Rigid spool holder for Dremel 3D40

thingiverse

Update 2023-10-23 This thing is replaced by Mk III. You can find it here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3170382 I will leave this thing here for future reference but I would highly recommend using the MkIII as it has a better feeding of the filament. Update 2023-10-21 This thing does not work so well. My sincere and humble apologies to all of you that printed it. Actually, it works great when the spool is new and full of filament. However, when 60-70% or more is spent, the plastic thread has a harder time getting to the extruder as the angle it has to travel becomes more difficult. This was evident for me today as I needed to load some new filament from a roll that had about 20% left. It took a pretty good yank to get the filament through the tube. This is not good. The filament should feed with ease! I think of all the times I have cursed at other people for sending up imperfect designs on Thingiverse. Now I am one of them. Still, better to be honest about it right? I am working on a new design that will solve this problem, hopefully I will be able to upload it here in a few days. Original text start: I really love my Dremel 3D50. I have printed crazy amounts of stuff on it. At one point I decided to find third-party filaments. The flashforge finder PLA filament is compatible size-wise (fits inside the machine) so I used that for a long period. Eventually, you run out of colors and I wanted to try the Hatchbox filament. For this to work, you need some kind of external spool holder. I tried the https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1653391 with the accompanying arm: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2240843 Even though the spool holder looked nice, it was tilting outward because the thin plastic inside the Dremel does not support the full weight of a 1 kg Hatchbox spool. Enter the "Rigid Spool Holder for Dremel 3D50". It took about three iterations until I was happy with it. The spool holder has a snug fit and can sustain a lot more weight than 1 kg. I have also supplied a rigid end cap and some adapters for larger spools. In my opinion, it is best if you use an adapter so that the diameter of the spool holder fits snugly into the filament spool. It should roll in a nice smooth fashion when it unloads the filament. If you use another filament that doesn't fit the "Rigid Spool Holder TM" just print your own! Dimensions should be: Length of the cylinder should be 68-ish mm. Inner diameter is 18,5 mm so that it fits snugly on the spool holder. Outer diameter is whatever your filament spool has for inner diameter. But why am I telling you all of this when you could just watch the whole thing on YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5lQ-IqrSnM Some notes on printing. I printed everything using low-quality (20% infill), but I'd recommend using medium or high to get a better fit. Supports? Yeah, maybe. In Simplify 3D it was not necessary, but in Dremel Digilab (Cura) it was. You'll figure it out, it's not an easy print. A note on safety. When you are printing outside of Dremels box, you are also bending the safety regulations. Please take care and try to understand how you can use this Thingiverse thing in a safe way. Other than designing spool holders, I occasionally read a book. There is one book that is about me; you can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079BT3RG6 Update! Added some filament adapters. The spool holder currently supports the following brands: * Hatchbox (Adapter diameter: 54,5 mm) * Classe (Adapter diameter 52,5 mm) * 3dPrima (Adapter diameter 53 mm) * Amazon Basic PLA (Use either Hatchbox or Classe adapter; I have not tested this myself) I have had best results with medium and high print quality settings for the adapters. ...drop me a line if you see a need for another adapter and I'll upload it.