fully printed spool holder

thingiverse

Update July 8th, 18 ================= The initial print and photograph did not match the uploaded files due to a design mistake. The four holes in the support were too low, causing the rollers to rub against the horizontal part of the support. **Please download the current files if you plan to print it.** I am somewhat disappointed with the result. Rollers do not roll as well as ball bearings, of course. They can get stuck sometimes and then come loose. However, this does not prevent the spool from rotating because the extruder motor is powerful enough to overcome the friction between the spool and the locked rollers. I have printed three spools and continue to use them without concern for my prints. But I must be honest and warn you that this design is not working as well as I had hoped. Initial post June 10th, 18 ==================== I needed a new spool holder to replace an excellent model I had been using for a long time. One day, the filament was jammed and the extruder's motor pulled very hard on it. The filament resisted, causing one of the support branches to break. I couldn't find the original model on Thingiverse, so I decided to design one similar but without ball bearings. Three STL files are available here. The main file called support.stl needs to be printed once. You will need two copies of rouleau.stl and four copies of cheville.stl. I used FreeCAD for the design, but I'm not sure if I used the software properly. However, I had a lot of fun working on this project. The project file is also provided.