Falcon 9 Socks Dispenser, With Dragon and Doge on Board!

One day I thought that instead of searching each day for the pair of socks I could get 20-30 pairs of socks and take any two of them. That’s what I did and it was a success! But after several months I found that some socks were worn out more than others - in the box all freshly laundered socks were on the edge of the box and that was a place where I always get a new pair, so they didn't wear evenly.

After some time I decided to make a dispenser. Some box that will hold the socks and will have input and output in different places for more uniform socks output. I lived with that idea for years while I did not get a laser engraver powerful enough to cut plywood and/or MDF, thanks to Endurance Lasers 10W laser head (TRUE optical 10W!).

MDF/plywood 600x400x3mm, 4 sheets

So as usual I used #fusion360 to model the “core” box then added all the required holes for assembly and used the boolean operations to make the holes. This time I tried not to use glue so I made the design for the tight assembly.

I spend a lot of time to decide what it could be. And took an inspiration from SpaceX and made a ROCKET!

Instead of some abstract rocket I took the images from internet and tried to make it more realistic by adding the texture - I added the Falcon, Dragon, Of Course I Still Love You and even Doge :-D

I was not sure about the engraving speed and the model pretty big, so began with the test.

I have the diode laser which used mostly for wood engraving. But as it is the Endurance Lasers head with DIY air-assist so it can cut the wood without any problems. Just slow - single sheet processing took from 4 to 8 hours, mostly because of engraving.
The engraving is the first pass, with higher focus distance to get better burn color and the second one is cutting. During first sheet run I also found (and solved) couple technical problems.

No problems here and nothing interesting, except air flow blown out the doge coin, lol.

This one was the longest run, more than 8 hours in total.

The last sheet to cut!

The tolerance was not perfect so I had to use a hammer to fit all the parts. Well, and not all of them fit nice this way. In general it was assembled successfully but don't do this way, better leave for freedom and use a glue instead of the hammer.

I did not do any functional tests before final model cut, but it works! Remove the cap, place socks, close cap and drag them from bottom. And it is HUGE! I put there like 25 pairs of the socks and still have some place to fill. Nice!

Well, as it could be useful I want to share it with the world. So here are the files. Check the dimensions and adjust the scale if you have other than 3mm material thickness. Use the tolerance test parts (included) to find the best fit for your material.

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