Ultimachine Split-Spool Hack

thingiverse

A top mounted spool design on bearings, such as Prusa-Top Spool Mount (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16046), adapted from MendelMax Spool Mount (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:13329), was something I really appreciated. However, after finishing my first spool, a dilemma arose; either keep buying new spools for every fresh filament batch or re-wind empty ones. The former option seemed wasteful and costly, so the latter was chosen. Nonetheless, manual rewinding proved to be frustrating and messy. Hence, being neither chump nor jerk, I devised a third option: a removable-face spool allowing easy filament loading and reassembly using printed parts, nuts, threaded rod, and a little bit of filing or sanding for parallel faces. Parametric python scripts are included for FreeCAD users, and an updated symmetric 3 "spoke" design is provided to avoid pinching issues.