Spool holder with filament loop

thingiverse

I required spool holders but wasn't satisfied with any of the existing ones. The "Super Simple" design on Thingiverse, utilizing ball bearings, caught my attention. This innovative setup features five distinct components (a total of 17 parts) and relies solely on a non-printed part: the ball bearing. Although it's possible to print a wheel without a ball bearing, I haven't experimented with this approach. The wheel clips and wheels demand high precision printing; I utilized PLA and PETG for these components. In contrast, I printed the rest of the parts in ABS. All elements should be printable without support materials. To assemble the clips securely like a stable 3D puzzle, I designed them to clip together seamlessly. The dimensions of 88mm seem suitable for 1kg spools, while 54mm is an ideal size for 700g spools. This design can be customized using OpenSCAD and possibly Thingiverse, with no external libraries required. Due to the customizer's issues on Thingiverse, I created two simplified SCAD files for adjusting the width: The first file allows customization of the side-to-side clips (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3322488), while the second enables adjustment of the front loop (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3322501). Important Notes: All parts should be printable without support materials. However, I encountered issues with adhesion when printing clip pieces in PLA; to resolve this, I recommend either printing them individually or enabling support material. In contrast, the "ABS" capable components and wheels can be printed simultaneously. Edit/update (2018-11-20): I added a PFTE tube clip that snaps into the filament loop.