Filament spool holder with pencils and printed bearings

prusaprinters

<p>I wanted to have a second spool holder, but had no gear bearing (and not even matching screws) for the 'standard' Prusa Mini spool holder, so I looked around and found the <a href="https://www.printables.com/de/model/169269-simple-spool-holder">simple spool holder</a> by Schaefermakes. I wanted to improve that a bit, especially by adding some bearing for the spool and some slip prevention to the feet - so I added a 3d-printed gear bearing and used pencils with erasers. (While I got the inspiration from there, I made mine from scratch.)</p><p>Gear bearing for smooth operation: I found some good parameters for a 30mm gear bearing (using <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:53451">emmett's gear bearing</a> from 2013) and added a rim to hold the spool.</p><p>Rubber feet: Use pencils with an eraser; those double as rubber feet. You need 4 pencils of about the same length of at least 14cm (when sharpened; small differences are ok) and one pencil about 5cm longer than your spool is wide (I used a 17cm long one for my 12cm wide 2kg recycled PLA Prusament spool). I had some unsharpened long ones, so the spool was quite high. sharpened pencils will stick out from the top a bit (my unsharpened ones didn't).</p><p>Easy to dis- and reassemble, doesn't use much space when not needed.</p><p>Note that I had only a Prusament spool to test it, so I don't know how well it handles other spools.</p><p>Admittedly, my contribution to this design isn't a mechanical marvel, but those planetary gears are on the next level - and put to good use in a minimalistic, yet somewhat elegant design (in my opinion).</p><p><br><strong>Printing tips:</strong></p><p>I used recycled Prusament PLA with 0.2mm layer height and a 0.4mm nozzle on a Prusa Mini+, also 3 perimeters with the holder part for stability. The gears came free easily, and after breaking them in they spun quite freely.&nbsp;<br>The holes in the holder are designed for typical hexagonal pencils (7mm side to side). Those slide in with a bit of force and have good friction, so they don't fall off. If unsure, stop the print after a millimeter, test your pencils with that hex hole, and scale as needed. If the holes are a bit too wide you can put a layer or two of sticky tape around the pencil to make it fit. The bearings have a bigger hole and slide freely on the pencil.</p><p>You need two of those trapezoid holder parts and two bearings.<br>&nbsp;</p>