September 25, 2015

Raffle Ticket Tumbler

We are going to be holding a big raffle this Saturday at the Mega Me-Mo Meetup in Kansas City. Lots of awesome prizes donated by viewers, YouTubers, and businesses. I’ll be donating some of my past projects, including last week’s planes, as well as some WWMM swag. All the money we raise will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

I figured a cardboard box would be way too boring to draw tickets from, so I made this raffle ticket tumbler. Sure, this isn’t a high-in-demand project from most of you, but who knows; someday you may want to hold a raffle of your own. Or maybe modify it for bingo or lottery balls!

I started by taping two plywood boards together, pasting on the hexagon shaped cutting template, and cutting both end pieces out on my band saw.

I drilled a large hole in the center of each hexagon. This would have been easier to do if I had done so before I removed my template and separated the boards! Sometimes, I get rushing and rush past myself.

Then I ran a dowel through both pieces and glued it into place. This will align the two sides and ensure that the box spins without a wobble.

Using thin plywood, and with my blade tilted to a 30 degree bevel, I cut narrow strips on my tablesaw.

And then glued and tacked them into place. I clamped the long bevels together with tape.

After allowing the glued-on strips to dry completely, I cut out the center section of the dowel. You could leave this in place, but I think the raffle tickets look more festive tumbling around without it!

These little strips fill in the gaps between the beveled pieces.

The side with the door is a little different. Its gap-filler pieces are wider.

I glued in three rare-earth magnets into shallow holed I drilled into this piece. This will be used as a latch for the door. I later discovered that I only needed one magnet. Three were really hard to open.

I glued this piece into place.

I screwed on a single hinge for the door and tested it out.

Then I removed it so I could cut a thin ledge on the underside. I epoxied in an old jigsaw blade to use as a strike plate for the magnets.

Making the stand

I drilled a hole in two boards to use as the stand’s uprights.

I cut half-lap joints in these and two other boards. Gluing these together makes a very strong joint.

Then I cut decorative 30 degree angles to match the angles on the box,

I screwed both uprights onto a plywood base board.

Then painted everything.

Next, I cut out the five acrylic (Plexiglas) windows using my table saw and glued them into place using an all-purpose adhesive. I like this particular glue because it dries clear.