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

Today I'll be shredding and melting some scrap aluminum cans in my backyard foundry. I wanted to see if using a paper shredder to shred aluminum cans was possible so I modified my paper shredder by cutting out a bigger hole in the top. This allowed me to easily fit an aluminum can in there and shred it like butter. I then melted down all the can shavings and recycled them into pure aluminum ingots. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and hit that Subscribe button for more.
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***DISCLAIMER****
This video is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Do not try and replicate this at home unless you know what you are doing. Molten metal is extremely hot and dangerous so always use precaution and wear protective gear when melting metal.
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[@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

[@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

[@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 😂

[@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.

[@CDG-PRODUCTIONS]

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

[@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.

[@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!

[@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

[@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 👍😎🇨🇦👍😎🇨🇦👍😎🇨🇦

[@stevewoods8116]

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

[@MC-1173]

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

[@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.

[@andreaamplified]

It is amazing how compact the aluminum is once melted.

[@zartan7779]

Love that paper shredder idea

[@caseywood9781]

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

[@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.

[@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!

[@andreabrown1260]

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

[@user-nm5rg9et8m]

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!

[@NathanielOutdoorAdventures]

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

[@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.

[@jeffholmes1362]

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

[@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

[@richardmclean7973]

Great video!

[@Bu2Spike]

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

[@samowiak2571]

Ok now time for BigstackD :)

[@jam2190]

Such great ideas, about shredding cans

[@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.

[@Christophersanchez1326]

That was still cool to watch.

[@nightscrapperuk13]

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

[@lotsascotch2155]

great stuff nice to see other methods

[@Kuntvaffles]

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

[@stakittystakstack5493]

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

[@charitybrown4274]

Awesome!!👍😁

[@TechneMoira]

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

[@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.

[@michaelmartin3474]

I would not look at it as saving time. But I just found a good way to save on space in my garage. 😊

[@SilverScorpion]

Great video.

[@abdelkaderabdulla5468]

Very neat ! Keep it up mate

[@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.

[@ashvictor9381]

I like BigstackD and Adrock

[@mrdando]

Great video

[@kylecissell958]

😅 that paper shredder needs a medal

[@tracybowling97]

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

[@Coldbroccoli]

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

[@colleenbuvala4698]

Now you can make something epic with that aluminum! 😜

[@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?

[@kreynolds1123]

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

[@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.

[@shredct3118]

Hell yeah!! 👍

[@korlashgaming8313]

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

[@raziel3726]

Craftsman!!

[@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?

[@MastaBlasterHank]

Seems like a statement more than a question 🤣

[@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.

[@user-yy6re4pb3t]

Я ❤️ Австралию!!! 👍👍👍 СПб

[@user-xs3gf1co6p]

Good ممتاز👍

[@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

[@zero_____given]

I agree put the cans in whole = less slag.

[@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

[@user-py6jp3fi3g]

good~!

[@heyfindmenoob]

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

[@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

[@fredrichardson9761]

Pretty interesting that you end up with more slag... any idea why? Really pretty cool how well your shredder works on those cans but yeah I can see how it ends up being a bit more of a pain then just crushing them...

[@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...

[@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

[@kevinwhitaker119]

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

[@chrisfryer3118]

would compressing the cans further produce less slag, and more product?

[@SeptemberAdam]

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

[@kellylawler409]

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

[@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?

[@seanfoltz7645]

You should have done a side by side - fifty cans shredded, fifty cans whole. Weigh the tanks before and after to determine how much fuel used and then weigh the aluminum at the end. My thought is that the shredded aluminum is likely using less fuel but I'm betting you're correct about more slag due to the larger surface area allowing for more oxidation. You're likely saving time and effort too since I'm sure it's easier to dump 20 shredded cans in at a time than to feed them in one by one. As for time it takes to shred, for me it would actually be less since the wife isn't strong enough to crush a can flat by can crush one enough to feed it into the shredder and I would simply feed the cans through as they're being used, thus saving myself the space taken up by trash cans and bags full of crushed cans.

[@goldhunter9641]

Shredding cans and melting them into Ingots or small blocks but it is fun to do as a hobby and way more time consuming when selling as Scrap for profit and my local scrap yards will only pay clean aluminum price for cans when melted down into blocks and it's considerably less priced than what they pay for aluminum beverage cans at those rates... Cool video though for sure

[@allenhenry1113]

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

[@jamesfreeman8247]

What is the size of your two smaller molds? They appear to make 1/2 pound aluminum ingots, which is the size I'm looking for.

[@charlesdalton6516]

I’ve heard soda can metal is so thin it will oxidize quickly if you just use that shredded material. It was said to start with some solid aluminum to create a pool then add the thin stuff.

[@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. 👍 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

[@StarBlazerM31]

Me watching you pick up the pain flakes by hand: D8>

[@JackieTheVampire]

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

[@MH-cj1gz]

Great vid. Would it be a waste of time to re-melt the slag? Also what to do with the slag. Thx for the vid

[@poolbuilder27]

So, I'm curious. Do you think the additional slag from shredding them gave you a more pure aluminum ingot?

[@joel383]

Probably. The problem is surface area. Shredding them, then compressing. Starting with a molten pool to plunge the cans under works better too.

[@BetonTv.]

Its cery good video 😁

[@BetonTv.]

Invite on my channel 😁💪🔪

[@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, 🤔

[@venusrise]

Aluminum slag (dross) is made of aluminum oxide due to combination with the air. It’s a by product of the act of smelting. I’m wondering if shreds introduces more air, thus more slag. Maybe run a test with highly compacted aluminum in a crucible vs. shred in a crucible to see which forms more slag.

[@coreyhoward8950]

Awesome video. How did you cut the plastic? That is some hard awkward plastic to cut. Trying to cut mine open bigger like yours. Thanks.

[@ArtByAdrock]

I used a rotary tool and cutting bit.

[@newsdaily101]

Hello quick question aluminium cans value is £50 a ton if you melt it down will it become clean aluminum witch the value is about £650 pounds is that right thanks

[@joshkyle6658]

I really just need to see more cans shredded

[@Job781]

Is it better quality though to have more slag?

[@AndrewHutton]

For anyone doing this; how long does a shredder last used for this? Just as a solution to reducing them in size for dropping off for recycling it seems like a win; particularly if you press them after (though still working on a good approach for this).

[@fishfishgamer8096]

Today was my first time ever melting cans

[@GregKrynen]

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

[@georgiosrinakakis934]

The slug is aluminium oxide or colors and other impurities added in the cans?

[@MichaelsTransportationVehicles]

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

[@phill903]

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

[@alexanderrr1825]

How about a Blendtec or upside down lawnmower to shred the cans?

[@keithruss4279]

seventy five cans is about two and a half pounds (the twelve oz anyway) if you had a way to cut them in half after crushing them to relieve the steam pressure it might be the best option a 4x4 with some gravity will get them about as thin as cheaply possible unless you got some good heavy cast iron and some very understanding neighbors