Anet A8 quick release ball bearing top bar filament holder

thingiverse

I recently noticed that my print quality suffers a bit when the filament holder is standing on one side of the printer; it also occupies unnecessary desk space. I designed this spool holder that clamps to the top bar of the Anet A8 and utilizes two skate bearings resting in seats to create a smooth-running quick release system. It uses three aluminium tubes: 8mm in diameter, two 170mm long (for the clamps), one 150mm long (for the axle) – saving filament, time, making it easy to customize (e.g. for spools with a diameter larger than 20cm) and allowing you to tweak the bearing holders without having to print the whole construction again. I widened the ends of the axle using a center punch to create a press fit for the bearings. Super-glueing them in place would also work, I guess. So far, I'm really happy with how it works! Swapping filaments is quick and easy, and the ball bearings make for a smooth feed while the spool doesn't unwind all by itself because the offset of the axle in the spool provides just enough resistance to prevent that. You can edit the files on Onshape. There's a variable called 'tubeDiameter' that you can change to create a perfect fit.