Spool dividers

thingiverse

Fed up with empty spools and loose samples, I decided to create a divider for large spools that would allow me to store multiple types of filament on one spool. Now, every time I get an empty spool, I can put all my samples on it and keep my office tidy. The ring1 and ring2 design makes one type of divider - solid, 4.5mm thick, which fits a 200mm diameter spool with a 110mm diameter core. This is a one-time use item; fitting it to the spool will break it off when you try to remove it. Some changes need to be made to make it more user-friendly and quicker to print. A spool divider takes hours to print (approximately 8 hours), and two are required to make one divider. This was more of an exercise in using 3D CAD software and stiffening printed components. It was fun to do, interesting to draw, and has a nice clip to hold it together (which needs further work). Not really practical, but it looks good. Photographs show each type of spool divider. This is still a work in progress because a quick, simple design is needed for this project, which should include a method for labeling the filament, clipping the filament when not in use to prevent unwinding when a different filament is being used, and perhaps even some way to set the spacing. Really, this was an exercise in 3D printing.