Spool Holder Ender 3 Ball Bearings 80mm

thingiverse

SummaryThis is a “multi-remix” from parts in two other designs and one additional new part (simple knob), that are simple, relatively quick to print, and the hardware is readily available and inexpensive. Since this and most other similar designs use an 8mm or 5/16” bolt, I avoided the use of another plastic “bolt” to cover it. I designed a simple knob to hold the nut that will cinch up the wings to the spool. I include 80 mm wings to fit a variety of spool diameters.This will fit the typical 1 kg spools using a 5” bolt. You can use a 6” bolt, it just takes more turns to cinch up the wings. I’ll add that a metal nut on a metal bolt spins on very fast, so your bolt length is not critical.The bracket mount is for an Ender 3 and the variants that use the same metal bracket with a 30 mm hole for the stock spool holder. The bracket is a remix of a design by @dukedoks on Thingiverse. I’m impressed with Duke’s design (looks great!), but it uses a threaded rod and nuts. You need a jam nut to keep it from loosening up. Instead, I added a hex cutout to accept a bolt. The wings are directly borrowed from @mateddy on Thingiverse.What I like about designs with wings is that keeping the spool centered prevents any rocking of the filament while printing, which can in turn rock the gantry. Yes, there are many alternative designs and ideas to put the spool holder elsewhere. I prefer to keep it on the gantry, similar to the stock arrangement.HardwareThe hardware you will need:5/16” x 5” tap bolt (a tap bolt has full length threads)These are readily available and inexpensive in US hardware stores. For those who want metric, then an 8mm bolt and nuts will work with some XY scaling. The width between the flats of a 5/16” hex nut are 0.5” or 12.7mm. For an 8mm nut they are 13mm. The hex cutouts in the model are 12.9 mm. See the clearances section in the included Word docx for more info. Two 5/16” (or 8mm) nutsOne 5/16” washerTwo 608RS or 608ZZ bearings (these are the same size, RS are rubber seals and ZZ uses stainless steel). If you don’t have any of these yet, it’s time to get some! In addition to this spool holder there are a lot of fun projects to be made with them.If you're worried about bracket tear out, you don't need to, just print it with PETG at 100% infill. You'll see this when you mount the bracket. Levering the bolt will bend and likely permanently mangle the Ender's vertical metal extension well before there is any risk of tearout or layer separation (this assumes you are at least getting reasonable results with your printer - calibrate your E-steps if you haven't already). Again, this is designed for 1 kg spools. More information including clearances, print orientation, fit testing and credits can be found in the included docx