Design This is an advanced version of our original nologo!SKATE spool holder with some advanced features you might find useful! Since we are really printing a lot and mostly with big spools we were always skeptical of mounting the spools to the printer's frame since the movement (especially when retracting) induces some movement and vibration into the printer. Besides that our sometimes very long print durations also require a reliably setup ensuring safe operation with spools falling / jumping of, etc. Therefore we developed our own spool holder design and have been using it extensively on our printers for quite some time.
We have added a filament inlet that prevents the spool from jumping off the spool holder as well as an attachment for a reverse Bowden tube connecting directly to you filament inlet at the printer plus another option to very simply have slipping and sliding prevented.
Besides the printed parts you will (optionally) need the following parts:
4 pcs. 608 ball bearings (22 x 7 mm with 8mm bore, which you can get from Amazon) 1 pcs. PTFE tube 10 cm (in case you want to use the self securing functionality preventing the spool from jumping off) 1 pcs. PTFE tube of the length required to connect from the spool holder to you printer (in case you want to use the reverse Bowden functionality) 2 pcs. simply and standard rubber bands
The spool holder does also function without any of the additional features with just the printed parts.
Construction The spool holder consists of two body parts which are connected by the slide part, which lets you adjust the different width of different spools. The left body part has two holes connected by a duct. On each end a piece of PTFE Bowden tube can be inserted.
The one on the short side receives a short piece of PTFE tube and is the filament inlet. By guiding the filament into and through the spool holder the spool itself is prevented from jumping off the spool holder since any tension or pull on the filament goes vertically straight towards the spool holder (actually a “reverse reverse Bowden”)
The one on the long sides receives the long piece of PTFE tube and connects to the filament inlet on your printer. This reverse Bowden prevents any pull on the filament holder when feeding filament into the printer. So you can literally place your spool holder anywhere around and in any direction towards your printer. Just be aware that PTFE tubes are very smooth but do still have some friction. The longer the connection tube gets the more friction it has and that might adverse effects on filament feeding if it gets too long.
Four plugs attach the ball bearings (or their printed replacement) to the two body parts.
The oval grooves at the bottom side of the body parts receive and hold the rubber bands in place to prevent slipping and sliding.
Slicing & Printing The parts are design to be primarily printed with a 0.4mm nozzle and 4 perimeters (for a little added stability).
We suggest printing the two body parts standing upright with manual supports on just the edges of the opening for the slide. Please do not print with automatically generated supports since these would also fill the duct (which does not need supports) for the PTFE tubes and render it unusable.
Besides that everything should just print like a charm.
Assembly Once printed you simply mount the ball bearings (or their printed replacement with a little grease) with the plugs. Slide the slide part through the right body part and fix it in the left body part with a few drops of glue. As such the spool holder does already work and if you want to use the added functionality you can now insert the two PTFE tubes and fix it with just on drop of glue on the outside if you will (not necessarily required). Finally hook the rubber bands in the grooves at the bottom and you are done. These steps are also shown in the pics and will assist you and setting up your durable and reliable SL!DE.