Alternative spoolholder

cults3d

My Vertex K8400 printer's built-in spool holder is equipped with excellent roller bearings - and that's a good thing... most of the time. In fact, many other printers out there will appreciate having such a reliable bearing system in place. However, I recently encountered an issue with my printer where I had quite good filament wound on a spool with an unbalance problem. Every time the heaviest point went over the top-center, the spool would go for an extra half-round and uncoil its filament in the process. As you can imagine, after a few spins, things were getting out of hand. To solve this problem, I came up with an alternative version of a spool holder that doesn't use bearings - instead, it relies on a simple fixed axle to provide sufficient friction to prevent unwanted uncoiling. This design is perfect for situations where you need to print with filament that's wound on an unbalanced spool. My expectation is that I won't need this spool holder too often, but when I do, I'll be glad it's there. When not in use, it can be tucked away in a drawer without taking up much space. To build this spool holder, you'll need the following parts: 2 frames labeled "Spoolholder Alt" (available as STL and STEP versions) 2 M8 threaded rods (or equivalent) 8 M8 nuts 8 M8 washers 1 center axle (I used a piece of rolled-up cardboard for now) Optional: 4 M8 covers to protect the threaded rod ends I printed this set on my Opiliones 2L while the Vertex was busy with another print.