I grew up with plastic can crushers and a dad who will bring an extra trash can on vacation just to collect everyone’s cans. Ran across these plans in an old ww mag and just had to make it. Being my first project not made from dimensional lumber, and trying to figure out how to do all the cuts with a RAS and circular saw, it took me forever to finish. Even so, it was a great project for me—got to do lots of stuff I either hadn’t done, or hadn’t done well.
It’s working great, even with a few beginner’s mistakes. The only real issue I had is that the heft of the arms would bring them down even in a breeze, so I just glued a magnet to the back of the top jaw where it lines up with a mounting screw.
I didn’t want to take up valuable deck real estate with a large trash can to catch the cans, so I added a hooked piece of wire to hold the wastebasket, which is working great. I’m definitely going to want to add a (slightly less unattractive) version of that hook to the next one I make. And I’ve been told by several family members that I will be making more.
The only thing I really don’t like about it is that it wasn’t cheap—but most of that was from buying big-box lumber (hopefully I won’t be doing much more of that). I’d like to make it stainless hardware, but the 8” bolts and acorn nuts already aren’t cheap.