7-9oz Cup Dispenser (using Bambu Cardboard Core)

A plastic cup dispenser to attach to your water cooler, wall or counter. I'm using it for my water dispenser in my office, and thought others may find this useful! The design uses the rigidity of two recycled Bambu Labs cardboard cores from an empty spool of filament. This dispenser can be used as a DOWN pull dispenser OR you can use a spring to make it work as an UP dispenser!

To assemble:

1. Print the dispenser plate to get the lower, middle and two assemblies for the top. 
2. (OPTIONAL) There's a plate for a decorative insert that can go around the tubes. You can also paint the tubes (or leave them as they are) to customize it.
3. Once assembled, add a touch of super glue to each upright slot prior to assembling. Let the glue dry/cure completely for at least an hour before using or adding a spring. 
4. Once glue has cured, you can screw on the top and add a spring. 
5. I recommend mounting this dispenser with two LARGE command strips following instructions for surface prep. 
6. You can insert cups either in the top or unscrew the top and then add the cups and screw it back on.

I'll be adding an additional top screw lid so you can use this dispenser for smaller cups too (after I test it out).

Enjoy!!

You have 3 dispensing options to choose from:

1. METAL SPRING CONFIGURATION for dispensing UP.

   1. For this, there is a spring plate, which has a tube that you can print to use to coil a steel spring with a short piece of spring steel (I used a 24" piece that's .032") and it has two plates that go on the top and bottom of the spring.

       

2. 3D PRINTED SPRING CONFIGURATION for dispensing UP. 

   1. For this, I recommend using the MakerLab spring configurator to design and 3D Print a spring. I opted to not try this for my own as it would have taken a lot longer to print and a lot of support material to print properly with a material suitable for a spring. That said, this is totally an option! You can use the same spring support plates, just configure a spring with an outer diameter of 2.558" and a length of approx. 4".

       

3. No Spring for a DOWN pull dispenser.
   1. For this, there are no additional plates needed to print.