Gumball Machine

 One of my Grand daughters has a birthday this month and she has a sweet tooth, so I made her her own gumball machine.

about 10 inches tall and 5x5 at the base.

The real challenge of making this gift was the slider that dispenses the gumball. I wanted the slide to come forward and drop the gum into the hole, and also it not be possible to pull the slide out and have all the gum tumble out. I included a short nail on the slide to act as a stop when the slide is pulled.  You can see slots cut into the plastic to align the nail as the slide is pushed in and out.

green layers in the finished version.
3.5 x.3.5 inches square

  This is the top two layers the black plastic top from the spice jar provides the threads to connect the jar to the base.  I wanted the container to be firmly attached so that if the gumball machine was knocked over there wouldn't be candy all over the floor.  Also I wanted it to be easily refilled. The second layer has the slot for the slider.

  

  The bottom layers show the hole and trough for the selected gumball. This hole is slightly forward of the one in the jar. The slide has a hole which collects the gumball from the top section, then slides forward to allow the gum to drop into the base section.

  I screwed the layers together rather than glued them so that I can take it all apart and repair/fine tune it in the future.

  At this time the gum ball dispenser  works, OK. The gum doesn't feed downwards all time, nothing a shake can't fix but not perfect.

  I hope she likes it.

cheers, ianw