Building a Mechanical Donation Box

Contributors:

• Marc Yeh

Project Summary:

We were thinking about helping the homeless community for our semester's project. One of our projects was to raise money for homeless people so that they can live better lives. We wanted to collect the change/coins instead of the cash/paper money because we've noticed that people are more willing to get rid of their change instead of their paper money.

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Websites to Create Boxes

https://en.makercase.com/#/

We wanted to laser cut the boxes instead of hand cutting them because laser cutting takes less time and has more precision to it. In addition to that, we didn't want to use glue as it may look tedious; therefore, we used finger joints to connect them together. Donating should be an enjoyable thing; hence, we added these small ramps to encourage the donation of their change.

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Tools Needed:

• Laser Cutter

• Cut Saw

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Bill of Materials:

Name	Price	Pieces
Wood Pieces 3mm	​Makerspace	5
Acrylic Pieces 3mm	Makerspace	5
Screws 10mm	Makerspace	3
​Hinge	Makerspace	1
Latch Plate	NT$13	1
Pad Lock	NT$40	1

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Skills Acquired

I've learnt to use technology wisely in addition to operating the laser cutter. There is no need to design the finger joints yourself when the computer can automatically render what the finger joints will look like in seconds.