This week’s selection is the amazing VEND candy dispenser by Seattle-based Brent J. Rosenburgh.
3D printed objects can be fun, but it’s a lot more interesting if you can make a machine with moving parts. This item takes it to an even higher level as it involves money!
Rosenburgh, also known as “Mr_MegaTronic”, designed a machine capable of accepting coins and delivering a quantity of whatever is loaded into the machine. His choice is candy, and we agree with that.
Called “VEND”, the design involves fifteen 3D printed parts, although one of them is the “Jar” containing the prizes. He’s designed the rest of the unit to accept a standard medium-sized mason jar if you want to see into the machine instead.
This is not the easiest item to 3D print, however. Beyond the number of parts you need to print, some of them are quite large. The main body of the VEND, for example, is sized at: 209 x 127.7 x 142.7mm, larger than many smaller 3D printers’ build volumes. If that’s the case, you’re out of luck unless you segment the larger pieces yourself to find in a smaller volume.
The VEND is set up to accept a US quarter coin, but there’s been interest in modifying the key part to accept other coins. There’s also been several remixes of the concept for various purposes on Thingiverse.
This particular design has proven quite popular, yet there aren’t that many publicly available vending machine designs. We think this is an area that could see further designs: how many ways are there to make a vending machine? Many!
Via Thingiverse
