Marcus Vending Machine from Borderlands 3 - full scale

If your steel vendor is open, you're allowed to go collect it. just make sure you follow their distance rules.

I'm in NZ. At the moment we're on Level 4 which means you can only go to supermarkets, farmacy, vets, doctors and thats about it. Everything else is shut. Essential items can be bought online from some places, but definitely not steel for non essential work.
 
Just got the lasercut perspex pieces so assembled one shelf to see how it looks.

Sanded up the clear parts with 400 wet to diffuse the light once the LED strips are in:
2020-05-09 12.57.21.jpg


Completed shelf lined up against the screenshot. I'll still need to add the clips that clip the "neon tube" where I have gaps in perspex, but otherwise once the LED strips are in I suspect it should look relatively close.

1589001173365.png
 
I decided to go away with the welded mounts as they looked like crap given my welding is only really suitable for larger/thicker parts. When it comes to 0.8mm sheet I can just spot it so I found a way to make it look a bit better by utilising same shelf bolts with an addition of another m6x30mm bolt and a nylock:

2020-06-01 13.47.47.jpg


2020-06-01 13.47.57.jpg


I'm still waiting for some parts to arrive so it's a good time to start mass-manufacturing the shelf scissor mounts (4 parts per shelf, 10 shelves) and also the mounts themselves. They're not exactly mint but they're consistent in size and have just the right amount of flexibility, unlike those 3mm thick ones I used which had no give and kept jamming the chain up:

2020-06-01 13.12.58.jpg

2020-06-01 13.39.32.jpg
 
A bit of a delay with the progress, have been pretty busy with the work and kids stuff plus with the shipping delays have been waiting on some parts, but have resumed in the last few weeks.

Currently moving through the chain attaching the shelf mounts - not sure if there is a correct way of doing it with this type of chain, but it seems to work - I just have to be careful not to grind too far, but I guess the years of "precision angle grinding" have paid off and I haven't wrecked anything yet.

Each set of mounts is separated by 14 links, I remove the pins and replace them with an M3.5 bolts (this is what I was waiting for to arrive, together with washers and nylocks)
2020-08-01 17.02.53.jpg


The great thing is that I can use the pin spacers from the spare chain I got as spacers to push the brackets out (which helps with clearing the bolts that hold sprockets in place):
2020-08-01 16.37.12.jpg

Here are the first few mounts hooked up - it's pretty important to get the order right as they are a mirror copy of each other as far as the mount overlap goes, but at the same time the same bracket has to be on top on both chains, etc. It's easy enough to fix but i'd rather not have to go back and dissassemble the chain once it's on, so triple checking each set of brackets. It takes a while but it's about the journey, not the destination.
2020-08-01 16.36.51.jpg


Also I have finally solved the problem of electrically insulating left and right chains - I had the chain mounts insulated a while ago however still struggled with the drive - insulating the socket on either side was hopeless. So decided to cut it in half, and join it with some resin with some paper spacers to push it apart a bit. This worked mint, it's strong as hell (well i guess we'll find out for sure when the drive is hooked up), and it's not shorting out, so I think this will be fine when I finally go to run power to both chains:
2020-08-01 15.20.53.jpg

2020-08-09 12.06.40.jpg

2020-08-09 12.08.11.jpg
 
Great that the project continues. I was already afraid that it is abandoned.
Hey thanks mate, nah just a bit of a delay mostly our work went through the roof after the initial lockdown here in NZ, so got real busy for a while, and also my kid's afterschool stuff also kicked up a notch so was spending a lot of time with them.

But now that some parts arrived and things have quietened down a bit I've been putting a few hours into it. Probably a few weeks until the next update as this chain business takes a while, but once the chain mounts are done, things should start progressing a bit faster.The next step is to assemble all the shelves, mount them and hook up the lights (all parts are already here) so can't wait to see what that looks like.
 
The shelf mounts are finally mounted on both chains, everything is spaced out exactly as planned so all mounts are synced up nicely.

Next weekend I'm starting on the shelves - will have to complete the entire assembly of each shelf including the lights to see whether my idea of running power through both chains will work.

 
Spent a few more hours on the machine today, got the first shelf with the LEDs setup. I'm not too sure about seeing the individual LEDs but I guess that's all you can expect from a cheap LED strip, I dont think I'll be going for 144 led/m density LED strips so this might have to do. At least they're bright enough.

2020-08-23 13.16.33.jpg


The main thing is that the whole idea behind insulating the chains and running the power through them worked, I wasn't sure how it was gonna work out, it made sense in theory but in practice couldve turned out either way. So pretty stoked it worked.

 
After doing some digging looks like I can get 5mm EL wire (thanks again ZeroSum ) so I might order 8 sets for all 8 shelves. It'll probably take another month or so to arrive, so until then I'll finish all shelves, get them mounted up and might even start on more sheet metal work. Would rather wait longer make compromises (where I can afford not to). Plus at least now I know the power to chains works as planned which is the main thing.
 
Tested my old 2.3mm EL wire to see what it looks like. I suspect I'll have to mat sand all transparent sections to make the wire show up. This was with the garage door closed and the lights down, so its pretty dim. This looks a lot better than the LEDs though so hopefully the 5mm EL wire that I ordered will be brighter.

2020-08-29 09.16.52.jpg


I've also assembled all shelves and mounted them up (only assembled the top trim and the mounts, keeping the bottom trim off until the EL wire arrives. In the process I ended up snapping the axle adapter so can't show it in action until I fix it / replace it, but pretty stoked that everything is finally on

2020-08-29 16.12.27.jpg


And finally I also mounted up the fuse box and started sorting out the wiring
2020-08-29 19.23.53.jpg
 
Did some more sheet work today. Decided to section the sheet up a bit, instead of having one solid piece.

The 3 sections are slightly out of proportion which is bloody annoying, but I've got some keyboard parts set aside for the bottom section that won't fit otherwise so decided to average out the sizes and just go with it.

2020-08-30 14.09.21.jpg


SheetWorkLeft.jpg


The plan for next week is to get some of the individual parts on the front panel made up, probably gonna start with the round scanner thing. At this point I'm considering using this scanner as the button to turn the shelves - in the game itself it has a hand icon projected above it so I assume it's some kind of an interface, or like a fingerprint scanner or who knows what. Makes sense to use it as a button.
 
Decided to completely redo the adapter today. Ended up going the other way with a larger size one to reduce the load on non-metal parts.
2020-09-12 14.18.17.jpg


2020-09-12 16.08.41.jpg


Have also spent a few hours trying to adjust the chain tension on both sides, the shelf mounts etc. The movement is still pretty uneven, but I'm not sure if this construction will allow for better. Might have to settle with this and just carry on with the bodywork.

 

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top