I like mini versions of house appliances and thought it’d be a cool and absurd twist to make a fruit and vegetable washer. It also works out how seamlessly a motor + fastener/hinge can be incorporated.

First: cardboard prototype

Tested the motor for the first time! It had a longer dowel than I expected so testing it in my prototype helped me realize that my washing machine would probably be longer than I planned. Also helped me start thinking about how I was going to attach the motor shaft to the flat surface of the soda can.

Started cutting my soda can for the drum of the washing machine. First tried a box cutter but ended up using scissors.


Found the perfect piece of circular scrap wood that would fit the diameter of my soda can! I drill pressed with a Forstner bit for a very very long time… then it cracked.

Moving on to creating the face side of the washing machine. I used a hole saw with the drill press, flipping it halfway through. And it worked pretty good! Only problem was that it was too close in size to the soda can which would make it hard for the can to spin inside it.

Front + soda can drum + back
















I found some laser cut wood scraps with small holes good for the motor shaft and hot glued them to the back of the soda can.

Found a motor mount in the shop!

Took some basswood scrap blocks I had leftover from my previous projects and made a structure I could mount the motor onto.

Front + soda can drum + motor + back

Screwing in the motor mount to the back panel.

I also hand drilled + bandsaw-ed an opening for the power cord.

Now time for laser cutting—

︎ the side panels
︎ top cover panel
︎ bottom base
︎controls panel(motor speed dial + on/off switch)
︎washing machine door

Acrylic paint to paint the engravings

I used acrylic solvent to glue the acrylic to the wood panels

—configuring the motor controls + wires

Had some issues with my motor not running…and spent a lot of time playing with it until I realized that the power wires were loose. I learned to solder for the first time! and got it running again.

Screwed in the circuit board with 2 very mini screws & hotglued the power on/off switch and some wires into place

Complete!