A Greener 608ZZ Bearing Based Spool Holder

thingiverse

I've been using my glass marble based turntable (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:10018) to feed filaments for a while. It works well except when a filament spool is close to be depleted, the spool becomes too light and could be pulled away from the turning center. Then it cease to turn. Things get even worse with 2mm filaments, since they are even lighter and the spool diameter is smaller. So I designed my 608 bearing based spool holder. I'm quite happy with the result. Features: No large parts: There are only 5 small parts to be printed. Greener: The main structure is a recycled carton cut open. Less Or No Tangles: When several turns of filament got loose, the upper part of the turns are normally still in contact with the spool and in between flanges. (Thanks to gravity.) Pulling the filament from a lower position can avoid the thread to go outside flanges and get messed up. Instructions There are only 5 parts (part A x2, part C x2, part B x1) to be printed. Since spool sizes and diameters vary, you'll need to make adjustments accordingly. You'll also need 2 608 bearing and a carton of appropriate size. I made an instruction video here: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfEfgyl-POM) ***Spoil alert: There's a special guest at 0:39 ---------A tiny spider was taking a free Farris wheel ride on my new spool holder while I was taking this video. Well, I do have a no-kill policy on not-too-scary spiders, so. 2014/7/6: Added a little feature on part B. Now you can fit a cotton ball or a small piece of tissue paper in part B to remove debris or dusts on your filament before it enters PTFE tube. Also, there's no need to hot glue part B on the carton. Check the gallery pictures for reference.