Spool holder for TAZ printers

thingiverse

This is a spool holder that provides a nice vertical feed down from above a Taz or similar printer. How is it different from every other spool holder? * It holds the spool in its central hole, so it is secure and not easily dislodged. * The spool holder is concave, helping to self-center the spool. * There are bearings on the spool holder, so that it turns freely (the filament does not have to rotate on a fixed crosspiece). * It attached on top of a Taz using zip ties, and is tall enough that even large spools do not protrude into the carriage movement volume. * The actual holder is easily installed and removed, because it has locating cones to ensure that the crosspiece is properly aligned. What are the downsides compared to other spool holders? * It requires 2 608ZZ bearings and 2 M3 screws. * The uprights are relatively large. * It requires more parts than most. Print 2x upright, 2x bushing, 2x bearing holder, 1x crosspiece. The given orientations work-- it's not very demanding on your printer. Assemble bearing holder, bearing, and bushing using M3 screw. Insert bearings into ends of crosspiece. Zip tie uprights to top of printer. Put the crosspiece assembly through the middle of a filament spool, and set on uprights.