Bubble Bay's Gumball Machine

Our task was to make a gumball machine with our group while collaborating on manufacturing, wiring and coding, marketing, and leadership. Our gumball machine had 2 main components. After a user places a coin into the coin slot, it triggers the Archimedes screw to start turning the gumball up the shaft until it rolls out onto the funnel. The gumball then rolls around "The Typhoon" until it reaches the bottom, where you can grab your gumball in the mouth of a clam.

1. .125 wood planks
2. 30" x 42" polycarb sheet
3. 1.25" PVC
4. Coinslot
5. Wiring kit
6. Stepper Motor
7. Expanding foam

Our budget included a polycarbonate sheet that I bought from Home Depot, as well as PVC pipe that was used for the bottom of the funnel

1. Polycarbonate - $33
2. PVC - $4.50
3. Expanding foam - $8.40

The rest was provided by our school

Although it should be part of the supplies, this is the longest process. For our stand as well as our box that stored all of the components were exclusively made of plywood, laser-cut to size, and cross-stitched patterns to interlace the box pieces. PDFs for cutting can be found here: Drawings for Cutting

While brainstorming for how to assemble the pieces inside Bambu Studio, printing was very straightforward and was finished in a timely manner. Files for printing are from this link: Bubble Bay Prints

Finally coding is needed to make the motor turn exactly one revolution to let one gumball fall out of the screw. Finally the coinslot is also coded to send a signal to the screw that starts the gumball on its voyage!

For this project, we wanted to incorporate 2 key mechanics. A funnel as well as a functioning Archimedes screw. This project should take about a month to complete as most of the time is spent on machining the plywood as well as cutting the polycarbonate. Finally putting everything together, it should look something like either of the pictures attached