Alternative material for new 8oz bottle shims in a V80

[jholmgren]

Greetings folks,
I noticed a few threads on materials to use for shimming the columns in a V80 (and other) machine in order to be able to stock the new slimmer middle 8oz bottles.   As you all probably know, the old 6 1/2 oz bottles are just a bit thicker around the middle.  

A common practice is to use some 1/8" plexiglass to make the shims, in fact Fun-Tronics sells a complete pre-cut kit along with tape and everything.  

While at my local Home Depot today I was unable to find any plexi in 1/8" thickness.  Everything they had was 3/32...just a hair thinner than 1/8" so it 'might' have worked OK, but everyone says 1/8".  Plus it was expensive as heck and cutting plexiglass is a bit of a PITA.

That's when I noticed they sell a material called "coroplast" - corrugated plastic.  It is commonly used to make outdoor signs. It was listed at 4mm thickness which is just a wee bit larger than 1/8".   As a bonus, it was only $4 for a 24" x 18" sheet - more than enough to make a complete set of 8 shims!  Well worth it to use as an experiment.  

When I got home I cut some shims, attached them to the sides of the vending columns with double-sided carpet tape and loaded a case of the new-style bottles.  It worked like a charm!

Coroplast is super easy to work with - you can cut through it with a standard utility knife, pocket knife or even a decent pair of scissors, no saw required.   Since it is plastic, it won't get 'soggy' in the interior of your machine and should last practically forever.

I will admit that plexi is nice because it is clear, but for the cost and ease of use I'm very happy with the coroplast.

Just tossing this out there for anyone looking for a quick and easy (and cheap!) fix.  Here's what mine looks like:

 
Jim

[tkaz]

Jim, thanks for posting this, I'm sure it'll work the same for a V44 and save some folks some $$!