done bro.

[@nightscrapperuk13]

Great video .I agree with what u said about not shredding the cans .just melt them whole 👍

[@BPollard86]

Shredding them increases the surface area available to oxidize the aluminum. Getting the metal plunged down into the molten metal quicker reduces losses from oxidation. It may be beneficial to crush the cans first, but that comes with issues of getting them to fit in the opening of the crucible and can trap any moisture that may be left in the can. Cheers!

[@brentpotter5021]

Awesome! I just ordered two of your pirate coin molds and they should be arriving today. After watching this video I'm going to stick to just crushing the cans and melting them! Thanks for all your content and thanks for the inspiration!

[@TechneMoira]

Honestly, shredding the cans with a paper shredder is a great idea :) Thanks for trying it anyway

[@ezraredgwell]

It's honestly pretty impressive how powerful the average paper shredder is

[@Christophersanchez1326]

That was still cool to watch.

[@jam2190]

Such great ideas, about shredding cans

[@alexhatfield2987]

You have to test the hypothesis. You did the experiment and got the result. Cool! Good to hear the voice behind the art too.

[@davidhasslehoff4726]

If you got more slag then that means you just ended up with aluminum that was higher purity and the cans shredded are def easier to work with in the foundry. But if you're only doing this for recycling purposes or consolidation/storage purposes shredding them and running em through a trash compactor would save a lot of space 😉 enjoyed the video

[@tater1786]

The slag is my favorite. Especially on aluminum its like a 2,000 degree slimy substance.😂

[@appleapple1988]

Do you know what you do with slag? is it put into the garbage when it cools down or is it recyclable or something?

[@tater1786]

@@appleapple1988 Lets it cool down, stores it, and remelts it later. What ever slag comes out of that melt is thrown out.

[@SilverScorpion]

Great video.

[@tracybowling97]

So this is all I had to do to have a shredder that shreds more than just paper? You are a GD genius!

[@NathanielOutdoorAdventures]

A great try. And interesting info. Thank you for sharing

[@abdelkaderabdulla5468]

Very neat ! Keep it up mate

[@johnnymwillis7133]

It's interesting to see how little aluminum there was after shredding the cans. And to think, it really didn't help with anything except to save space. Great video.

[@lotsascotch2155]

great stuff nice to see other methods

[@stakittystakstack5493]

That’s a freaking great idea to shred lol I kept looking for industrial.

[@korlashgaming8313]

leave it to Adrock to shred and melt, i love it man i kinda want one now! =)

[@MichaelBarnes-k9z]

That's awesome

[@fetchitnowuk]

Very interesting that you said there was more slag having shredded the cans. I've found crushing the cans and throwing them in minimise the slag. Will give it a try and compare.

[@sunshine_water5139]

Nice shredder idea lol😁

[@thematronsmilitia]

Have you ever tried adding white sand to molten aluminum to create a thermite reaction and get silicon aluminum alloy?

[@Kuntvaffles]

Bud Light and Monster ... true American right here.

[@kylecissell958]

😅 that paper shredder needs a medal

[@raziel3726]

Craftsman!!

[@mrdando]

Great video

[@samowiak2571]

Ok now time for BigstackD :)

[@ashvictor9381]

I like BigstackD and Adrock

[@OffGridOverLander]

Do a comparison between shredding vs crushed. I’d be interested in space taken before melting, and of course slag produced for a set number of cans. I have noticed that the beer cans provide the most Al per can though.

[@Coldbroccoli]

Videos are super similar to bigstackd. Love both of your videos! Keep up the cool stuff

[@christosvolikakis1523]

I know it’s an old video, but so happy to see this as I have three or four of these exact shredders left over from an old business, and was just waiting to find a use for them! What do you do with the slag? Does it have a use?

[@colleenbuvala4698]

Now you can make something epic with that aluminum! 😜

[@topchoppers7980]

All I want to say is that slag is not always just slag tho It does take much greater volumes there are still recoverable amounts of any metal in slag I'd love to see a slag melt video I keep and remelt all slag untill it literally turns to dust, it's two things for me, for one I enjoy melting, for recovery of the metals and two, . Yeah, I see dollar signs lol I dont keep any thing I sell it all either for scrap or I stockpile it to sell later, I love the channel buddy definitely keep up the awesome content, you and bigstacked are have the best melting vids on youtube later for now

[@charitybrown4274]

Awesome!!👍😁

[@zero_____given]

I agree put the cans in whole = less slag.

[@danimalmaxasis2762]

Thanks for all the info and process for melting you left that one important component... what is the make and model of the paper shredder?

[@steveyoung8683]

Fellowes DM21C

[@kreynolds1123]

I like the idea of taking up less space while collecting enough cans but maybe more Slag is a deal breaker.

[@V1P3RSlab]

yes I suppose that more pieces = more surface to oxydize and became slag. maybe shredded can could be usefull in a sort of continuous feeding for the fournace with a loading screw, but in an industrial eviroment, that could be made also with entire cans :D

[@SeptemberAdam]

There's a way to feed that with a hopper and presmashing mechanism to make the operation more hands free.

[@لاتحزنكنمتفائل]

Good ممتاز👍

[@Job781]

Is it better quality though to have more slag?

[@douglashutsell5422]

Been watching your channel for a few years and i keep coming back to this one for the shredder idea. Have you continued using the shredder? How long do you think its life is?

[@waynewillis66]

What can you use the Slagle for

[@B_2THE_V]

What do you do with the pure aluminum billets?

[@ИмяФамилия-ф2ш8ъ]

Я ❤️ Австралию!!! 👍👍👍 СПб

[@thematronsmilitia]

I found that a steel food can makes a good single use aluminum crucible and I do think this would make it easier to pack cans into that. I'm also just using charcoal and forced air to melt so I don't have as easy of a time adding things to the melt as i would with a nice gas foundry

[@JackieTheVampire]

Damn, 2.8k views in 4 hours. That’s so cool!

[@PapaDutch]

Try shredding, and then pressing it into a round shape that fits the crucible using an old juice can as a form and a bottle jack maybe. The shredder needs a feed chute...

[@eltigredetejas2328]

Will fabric jame the machine?

[@jjcc8379]

Might be useful for better storage before melting? Like, how much space did it take shredded vs non shredded? stock up on aluminum and then do a big pour.

[@colerussell1780]

Electric furnaces are far better for aluminum, takes a bit to warm up, but you get more yield out of it. Also can cheaply remelt the slag because there still is good metal in the first batch of slag.

[@TheHeadOfAGoat]

So my question is, how much fuel did it take for the process, and can you sell the ingots for more than just the cans and where?

[@Thriliad]

Seems like a statement more than a question 🤣

[@The_DuMont_Network]

​@Thriliad. Don't see why... looks like 2 Questions me.

[@kellylawler409]

Hi there - I just did a melt and the toxin/smell was terrible - how did you manage that?

[@phill903]

That is what I thought that shredding the cans you had more slag. But it did make some nice ingots ;-)

[@allenhenry1113]

Cool melt! Didn'tt know you can run a can threw a shredder. I thought it jam it up.

[@joshkyle6658]

I really just need to see more cans shredded

[@honeybadger7320]

How much time running the forge to get to melt point?

[@GregKrynen]

Handy if a person is using one of the small electric melters

[@katzz6114]

I got a electirc forge how much propane do you use

[@heyfindmenoob]

7:48 thought a cop was chasing someone through my neighborhood for a sec.. :V

[@PBRJOHN684]

Hey MR. Adrock I think we might have had this conversation before, But I think you're going to need some bigger shelves soon mate 😁. keep up the good work and Stay safe See you on the next episode. 👍 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

[@fishfishgamer8096]

Today was my first time ever melting cans

[@ToyCollectorBoy]

Wondering what made it have more sla

[@BetonTv.]

Its cery good video 😁

[@BetonTv.]

Invite on my channel 😁💪🔪

[@tonydiesel3444]

Will it do plastic?

[@LostInfernoFireDragon]

What kind of paper shredder did you use exactly.

[@kevinwhitaker119]

NICE ONE BUDDY 😁 SEE YOU NEXT WEEKS FOR THE MELT 🍺😁👍☮️☯️🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

[@frikkiesmit2695]

Also have pieces of old shredder at home. But was thinking of trying to use it for battle robot weapon. But due to the covid dont know if we wil have an event soon here in south africa

[@oddjobstoo]

I can see how at a minimum it would be beneficial from a storage perspective. Cans certainly take.up a lot of room

[@thenextsixminutes1252]

The only thing I can think of that is different when shredding the cans is that more surface area is exposed to oxygen to create oxides and cover it with other impurities. It should only effect the dross yield only minutely so there must be an additional mechanism at work here to produce the greater amount of slag.

[@adriennefraschetta5391]

Would love to see you do a full sized skull out of copper.

[@slappyrad]

Does anyone know where to get those chunky ingot molds? I love those little ones and can’t find them anywhere

[@IdeationGeek]

Great for storage though. Perhaps better than can compactor.

[@MichaelsTransportationVehicles]

Hi @ArtByAdrock I was wondering if I could have your shredder because I have loads of cans to shred please

[@martinjones1075]

Where did you get your custom forge from? An amazing as usual.

[@ArtByAdrock]

Devil-forge is one of my sponsors so they made it personally for me

[@martinjones1075]

I'm from liverpool an about to buy a 20kg forge an wanted it to be special like yours ha ha never mind

[@bryanduke1973]

Here is a idea shred make a mold to place in crucible but with steel. Put shred in until full the compact till mold is full rinse and repeat.

[@cptrikester2671]

Thank, great vid. I messed around with shredding & got to the same conclusion. 😀 Watching how the cans "poof" has entertainment value. Mmm, 🤔