Smaller cradle (35-56 mm)

thingiverse

I had a filament spool that didn't fit the smaller 80 mm cradle because it was about 46 mm wide. I made it by modifying the existing 80 mm mesh in MeshMixer and learned about the software as well. I also added another STL with text on it, so you can easily see what spool size it accepts. Finally, it is only the cradle, as I haven't included the bearing pins since I've made no changes to them. Just use the other elements from the source to build the cradle! Printer: Monoprice Maker Select V2 Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: 0.1 mm Infill: 20% Notes: If you've got an excellent heated bed (I've got a PEI sheet), you just need to set the bed temperature at 60 degrees for PLA and I've found that it sticks very well with barely any warping and without raft/brim. If you don't have a PEI sheet, you should probably use a brim or a raft if you don't use any methods to make your prints stick to the bed. I designed this with Meshmixer, starting with the STL file for the 80 mm cradle. You can also use the 90 mm cradle. Step 1: Separating the middle section I made two plane cuts to separate the middle part (see the image). This will allow us to scale the middle part only so we don't affect the sections that have the pins. Click on each pin while holding Shift and click on "Merge" in the Edit menu. Step 2: Scaling the middle section Click on the middle section and drag it to resize it to fit your filament spool. Step 3: Combining the objects and exporting to STL Now that we have stitched our sections together, we can use the Combine to make it a single object. Click on each section while holding Shift and click on "Combine" in the Edit menu. It should be a single object now. You can verify this by looking up in the Object Browser (It is located under the View top menu, or alternatively you can press Ctrl+Shift+O). You can also use the Inspector tool to see if there aren't any holes in your object. It is located under Analysis -> Inspector. If there's nothing, it shows nothing. If it does show something, click on the pins that appear to fix those holes. Finally, you can export it to an STL file. Go to File -> Export (or alternatively, press Ctrl+E), and save it wherever you want. Bonus Step 5: Making text with 123Design Now that you've made your new cradle, we can make things a little bit more interesting with some text that show the accepted spool sizes. Watch the following gif. A few things to note: After you click on the Text tool, you need to click twice. As far as I understand it, clicking the first time select the plane you want to start from, then the second click is the position of where your text will start, on that plane. I haven't shown the options as you export to STL but you can easily use the Coarse settings. The text print rather nicely on my Maker Select V2 with PLA. Bonus Step 6: Importing the text into Meshmixer Now that you've exported the text into an STL file, you just need to use the Import button on the left. It will ask you whether you want to append or replace so select Append then browse to your STL file that contains the text. Now, after you've positioned your text nicely, repeat the step 4 to combine the cradle with the text and then export it to an STL. Extra Step: Modify your own cradle I've included my .mix files in case you'd like to change it. Have fun!