Candy Machine / Dispenser

Before I go into a few important details about this project, I want to let you know how this came about. 

Over a year ago, I had a friend who ran a freeze dried candy store ask me to make her an old fashioned candy machine, something unique and functional. She did not want a coin slot but did want it to turn out samples of her most popular freeze dried candies. I told her I would take a crack at it. I tried, many times, to design it. It seemed like it would work...on paper, but to be honest, I was hesitant to cut the pieces as things felt off about the plan. Over the following months, I revisited the plan many times. I made tweeks, adjustments, removed things, added things... all of this while I was learning from working on other projects. Back then, it just wasn't possible for me to do the machine as I had never tackled anything like it and had no idea where to put each part so that it would function as a whole. 
But as I grew in my knowledge of lasers and crafts, I grew more accustomed to minor adjustments that needed to be made. My knowledge of kerf cuts and engineering a design that had moving parts increased and it all applied to this.

Then last week, I had an epiphany and got through my last hurdle to get the final touch on the dispenser. The cuts began and I assembled this without needing any recuts or wasted material. It went together just as I envisioned it and it worked great!

While I had no candies available to try it, I did use walnut pieces (my birds have them for treats) and it dispensed nicely but the ramp is made to have objects with curves like candies so the walnuts did not come sliding right out. I added a few marbles and it worked like a charm!

So here it is for you to download and try out. 

BUT, before we go any further, I do need to make a few points and share some important information. 

First, within the plan are three canvases. The first canvas is all the parts needed. It is divided up into sections so that you can cut based on material and whether adhesive is needed.

Speaking of adhesive, I used two different kinds. I recommend using adhesive paper like 3m or DualTite. Where it states in the plans “With Adhesive” is meaning that the adhesive paper is on these parts. The other adhesive is used when putting on the “glass” viewing panes near the end of assembly. (more on that in step 10) I used SciGrip 16 Fast Set Clear, Medium Bodied Solvent Cement which can be purchased on Amazon. It is important to note that this is some very thin stuff. I recommend using a dispenser bottle. I had a clean empty bottle from my Starbond kit that I used with a fine point nozzle. It really helps with putting this stuff on. While SciGrip does bond quickly, it will fully cure in 24 hours. DO NOT USE TO DISPENSE ANYTHING UNTIL FULLY CURED!

The second canvas contains the parts needed for the guide to assemble the Body of the machine. More on this in steps 4 and 5.

The third canvas is a list of the parts of the dispenser to help you keep organized. This plan had the most parts of any project I had done before and having the list was helpful, even for me. It is the same list shown in the photo attached to this step.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT CHEMICAL ADHESIVES: As always, when dealing with any chemical, use caution. Do not get on your skin (although a little did not seem to harm me as I washed it right off) and, of course, keep it away from your eyes. If you get it on your skin, wash it off immediately.

The next thing I want to discuss is also about the adhesive. More pointedly, the removal of the adhesive residue left by the adhesive paper. There are three points where you will have to remove a portion of the sticky part of the adjesive. Two of them are with the ramp in step 9 and one is with the adding of the knob in step 8. When you are told to remove the sticky part of the adhesive, you will need to rub your thumb hard on it to get it to roll up. The areas you need to do this are small and it should not take more than a few minutes to do it. Once you have removed the adhesive, clean the area thoroughly. Since I did my machine in acrylic, I used alcohol wipes to do this. With wood, you would be able to do the same thing, but you want to be a little less generous with the wipes as wood can swell with the introduction of too much liquid. 

The other thing to point out is that I stated this can be done in wood. I have not made this in wood yet but the idea is the exact same. The only thing is, with wood, you have more chance for the trough mechanism to catch when turning. In addition, you will still need acrylic for the viewing glass.

I made this with a solid body of layered acrylic because I wanted weight to this dispenser. I had seen other plans for candy dispensers with turn knobs and they were so flimsy and lightweight that they often shifted or moved with the turning of the knob. This, of course, was unacceptable to me. I wanted to make sure mine did not move, thus the many layers of acrylic to create a solid bodied dispenser.

When you look at the plans, you will see three colors. Black is informational only and is set to ignore in XCS. Red are the cut lines. Yellow are scored lines. There are two different thicknesses used. Most of the pieces will be ¼" (6mm) but there are some 1/8" (3mm) parts as well. Pay attention to what pieces are which. To point it out now, only the catch tray bottom, the machine front, and the view panes are 1/8". 

I also presorted the parts of the dispenser so that every part except the Lid, Front panel, catch tray and “Glass” is done on just two sheets of ¼" acrylic at a standard 12"x19" material, which is what I have found most businesses sell. You can, of course, adjust these parts to fit your preferences. 

Finally, and this should be a given, the settings, I provide here are for my P2 with ¼ or 1/8 acrylic. If you use any other material and/or machine, you will need to adjust for your tested settings. I would say that this can be made on most any laser but keep in mind that the “glass” for view the candy in the dispenser is acrylic and will need to be cut by a CO2 laser like the P2, P2S and new P3. 

This is not a nescessary part but it is encouraged to use it. It can be made from scrap ¼" wood. It helps immensely with the assembly of the body to line everything up correctly. I recommend as many as you can do but the bare minimum would be 4 of them thus I have 4 set in the plans on Canvas 2. I used the settings above to get a nice clean cut. However, for cleanliness sake, especially if using acrylic, you want to wipe and/or sand away soot on the edges as much as possible. If sanding, be careful not to sand too much of the interior of the guides as you want the body pieces to fit in tightly. More on this in step 5.

Went cutting out your parts, keep in mind the thicknesses and which pieces have adhesive backer paper. Organize your parts for easy reach as you assemble. The body parts are numbered in the lower left corner. I recommend stacking these in numerical order. 

As stated in a previous step, I recommend at least 4 pieces. You will want to glue these together as the assembly of these are very important to line up the body precisely. The glue will give you some leeway in allowing you to make slight adjustments to get everything lined up perfectly along all the edges. 

NOTE: If you do decide to sand away the soot on the inside parts of the assembly guide, do so AFTER you have assembled all four pieces so that the edges are true to each other. Sanding prior to assembly of these pieces can result in misaligned edges making it harder to line up each piece to the other. 

When completed, you should have a glued stack of 4 pieces with a shape that matches the body pieces in the next step. 

Each of the body pieces are numbered in the lower left corner from 1 to 15. You want to stack them in order from 1 to 15. Start with 1 and remove just a corner of the adhesive paper. Set it into the guide with the adhesive face up. Use the part covered by the protective paper to push it to the bottom. This will keep your fingerprints from appearing in the adhesive. Peel away the paper and then proceed to piece two. Do the same thing. Once you have placed the fourth piece and before you remove the adhesive paper, grip the guide on both sides and press down on the assembled body pieces with your thumbs until the guide rises up. Once it is almost completely removed, stop and remove the adhesive paper from piece four and then continue adding more body pieces working from number 5 on. Everytime you get your pieces to reach the edge, move the guide up more. 

NOTE: The pieces should be a tight fit. It is meant to be that way to allow for the pieces to fit together as smoothly as possible. 

When you have completed the body assembly, your should have a scene much like the last photo attached to this step. Press gently on the last piece BEFORE removing the adhesive paper and move the body out of the guide. Set the guide aside for use in a future machine should you decide to make another.

Do not remove the adhesive paper quite yet from that last body piece. Set the body assembly aside for now.

To assemble the trough (or hopper), you will need the hopper rod, the 6 outer hopper pieces, the 10 inner hopper pieces, the hopper insert, and the two hopper nuts. NOTE that the hopper nuts are cutouts from the back interior and front interior. 

Begin with a hopper nut. Put it with the adhsive side up. Remove the adhesive paper. Take the hopper rod and remove the adhesive paper. Slide it into the hopper nut. It is a tight fit but it does go in. Next, slide on three of the outer hopper pieces, removing the adhesive paper of each. This is followed by the 10 inner hopper pieces, again, removing the adhesive paper on each. 

VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure the inner hopper pieces openings (the cut out part) is OPPOSITE the adhesive of the hopper rod. If you do not, then candies will get stuck to the hopper rod during use. 

Once all the inner hopper pieces are on, add the last three outer hopper pieces, again, removing the adhesive paper. With the last outer hopper piece, face the adhesive side towards the other adhesive of the last outer hopper you placed. Finally, add the last hopper nut, again facing the adhesive side down this time so that it adheres to the last outer hopper piece you placed. You should have a portion of the rod sticking out of the top as seen in the last photo attached to this step. 

There is one peice called the Hopper Insert. You have to have one of these to put on the 3rd Outer hopper piece after the trough is assembled covering the sticky part that is there.

HINT: Should you want a smaller trough than the one that is made here, you can add more Hopper inserts to make the trough smaller. 

Very easy. Just slide the trough/hopper into the cutout of the body with the protruding hopper rod sticking out the side that has the wider opening in the body. 

There are four parts here to the front and back but we will also be adding the knob once the front is on. Take the interior front piece and remove the adhesive paper from both it and the last body piece you placed which should be number 15. Line it up to the body so that the sides are as flush as possible and then press it on with the adhesive part of the interior front piece facing out from the body. Take the front piece and add it to that last piece you placed, again, making sure the edges are flush. Do not remove the adhesive paper yet from the front piece. Line up and press the top part of these two pieces together. Be careful here as the interior front arms at the top are thin and can snap easily with too much pressure. 

Before putting on the back pieces, press the trough forward so that it goes into the hole in the front. Take the knob support and the knob next. Remove the adhesive from both and adhere the knob support to the knob with the adhesive parts facing each other. 

NOTE: Here is one of the steps I mentioned where you will need to remove the sticky part of the adhesive. Any part of the adhesive protruding from around the knob support on the know itself will need to be removed. 

At this point I also put a tiny bit of SciGrip adhesive in the cutout of the knob support. While pressing on the back side of the trough, I then attached the knob to the protruding part of the hopper rod on the front. 

At this point, remove the adhesive paper from the front and put on the front plate. You will note it is two pieces. Slide it up under the knob and adhere it by pressing it to the front. Make sure the sides are aligned. Then take the smaller cutout piece and slide it down from the top, above the knob. Press this firmly to the front, lining it up with the edge. 

Next, remove the adhesive paper fromt he inner back piece and line it up so that the hopper nut enters the cutout circle of the inner back piece. Be sure the sides line up to the body and then press it together. 

Finally, remove the adhesive paper from the back piece and, just as before, line up the sides to the body and press it to the inner back piece. Be sure to adhere the arms at the top of both the inner back and back piece together. Just as with the front, be careful as the arms of the inner back piece are thin and can break easily.

The ramp is pretty straight forward. The only real thing of note is that the wide part of the ramp will need to have the sticky part of the adhesive removed as noted in the very beginning. You will also need to remove the sticky part of the long area on the side pieces of the ramp. Once you have adhered the side pieces to the ramp, I recommend running a bead of SciGrip at the joints where the sides meet the ramp. 

Next, put a generous amount of SciGrip inside the body of the machine where the opening is that you will stick the ramp. Remove the adhesive from the back of the ramp and insert it into the hole and press down firmly. The ramp sides should butt right up to opening. 

Before putting in the viewing glass/panes, you want to first put in the body spacer along the back as seen in the first photo. Then you want to add the body side spacers on the top edge of the body on both sides. Remove the adhesive paper from all three pieces and press them firmly into place.

Next, take the two larger panes and place them in the front and back. You will need to either tape them on or hold them in place while you run a thin bead of SciGrip around the outside edge where the panes meet the machine. 

Once you have the front and back on, take the smaller panes and do the same on the sides. 

Do not be overly concerend if there is the tiniest of gaps at the bottom of the sides. This may happen if the body is not properly aligned but can easily be fixed by putting a line of SciGrip over the gap. 

The lid is also pretty straight forward and easy to assemble. I cut up the rim into four pieces to take up less space and material in the cuts. Line up the pieces and, after removing the backing paper, adhere them to one side of the lid. Be sure the edges line up as evenly as possible. 

Remove the adhesive paper from the knob and adhere it as close to the center as possible. 

I posted pictures of this plan on FB and it was pointed out that it needed a catch at the bottom instead of a ramp so that candies would not just “FLY” everywhere. I agreed. I don't know why I did not think of it earlier. So thanks to Mark for pointing this out. 

Rather than go back and completely redo the ramp to do this though, I decide to make a “Catch Tray” 

Fairly simple to cut and assemble. I made this with a 1/8" bottom so that it would sit well under the ramp and with ¼" rim to catch the candies. If you desire, you could add a second rim to make the catch tray with higher walls but it will require cutting off the one side of the rim that goes under the ramp.

I loved making this project and look forward to what you all do with it. Let me know in the comments anything that would make this better. 

I am considering adding pieces to cover the body, maybe decorated with engraves or art from the M1U. But that is purely a choice and not needed for the operation of the machine.

Also, let me see photos of your finished machine. I would love to know how yours comes out. 

If you liked this plan, check out my other plans at the below link. I have a bunch of free plans and few premium ones. I would love to know what you think of any of those plans. 

https://www.atomm.com/profile/15190?utm_source=Social_Share

I may have forgotten a few things and if so, I will adjust the instructions accordingly. Hopefully, though, I did not forget anything that would make the assembly impossible. 

Happy Crafting!