FUN Arcade Addition - A Vending Machine!

Alan173

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I was lucky enough to be asked by a good friend to accompany him on a game pick up this past week. While there we ran across a vintage Federal hot chocolate/coffee vending machine from the 1970's. For those of you who grew up in the 1960's or 1970's these machines were seemingly everywhere! When I saw that old Lucite door you have to lift open to pull your cup out I was hooked!

I thought it would be a great fit to put in my work area where I repair my boards/monitors. A work room always needs a coffee machine right? ;) The machine options are whipped hot chocolate, black coffee, coffee and cream, coffee-cream-sugar and even soup! So when I have that repair I just can't walk away from now I can have a cup of coffee and soup for dinner! LOL.

It took quite a significant rebuild, thorough cleaning and tuning to get it running just right (what a crazy damn machine!)....but for the effort an old machine like this brings a smile to my face.

Needless to say it is a huge hit with my kids...and for this winter we now have Hot Chocolate Tuesdays! Such a deal for only 20 cents a cup! :) .....and you get a nickel back if you put in a quarter!

Of course.....just one more silly thing to add to Tranquility Base Arcade....


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Sweet! I thought I was the only one who bought the out of the way stuff. Anyone can have a spacesaver Mr. Coffee setting around but it can't make soup!
 
Wow nice pickup! Great memories of those when I was a kid, mainly they were located in Hospitals and cafeterias. I remember burning the crap out of my mouth and tongue with that hot ass chicken soup! Lol!
 
In the 80s I worked at a Chrysler/Plymouth dealer and I took care of the vending machines among my other jobs. A candy machine, Pepsi and one of these. Drank a whole lot of that chicken soup.

I really enjoy the other period pieces besides just games.
 
Take a picture with the front door open, I want to see how similar it is to the modern one I was running at the hotel.
 
I remember the hot drink machines in the programming days. 3 am Cranking on code.

I use to have a repair business and those vending machine would show up from time to time.
Had to fabricate some parts from time to time but it was fun to get the machine working.
 
Alan, this was a great idea. I would imagine it is a big hit with guests.
 
This is fantastic! Reminds me of skating rinks here in MN when I was a kid. PLEASE post some pics of the inner-workings. I'd love to know what kind of mix, etc you're using, and where you got them.
 
very awesome.. now all you need are the wild card cups.. but then this might happen


LOL! That is hilarious! I completely forgot about that scene. I actually started to look for those cups because I remember them as well (so far no luck finding them). After seeing your clip....maybe I'll pass on the playing card cups. Either that....or I need to wear safety glasses when ordering my next cup.....;)
 
I'll post some pictures of the inside tonight. A very interesting machine. This machine is 'old school' as everything is done with dry powder mix. There are no coffee beans, packets, liquid cream.....etc.....just Tupperware like storage containers with a lead screw in the bottom pushing product out through a tube. This machine is all before solid state electronics.....everything is relays, coils, motors, cams, etc.....like an EM pinball machine.

Immediate benefits discovered in owning one of these machines:

Interesting enough......I find the unit acts like a mini-heater when on (it is basically a storage tank for nearly boiling hot water)......so it is great for a basement work area.

I also find my arcade gets more use in the winter months where hot chocolate and coffee are much more popular than cold drinks.

This is the most hilarious way I can think of to offer somebody a cup of hot chocolate. There is something about the whipping action that makes it taste better!

I am now an expert on the MARS 6800H coin changer-mech. Usefulness of this knowledge may be debatable. LOL.

My wife thinks it is cool. +1

And yes....it is fun to say I have this machine in my basement!

It will be interesting to see how the maintenance of this machine goes.....
 
Hehehehe...those were neat. I also remember burning my tongue the hot cocoa.
 
Pure awesomeness! I'm not sure if it was that exact model, but I recall every once in a while a cup would fail to load and you'd have to watch helplessly while your whipped hot choclate poured straight down the drain :D
 
Pure awesomeness! I'm not sure if it was that exact model, but I recall every once in a while a cup would fail to load and you'd have to watch helplessly while your whipped hot choclate poured straight down the drain :D

After spending countless hours 'tuning and perfecting the cup drop mechanism'......that was the exact same thing I was thinking about. Now that I pay for the ingredients....I have to minimize my losses.....LOL.

And yes....I certainly remember back in the day many times the cup falling sideways or getting no cup at all and watching the hot chocolate go all over the place. Interesting enough there is a 'slop bucket' under the serving bay that catches everything. When the buckets contents reach a set height (before it overflows).....it shuts the marquee off and no longer accepts coins. Pretty nifty......
 
That is just so cool. I am old enough to remember that type of machine and some even older. I love the hot whipped chocolate from these type machines but I never was much of a coffee drinker. Their are a few I would love to have but their hard to find and when you do they want an arm and leg for them. I remember in the early 60's going to the movies and they had the Coke machine which had the same setup. It would drop the cup then ice ( the small pellet type ice which was the best) and then mix the syrup and carbonated water. That was the best Coke you could ever get. They also had vending ice cream machines. You would put your money in and the drum would turn and you would grab the ice cream stick and pull out the ice cream bar but sometimes it would freeze to the drum and all you got was a stick. :eek:
Around the same time in the local dime store they had one of the popcorn warmer machines. For a dime you took out a bag, put it under the shoot and hot air would blow popcorn into your bag. Every time we went to that store I had to have a dime. Aww the memories. Man I would love to find one of those. It looked like this one.
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Man, I haven't had chicken soup out a machine in ages. They used to have one at the marina my parents kept their boat at, and it seemed like every ferry terminal had one.

They have that popcorn machine (or something similar) at the Pinball Hall of Fame.
 
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