Red Box Machines

My personal preference for dealing with the lock would be to cut the exposed part of the lock off with a 4" angle grinder equipped with a thin cutting wheel. I would tend to guess that it's just a big sheet metal box with some mechanicals inside.



Just for the sake if getting a better idea of what it is ... try drilling a 1/8" hole in the side. That will tell you how thick the sidewall is.

If the weight or the size of it is more than you can handle .... just break it down into it's component pieces.

How does a mouse eat an elephant ? One ... bite ... at ... a ... time !

As for the electronics ? Most vending machines i've seen might have motherboard of some kind that serves as the brains of the whole operation. It's about a pound or so of computer greenboard. That's about 30 cents at your local yard if they buy them. Maybe five bucks if you ship it in to an e-waste buyer. You might clear two bucks after packaging it up and paying shipping fees. (Just not seeing a whole lot of value there.)

Afterthought: Was thinking about the lock over coffee this morning. A hole saw might work there as well. Choose a hole saw that's just a little bit bigger than the diameter of the lockface. Remove the pilot drill and just let the lock face center the hole saw. It might turn out to be easier doing it that way. Maybe a couple of minutes work ?