Spool holder

[jdurand]

Nothing too unusual, but definitely useful...

The first 3D printer we got after moving here was an Artillery X1 and the spool holder on it consisted of two vertical metal plates with shoulder bearings on them. The idea was you space them "just" right and run the spool on the narrow bearing surfaces.



It wasn't long before I printed wide rollers, inserted the shoulder bearings into the ends and made a sturdy, useful holder.

We now have a second printer here (we'd had 5 back in California), this one an Artillery X4 Plus. This one had a tall arm with a side peg that the spool hangs on. Well, 3D printers vibrate a lot, especially fast ones like this X4. So... the spool would bounce around, unwind, and loops of filament would fall off. NOT good.




So, as part of learning FreeCAD (changing from TurboCAD), I made up a completely new holder from scratch. It fit first fit!



This wound up white as I have some old white PLA that's starting to break so I'm using it up first.

Anyway, this holds much more stable without the bouncing on a long arm.