| Project by CanadaJeff | posted 176 days ago | 566 views | 4 times favorited | 8 comments |  |
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I saw this idea while surfing around the woodworking internet! I had some scraps of Oak and Walnut and thought it would be a fun project to use some of my left overs.
The design is basically a hollow oak box with a dado at the top centre for the dispensing stick to slide in and out. The walnut lid is glued on top and a hole drilled in the centre and a mason jar lid attached with small screws.
The toughest part about the gumball machine is the dispensing stick, I notched out the wood (a dado) so a couple of gum balls can rest on the stick ready to be slide out. The problem is that gum the gumball s tend to all want to rush into that area and that’s when they can become stuck. To offset that I chiselled a slope so any gum balls that would get would fall into the notch are gently pushed out of the way. To make sure that when the stick is pulled it doesn’t slide out all the way (letting loose all the gum balls into the inside of the oak box, I inserted a 1/4 inch dowel that stops the hits the box walls and stops the stick from sliding.
8 comments so far
Splinterman
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4826 posts in 254 days
posted 176 days ago
My little man would love that….....but would be a clever cloggs and just keep keep pulling the handle.
Nicely presented and finished.
-- I will just keep doing it till I get it right.
Miket
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265 posts in 665 days
posted 176 days ago
That’s a great idea! I wish I had thought of it.
-- It's better to have people think you're stupid rather than open your mouth and remove all doubt.
a1Jim
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16683 posts in 470 days
posted 176 days ago
nice gum ball machine
-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon
jockmike2
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7299 posts in 1140 days
posted 176 days ago
Boy would my grandson like that. Pretty cool idea.
-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com
joey
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289 posts in 797 days
posted 172 days ago
I use to make at the summer camp I taught at with the kids, bring back lots of memories seeing a gumball machine, them and the fold up canoe seat where their fav projects
-- Joey~~Sabina, Ohio http://sleepydogwoodworking.blogspot.com/
HokieMojo
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1140 posts in 621 days
posted 116 days ago
This is a great little project that I plan to build in the future. I made one that dispenses M&M’s when I was in cubscouts, but it was a gift for my mom and she still uses it. You asked for critiques, so I’ll try to give you a quick suggestion if you ever make one again. It might look better if you can inset the jar lid into the top. I think it would give it a more polished look (although yours is 10x more polished than mine was.).
CanadaJeff
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165 posts in 503 days
posted 116 days ago
Hokie, thats a great idea. I never thought of that. There might be some issues insetting it and still making the dispensing arm move freely, but its something that I will definately try and work out.
Cheers
Jeff
HokieMojo
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1140 posts in 621 days
posted 116 days ago
I’ll certainly admit that the crowning achievement on this project (in my opionion) is the dispensing arm. Mine was admittedly much simpler as it was just a hole drilled in the arm. If you just pulled the handle and didn’t keep your hand right underneath to slow the flow, the m&m’s would pour out everywhere until you stopped the flow.