Glass Crusher

[Pete.]

Filling the rollers with cement grout would stop the denting and reduce the noise too.

Concrete crushers use two heavy plates in a V shape, one is hinged and moved by a rotating shaft. You could use something similar to break the glass down to smaller sizes first. I did a little sketch. The curved bit is hinged at the base and the spring at the top holds it onto the wear plate. The shaft in the middle is fitted with an offset weight and spins causing the assembly to vibrate heavily. Glass is fed into a hopper at the top and collects in the tray at the bottom. You could make stops to limit the travel of the moving part.

 

[rtbcomp]

Filling the rollers with cement grout would stop the denting and reduce the noise too.

Concrete crushers use two heavy plates in a V shape, one is hinged and moved by a rotating shaft. You could use something similar to break the glass down to smaller sizes first. I did a little sketch. The curved bit is hinged at the base and the spring at the top holds it onto the wear plate. The shaft in the middle is fitted with an offset weight and spins causing the assembly to vibrate heavily. Glass is fed into a hopper at the top and collects in the tray at the bottom. You could make stops to limit the travel of the moving part.

Great stuff there Pete, gives me food for thought, it would have a hammering action - plenty of noise! I had thought of using an oscillating roller on a flat plate using a motor with a weight on the shaft.

I'll keep an eye on the bottom roller, it is pressed and forms a closed cylinder so should be easy to fill, the top one looks cast and has spokes at each end.

One reservation about filling the rollers is that it will increase the inertia, so I may need a bigger motor, on the other hand the momentum will be increased so it would be less likely to stall on big lumps.

A hammer mill would be the best for breaking the bottles - I have mental picture of an upturned Flymo

 

[rtbcomp]

Just ran a batch of glass through the Webb-Webb Patent Glass Crusher.

It's awsome, now the rollers are stiffer there is much less vibration and a bit less noise. I've got quite a strong spring on, it's about all I can do with one hand to pull the rollers apart. The glass is crushed more completely too, should do a batch in fewer passes.

I'll try to do a weighed batch and see how it splits up into coarse (slightly bigger than granualted sugar), Fine and powder.

 

[Shox Dr]

I don't know why but when you mentioned this tribute to Heath Robinson in another thread I had this idea of a wood chipping machine. Could you not use one of these to reduce/prepare the glass for the WWPGC.

 

[rtbcomp]

I wonder how long a garden shredder would last?

I'm really after a design that doesn't make much noise, current thoughts are something along the lines of a ram or log-splitter. It needs to compact due to lack of space.

 

[Shox Dr]

If it was a home use one Im not sure, a mate brought one round when one of the bush/trees blow over in the garden, it looked very cheap and flimsy but boy did it work, Im sure you could pick one up for a few quid. As for noise, maybe encase it in a box, space wise they not very big at all.

 

[michael1703]

very industrious

have you seen these in action?

i want one!

http://www.ssiworld.com/watch/watch-en.htm

 

[rtbcomp]

very industrious

have you seen these in action?

i want one!

Me too!

 

[Paul.]

Slightly smaller scale here, Some years ago I built a cullet maker based on the same principle as these blenders just larger.

 

[rtbcomp]

That works on pretty much the same principle as the waste disposal unit I tried.

I got my first complaint about noise today - not suprised really

I managed to put 13 kg through it, 8 kg needs to go through again, the rest I'll sieve out into fine, coarse and powder and weigh each in turn.

 

[Hitch]

Sounds like it needs to be portable, take it elsewhere for the noisey bit

 

[Robotstar5]

Why not put an ear plug dispenser outside your workshop?

 

[rtbcomp]

Sounds like it needs to be portable, take it elsewhere for the noisey bit

It'll be ultimately installed in my blast room, which is itself inside my workshop

 

[rtbcomp]

Out of the 13 Kilos I put through the machine :-

8.0 Kg needs to go throuigh again
1.4 Kg of coarse was produced
2.1 Kg of fine was produced (this is what I use with 3mm nozzles)
1.0 Kg of powder was left over. I use this for giving aluminium castings a quick blast over between grit blasting and bead blasting, saves a lot on beads.

The remainder escaped.

 

[Pete.]

Rubber rollers would take care of the noise issue - probably create less dust too

 

[Stuggi]

Yeah, but they're probably expensive as hell and would also wear down very fast.

Personally I would get an old cement mixer, cut out the mixing blades, add some smaller vanes, rev it down and use it as a ball mill.

 

[rtbcomp]

..........

Personally I would get an old cement mixer, cut out the mixing blades, add some smaller vanes, rev it down and use it as a ball mill.

Maybe OK for initial smashing up, but milling doesn't produce sharp fragments.

 

[Stuggi]

That I didn't think of, maybe because I don't do any media blasting...

 

[rtbcomp]

I've re-hashed the design so it sits nicely on a bench, ran it for a day and was going to paint it up and take some photos when I noticed that the newer of the two Webbs' roller had distorted like the Qualcast one and the older one's cast roller had come adrift - the spokes had broken at one end.

I reckon the problem is caused by the fact that the rollers are in two halves, left & right, to make turning easier. This means that the inner end of each roller half is unsupported and the bending action caused by the force needed to crush the glass causes the failures.

A solid roller is the answer.

Apart from the fact it falls apart after a few hours it works very well!

 

[Shox Dr]

could you not fill the centre of the with concrete