How to recycle aluminium cans from soft drinks, etc.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone got some useful ideas for using the aluminium from the millions of discarded soft drink cans? I have often used stiff plastic sheets from packaging for kit-bashing, etc., but I'd love to hear of any ideas for using the aluminium (aluminum in the USA) which is so easy to find.
Any of you brilliant lateral thinkers got some ideas on that? I am sure they would be welcomed by all modellers.

[Anonymous]

I would be careful using aluminum, as it could easily short out an electric circuit.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Aluminium is a pain to work with because you can't solder it, it has to be glued. The best thing to do with it, would be to save it, turn it in at the recycling center, take the money to the hobby store, and buy brass plastic or wood.

[ndbprr]

Aluminum can only be made by using electricity. The original Hall process is still the process used today. There is nothing that comes in an aluminum can that is more expensive then the can itself. They are also made of the highest grade and manufacturing quality. The vast majority are recycled since it costs less to make new product from recycled then start the entire process over again. If your community doesn't have a recycling program I'll bet your trash hauler does as there is a ready market for the scrap and at a very high price per pound.

[Eriediamond]

[#ditto][#ditto] to Train-master and Big-boy above. With as much electrical things to short out and not to leave out the band-aid supply I would need, aluminum cans are best left for recycling for me anyway. I have used aluminum foil glued to cardboard and scored to represent tin roofs on buildings I've built.

[dknelson]

Back when the aluminum in cans was thicker than it is now, I used some to make a sort of poor man's Belpaire boiler to add to a Tyco 4-6-2, so that it would look more like a Pennsylvania RR K-4. PRR engines had this squared off boiler near the cab. I wanted to add just that feature. I was just a kid. It fooled no one but it was easy to do because you can cut aluminum with old sissors.

Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

Well, here in New York State, we can get 5 cants for each one. That makes it more valuable to re-cycle than to kit-bash!

[Fergmiester]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005

Aluminium is a pain to work with because you can't solder it, it has to be glued. The best thing to do with it, would be to save it, turn it in at the recycling center, take the money to the hobby store, and buy brass plastic or wood.

5 bags equals $20 in these parts and it just so happens that the one of my LHS's are and the recycling depot are a hop, skip and jump apart, life doesn't get better.

On the other hand...

I once got onto the set of Theodore Tugboat and looking at all the different models and what they were made of blew me away. Thomas's head is made from a small Javex bottle, The chemical containers on the the freighter were made from Del Monte fruit cups and the list went on.

If your not overly concerned with rivets, scale and exactness recycling can work very well.

[Anonymous]

I use soft drink cans as rivet overlay wrappers . I emboss rivets onto it then glue it to the locomotive.
The link shows some examples.
The smoke box on the O 27 Atlantic, smoke box, cab sides and fire box on the HO K4 and E6. The tender on the E6 also.

http://www.the-gauge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6376

I've seen airplane models built from coke cans.
I thought about melting some cans and doing some castings.

[Anonymous]

"Has anyone got some useful ideas for using the aluminium from the millions of discarded soft drink cans?"

If the pull tabs are still intact you could attach string to them and make wind chimes or create balance-art for your train room. This would show visitors what your favorite drink is.

Aluminum Can Fun Facts: http://www.greatdividerealty.com/cans4kids/recfacts.htm

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the replies, guys! I may have been misunderstood. I meant to ask if anyone had any good ideas for using the thin aluminum sheet metal from the cans to construct something for their model railroad, e.g in kit-bashing or scratch building.
Ray had some ideas of the type I was looking for - thanks Ray.
Hope that clarifies my question.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Sorry Bilby, I did understand what you meant, and Ray's and Snake's ideas were good.
The question is, how much of that kind of stuff does one railroad need? I would think that after a six pack, the railroad would have had it's fill.

That's why I suggested that they are more valuable recycled, and use the money at the hobby store buying a more appropriate material that is easier to work with, and has thousands of applications.

If you really want to use material that should be recycled, try STEEL cans, like what food comes in. That's a material that CAN[:D]be useful. Also some plastics will work, like Fergie pointed out.

[IRONROOSTER]

You might be able to use it as metal roofing on buildings.
Enjoy
Paul

[Budliner]

use a paper crimper on it

[Anonymous]

My Dad used to use the older, much heavier gauge aluminum cans for small parts drawers. He concocted some kind of rollers to flatten out the roll in the cans, and then a bending brake-homemade of course-to form interlocking seams and 90 degree bends to form the drawer sides and bottoms. Frugile, or what!?!

FYI, steel cans have a wide variety of protective coatings very dependent on the original contents shipped in them-this could prove to be either a boon or a bust depending on how the can is to be "recycled".

Large scale, very free-lanced modelers have used cans, sometimes sheethed in plastic wrappers or wood strips (coffee stirrers work great), to depict back-woods water or fuel tanks, and I've seen some very whimsical tank cars made from soft drink cans (I believe Walthers offered a really goofy kit using a soda can for a tank car model). Smaller cans such as tuna, cat food (same thing isn't it?), and more rectangular sardine cans actually make fairly convincing industrial tanks and work in various scales. In large scale, I've mounted sardine cans on a flat car (made of coffee stirrers for the deck ), attached a 'hatch' and used Ozark white metal hinges and other details to flesh it out into a mow piece of equipment.

Best use is to recycle these cans and forget all the aforementioned suggestions!

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bill mathewson



Large scale, very free-lanced modelers have used cans, sometimes sheethed in plastic wrappers or wood strips (coffee stirrers work great), to depict back-woods water or fuel tanks, and I've seen some very whimsical tank cars made from soft drink cans (I believe Walthers offered a really goofy kit using a soda can for a tank car model). Smaller cans such as tuna, cat food (same thing isn't it?), and more rectangular sardine cans actually make fairly convincing industrial tanks and work in various scales. In large scale, I've mounted sardine cans on a flat car (made of coffee stirrers for the deck ), attached a 'hatch' and used Ozark white metal hinges and other details to flesh it out into a mow piece of equipment.

Large scale also has the advantage that if you cut a can up into 2 inch by four inch strips, then run them thru a handheld craft paper crimper, you get really inexpensive scale 2 x 4 corregated metal sheets for buildings. I use this for roofs and siding.[8D]

[JPowell]

QUOTE: Originally posted by pontiyakker

Well, here in New York State, we can get 5 cants for each one. That makes it more valuable to re-cycle than to kit-bash!

[:D] Ditto! My wife and step-son just like to throw then into the recycle bin... me, I think why do that? I'll collect them all and use the $$$$ at the LHS!

[Anonymous]

put it in some gondolas for scrap or sheet metal?

[cwclark]

The only use I've ever found for aluminum cans in this hobby was to cut strips out of empty (BURP...excuse me) Budweiser cans to hold relays on a board into place...but now they have circuit boards and the cans became a blast from the past...now i just smash 'um, trash 'um , and take 'um to the recycle center ...the money works better on the layout then the cans do...