Anet A8 Supported Filament Holder

thingiverse

I evaluated all of the printer filament holder brackets that I could find for the A8. There are some effective ones, but most of them appear to attach to the weakest part of the printer. Many people complain that their filament brackets warp the printer frame and cause the bed to become unleveled. These either attach to the display lexan edge, the display screws, or some other weak location. If they do attach to a strong location, it's an unusual orientation like sideways mounting and the like. There may be something out there that is better that I missed, but my intention with this design was to mount the filament bracket on the strongest part of the top of the printer. It attaches directly onto the two vertical members of the printer frame and actually reinforces the joint. I designed this setup to work with 3/8"-16 threaded rod. If you place the nuts in the orientation shown in the first picture, you will be able to quick release the spool. Because this is a structural horizontal rod mount, the possibility exists to mount multiple filament reels on the printer at the same time. PLEASE NOTE THE PRINT SETTING REQUIREMENTS BELOW. You will need to replace the 3mm x 16mm frame screws included with the printer with 3mm x 20mm long screws, in order to attach the members to the printer frame. If you have a frame stabilizer printed and mounted to the front of the printer, you might as well remove them as they don't seem to work well as frame stabilizers anyway! If you want a frame stabilizer, this one is fantastic and actually works: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1872163 Enjoy what I have so far...and if you make this, don't be lazy and take a picture and post it here! UPDATE Height extender added. I discovered that some discount spools are larger in diameter than standard spools. You also might want to run a spool without a center hub. As a result, I created an optional height extender to raise the spools even higher. Simply print this extender and place them on top of the existing brackets. Print Settings Printer: Anet A8 Rafts: Yes Supports: Yes Resolution: .3mm Infill: 40% Notes: I printed the uprights with .3mm layer height, 4 shells on all sides, 30% rectangular grid infill. 4000 mm/min. On the spool hub adapter, the adapter has two STLs. One STL must be printed in a particular direction (see close-up photos of layers). The simple side (the one with the 6 spokes) can be printed with no supports, where the hole axis is vertical to the print bed. I used 40% infill, 3 shells on all sides and .3mm layer height. On the side with the 4 spokes and the locking tabs, this unit MUST be printed with the hole axis HORIZONTAL to the print bed, with similar print settings. I found out that in printing this part horizontally you will need both a raft and support structure all around. THIS IS A PAIN TO PRINT BUT IS REQUIRED because if you print this part vertically like the other side, the tabs will immediately break on first connection, as the layers will separate. The tabs get compressed during the mating/locking of the two sides. You will need two filament rod arms and as many sets of Filament Spool Adapters as you have spools. If you don't like my spool adapter solution and just want to use the uprights, I am sure that there are hundreds more spool adapters available on thingiverse! UPDATE Print the extenders WITH SUPPORTS, long edge horizontal to table at .2mm height, 40% infill. How I Designed This Fusion 360 Rules!