new m&m machine design

Dan Noren

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falcon heights, minnesota
now that i've sold out of the old design, i decided a new one was in order. one of the things i wanted to address with this new design was that the old one dispensed only one regular m&m on each side of the pull. that, and it could not handle peanut m&m's. also, i wanted to use a gear of some sort, make the customer work for their treat ya know! :rofl: after a while of trying to figure it out :huh:, i came up with this design. the cnc will do most of the cuts, and hole drilling, along with cutting, and indenting the gear, the inset for the mason jar, the hole in the top for the m&m's to drop into the gear, and the inset in the tray. over all, the base will be 8.5" long, 5.5" wide, and 3.75" high, and will be using a pint mason jar to keep it in perspective. i'll make a prototype out of mdf, to make sure the whole thing works before committing to wood.
 

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Interesting design, Dan. Unless I'm missing something, as the gear rotates the candy will begin dropping before reaching the holder. Do you need to add ramps or something?
 
You may also not want to do recesses in the areas that don't go all the way through the gear as it may grind up some of the candy, maybe not, but something to consider. Looks like it should work though, nice design.
 
bill - as they say in the nfl, after extensive review, i changed the size of the landing tray from the ovoid shape, to one that is 3/16" from the edge, and rotated the gear. that should take care of any escape attempts.

darren - the indents are only 1/16" deep, not sure if any will catch at that depth, but may back up to 1/32", as this is a decorative item, and gives a bit of balance to the one that goes all the way through.

i can't wait for spring, so i can get the prototype built.
 

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well, decided to take advantage of the rare warm weather here (expecting storms tomorrow, back to 60's for a couple of days, then snow for the weekend. minnesota, go figger...:rofl:), and rolled out the cnc machine (not blocked by car or furniture), and got to making the prototype. happy to say, no problems (other than the odd hang up on odd peanut m&m's). the other 4 indents in the gear do not catch on either type of m&m. started out with the pint mason jar, then looked at it, and decided the quart mason jar was more visually pleasant. got the feed rates and depth of cuts set up, so those are ready to go. can't wait for the real warm weather to show up.
 

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Cool, Dan. Assuming you began with a full jar of M&M's (and why would you not?), your extensive testing nearly emptied the jar! And with two varieties as well. Good on you! :rofl:
 
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