Filament Turntable

thingiverse

I wanted to position my Filament Spool at the top of my printer enclosure inside a separate box with drying agents nearby. I also needed a spool holder that could roll off easily but maintain a controllable constant resistance. To achieve this, I designed a Filament Turntable with an unrolling guide. The turntable sits on a vertical axis secured by an M8 screw from below. It rolls smoothly on two skateboard bearings. The guide is engineered to unwind the spool at half its height and at a shallower angle than tangential to prevent knots from forming. Resistance comes from a small pack of drying agents tucked under the edge of the spool, creating friction during movement. To accommodate different size spools, a collar-like piece press-fits onto the inner side of the turntable and the outer spool hole. The guide shown in the picture is an outdated version, but you must adapt this design to fit your spool anyway. This setup unspools at 40mm height with enough overhang to avoid interfering with full spools. You may also need to modify the spool fitting if your spool doesn't have a 52mm inner hole diameter. When handling the spool, ensure the filament doesn't bind or it will bend the guide's arm and cause further bending, potentially resulting in a break if not intervened.