Filament stack with free spinning spools

thingiverse

This design combines filament storage with dispensing. A four-color tower is shown, but six to eight color towers would also work well. This should be easy to grab from the top and move to your workspace. Marbles are used as ball bearings in this make. They are very effective, causing the spools to spin very freely. PVC tubing was used for this project. The top and bottom pieces are made of plywood due to the limitations of my small printer. The top and bottom STL files are included. Future versions or add-ons might include vertical pieces that come in sections, one for each spool. An improved means to feed filament to the top of the tower before it connects to the printer could also be added. A bearing with a slight return could be considered so that marbles pop into place and don't fall back out. I try to test everything I publish, but a few parts are untested due to their size. If you experience any problems, please let me know! The marble-bearing cups were printed with solid infill. The bearing caps should have the toothed side facing upwards to bite into the bottom of the spool. These work with most spools, but not all. A flat disk was used on one spool with hot glue to hold it in place. https://goo.gl/xPXSjY