Super 8, Standard 8mm, and 16mm Film Reel Generator

thingiverse

This is a generator for film reels for Super8, standard 8mm, and 16mm film reels that can be used with ease. The reels have three inserts for the films in the core to make it easy to fit the film onto the spool. The generator is fully parameterized, so you can change the exact specifications in any way you want. It's also easy to control how narrow the center hole for the spool is and how tight the fitting of the two halves is. In the .scad file, there is documentation on all the variables you can set, and some suggestions for standard sizes that I used to generate the included set. You can also use the customizer from Thingiverse on this generator. The reels consist of a bottom and top part, which should be printed separately and fit nicely together only in the correct orientation. I printed the Super8 ones myself and they work very well if printed correctly! Printer Settings: Printer: Kossel Mini Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution:.25 layer height Infill: 30% Notes: Every printer is different, so whether the two halves fit nicely together and if the reel fits on the spool nicely depends on which printer and printer settings you use. There are two variables in the .scad file (coreTightness and fittingSpacer) to control the exact spacing for the middle hole and the fitting holes. My suggestion is to print the smallest (3 inch) size bottom first, check if it fits the spool nicely. If not, change the coreTightness and print again. If you get a nice fitting version, print the top half. If that doesn't fit well on the bottom half, change the fittingSpacer and print the top again. If it fits, then you know you got the right settings and can print the bigger ones as you please. My settings: I used coreTightness = 0.2 and fittingSpacer = 0.4 with an extrusion multiplier of 0.9 using M-ABS to make the reel fit well. I changed the coreTightness back to 0.0 in the scad file now, as I assume most people print with higher extrusion multipliers. Post-Printing: If the fitting between the two halves happens to be very tight, no post-printing is necessary. If they are a bit lose, I suggest some superglue between the halves (make sure you don't get glue in the wrong places). If they don't fit together at all, or they are way too loose, I suggest editing the fittingSpacer variable and reprinting. How I Designed This: I only own 3inch, 5inch, and 7inch Super 8 reels myself. I based the standard sizes on those. For the standard 8mm reels, the hole in the center is smaller and different, and for the 16mm it appears to be a square hole. I modeled these, but I could not test them or compare them to original reels. Please let me know when they are not correct and I will fix them.