Dovetail Spool Holder Drawer Slide Cover for Repwinder Spool Holders

prusaprinters

I needed a clean way to hold the spools for my MMU enabled machines within my wide body Lack enclosure.  But, I also wanted to be able to get in there and service and change the spools easily.  Having the spools in the enclosure helps isolate them from some of the ambient humidity, and during long prints with higher temp materials, can even help dry them out a bit. These dovetail plates are designed to fit my “Yet Another Repwider Spool Holder” setup (https://www.printables.com/model/644685-yet-another-modified-repwinder-spool-holder) as well as other similar dovetail-based spool holder bases.  This also completely encapsulates and hides a single, heavy-duty, soft-close drawer slide mechanism.  The 16 inch Everbilt drawer slide fits between the rails of the Ikea LACK table perfectly, with a little room to spare.  These are rated to hold about 50lbs each, so, WAY more weight than they are ever going to see from the number of spools that can be installed.  Mount a length of wood to act as bracing for the legs, and you have a secure base to mount the drawer hardware to.  Save yourself hassle, and go for ball bearing, soft close drawer slides.  These are a little pricier than other options, but they are a LOT more sturdy than some of the lesser varieties.  Once the drawer slide is mounted to the enclosure, the plates can be mounted to a single strip of wood, and then that strip of wood can be mounted to the extended drawer slide.  In my setup, I found myself wanting to have additional bracing to hold the rail in place.  So, I used a few 2020 brackets I found here to give each of the rails a few more anchors.  This will help limit any torque on the drawer slide when a full set of spools are being used.  Each drawer slide is made of an end plate, and 2 body plates.  Each plate has 4 screw holes for mounting to the wood substructure that will also be attached to the drawer slide extension. When complete, the dovetail plates sit nearly flush with the corner of the enclosure, and extend out of the enclosure almost to full length.  When sliding the drawer back, the soft-close mechanism prevents excessive jarring.  And the whole thing fits behind the doors of the enclosure.  Since my setup uses an excess of honeycombs, this received the same treatment.  If there is interest, I can post a smooth version, as well.Enjoy!