Small spool holder adjustable with magnets

thingiverse

I absolutely love how thing:93652 is an incredible, simple, flexible and very low-drag spool holder. I'd been using it for a while just next to my printer, until recently, when I decided to move the spool of filament within my printer's enclosure, since there was plenty of space for it on my XYZ Da Vinci 1.0. At about the same time, I bought some new filaments and these came with spools of smaller width than I'd had before, so I thought of a quick and frictionless way to adjust the position of the rollers to match the varying size of the spools. Since my printer's floor is metallic, I figured that the best solution would be -guess what- strong magnets! So this remix adds holes to attach four round magnets of 14mm diameter to the rollers. I used some really powerful ones that I had lying around and they provide a really strong hold. The roller definitely won't move unless I want it to! Additionally, some of the new spools came pretty full, like almost overflowing, and this wasn't working well as the original design of the spool holder, when there's so much filament it doesn't provide enough clearance to spin properly. So I've also created an asymmetrical version (also available with and without magnets) which has a much lower tab on one side, and this fixes the issue elegantly while still keeping the spool in place. Instructions Follow the original instructions in thing:93652 for assembling the bearings. I'd recommend printing it with a high infill rate (or even directly 100%) to make it strong. I used PLA for mine, which helped with warping (this design does tend to warp a lot in the corners). If you are using the version with magnets here are a few tips: Print it with a small brim. You may then remove it from the outer edges but leave it intact on the inside of the circles. This will help the magnets to stay in place, unless you've glued them, in which case that would not be necessary. I only printed one of the rollers with magnets while the other one is the magnet-less version and it's simply fixed to the floor with double-sided tape. This way I only have to adjust the position of one of them. Use a pen or a fine marker to draw some marks in the exact position where the roller should be for each spool size you will be handling. This will make the spool switching process even quicker.