Mechanical Ticket Dispenser

Allrightey....... In this instructible, I came up with the idea of a mechanical ticket dispenser. I volunteer at my local church and usually help with the register / ticket table during carnival events. It's not fun trying to count tickets while there are people in line staring at you. Plus... I like to add mechanical functions to just about anything I get my hands on. Keep in mind that it took about 20 + hours to build this because there was no plan. It is difficult to do a step by step progression instructible for this one. It was built on the fly with parts that the wife said I should have thrown out years ago..... I knew there was a reason why I kept these things. The parts for this project came mostly from salvaged items and stuff that should have been junked. Here we go!!! I don't believe you will go out and try to get the same parts as I did.... there are always alternatives though.... Hope you enjoy

There is quite an imagination of parts used for this project.
This thing is held together mostly by "HOT GLUE"
If I don't tell you how it is attached....HOT GLUE

Tools used were Hot Glue gun and dremmel tool. Some pliers and screw drivers. Mainly hot glue and dremmel.

Video will come soon.

This is a 6"W x 6" D x 12" L  plastic storage container you can get from most container / storage stores.

3/8' wooden dow rod 5 1/2 " long/  (I will be changing this to a 1" shaft.  The ticket spool hole is that size)
2 bobbing sewing spindalls from a generic sewing machine. (purchased at walmart sewing dept a long time ago.)

These were screwed into the wooden dow.
Notice the half moon groove I put into the plastic box to hold the shaft in place.

I used a BBQ pit metal lighter as the suspension shaft for the gear motor. 
I installed a rubber grommet on one end of the shaft  for vibration purposes.
The gear motor came out of an "I ROBOT" automatic vacuum cleaner. (Salvaged parts)
I used a 1 inch long bolt on each end of the plastic box to suspend the shaft.

The roller is from a foam handled fishing pole.
It's 5 1/2" long and is suspended the same way as the gear motor shaft.
The blue ticket guide is from a spool of plumbing thread tape that was sliced down the middle.
It slid tightly over the foam roller and helps keep the ticket feed in on track.


The Gear motor now presses against this roller once you attach the spring tensioner to the front of the plastic box.

I installed another piece of the fishing pole as a tension relief. I use this to back spool the tickets. It is hot glued to the bottom of the gear motor.

I used an "Eclipse" metal tin container for the ejection port for the tickets.
I cut the back end of the tin off to make it a through port.

I just cut a hole in the plastic box and inserted the tin then hot glued it into place.

I alligned it so that the output of the gear motor and roller shaft fed it directly into the back end of the tin.

I installed a momentary on switch to activate the automatic ticket feed gear motor.

The power board came from a broken DVD player.  (Salvaged part)

I used the remaing shaft of the fishing pole I destroyed  as theframework for the  ticket spool keeper.
This keeps the spool from unraveling.
I used the core of a receipt tape from a cash register to support it and allows the arm to rotate freely and independently from the the gear motor operation.

I needed a way to be able to keep track of how many tickets were being ejected.
I ordered a digital counter from ebay. (I'm waiting for it to come in)
I built the roller arm and roller to prepare for this installation.

Parts included are: Old fishing reel spring tension handle, computer hard drive parts, and custom made roller.

Counter switch will be installed on this arm.

I hope you enjoyed this instructible. It was surely fun to envision and build.

PS: I LOVE HOT GLUE and DREMMEL TOOLS