Fortune Cookie Machine
The Idea - I wanted an easy way to make fortune cookies. Unfortunately, there isn't anything you can purchase. What I would like to do is be able to make my own fortune cookies or make them for my friends. The Prototype - Using the cheapest materials I could find(balsa wood) I constructed this prototype pretty cheaply. The materials probably cost around $10, but if I had more stuff lying around it would have been even cheaper. This prototype suffers from a lot of problems. It isn't perfectly square because I used round plates and had some small issues with alignment. The arm creating the slide motion is at too steep of an angle. I knew that the angle was going to be a problem, but I was more concerned about getting the prototype done than I was with it's effectiveness. It would have been much better to either use a gear system to slide the door, or to have an arm on both sides so it only had to move half the distance. This was the original design, but I took the shortcut. Another issue is the top you push down doesn't stay level or straight. You can also tell I didn't take the time to go buy appropriate sized screws or pins, and just used what I had at the house.Well, I learned a lot, and the next revision will be immensely better.
Pictures of the machine:
