Fabrikator Mini V2 Spool Feeder with ball bearing (608)

thingiverse

I've been having serious issues with feeding my printer lately. Last week, I encountered a massive clog that was causing all sorts of problems. The filament started to stack up in a spiral pattern before entering the extruder tube, making it impossible to extract either way. I had to disassemble the entire header and heat it up to remove the stuck pieces and plastic. It's been frustrating to deal with, especially since printing has become so unreliable that it even caused damage to the insulating cotton of the heating block. Needless to say, it was a real pain in the neck. So, I've decided to upgrade my filament feeding system to solve this problem once and for all. First, I tried feeding the filament backwards by turning the spool 180 degrees, which solved most of the issues. However, the old feeder I printed still had too much friction due to its fixed design, so I designed a new one with mobile parts. Next up is designing a better spool holder. The square metal piece I'm currently using isn't ideal, so I'm going to replace it with a piece that uses two ball bearings, which will be compatible with any spool size up to 1 kg. This new design will make feeding the filament much smoother and more reliable. I've had to put my long print prototypes on hold due to these feeding issues, which is really annoying since I'm in the middle of preparing for a Kickstarter campaign. Frustration levels are at an all-time high!