tape dispenser system

thingiverse

This is a mostly complete tape dispenser/holder system. Everything is designed to print without supports and snap together (little bit of adhesive doesn't hurt, sometimes). It was also designed to utilize piles of metal tubing I had as spools. This stuff is 13mm cheap metal tube for low quality furniture. That means you might have to adjust the holes in the side walls and the inside of the tape cores to fit what's available to you. I wanted this to be almost free, and it was (cost of plastic). I also wanted to be able to stretch the relevant parts to accommodate any width of tape roll.I've printed about 10 of these so far, and they work. The frame parts are all printed in PLA with 10-15% infill. The tape cores need to flex just a little, and are printed in PETG, also about 10% infill.With that, these pretty much snap together. There are a couple extra steps beyond printing...cut the spool to the width of the frameput a printed plug end in one side (epoxy, hot glue, etc)put a nut insert sleeve, with a #8 nut insert in the other end of the tube (epoxy, hot glue, etc)number #8 screw and washer on the outside keeps the spool locked in. The core moves around the spool. The spool doesn't need to rotate.To make a cutting end, I recycled the serrated metal strips from some aluminum foil roll boxes, cut to length, and epoxied on.I have made tape cores for the normal ~78mm ID tapes (masking tape, gorilla tape, duct tape, etc.) and a smaller core for 38mm ID tape (electrical tape, ...). There may be other standards, but I don't have them laying around. I could add them if requested.