I don’t have a good solution for spools. I have a shelf above the printer, and I use two roller base type pieces at the moment. That works really well for full spools, because the filament can’t “unwind” when it’s sitting on the base.
But when I have a nearly empty spool, the filament is strong and springy enough to pull the (now very light) spool off of the rollers, which causes havock.
Do you guys have a spool holder that you like? Do you have one that you like that attaches to the top frame?
Here is my custom spool holder. It’s just a piece of aluminum with a shaft attached. I printed a roller for the shaft. I like it but it’s just a bit too low for dealing with the last 10% on the spool.
Clever. Your material must be much more stiff than mine, because mine would probably bend with that much torque on the top panel. Not much, probably, but some.
When you have a full spool, do you ever find several loops coming off the left, and wrapping around the axle? That’s one complaint I have about this type of mount.
I’m thinking of this one. There’s a companion guide to help keep the filament in place when full.
That one is not the right size, but I like the concept. It’s similar to some other ones on TV (thingiverse, not television). I think I’ll cook one up from the mdf scraps I have from cutting the printer.
Never had a problem with filament jumping off the spool, maybe the low angle helps this. I might make a spool guide to deal with the last 10% issue.
I ended up making this, just drawing it in onshape, and exporting as dxf, then cutting it out. Each cutout took less than 4 minutes! I mean, how cool is that?
Yes, that is my solder sucker, I don’t have the 3/4" PVC I meant to put in as an axle.
I attached the dxf, but it is meant for my 6mm MDF frame material, and I would make it longer if I did it again, just because if you don’t put a large enough dowel in as the axle, it will rub, because I mad the min distance from the center of the spool, which doesn’t account for the size of the spool hole, if that makes any sense.
spool_holder.zip (7.39 KB)
Ho
How is your spool holder holding up? I need to build something, and that looks like a quick way to get started.
I only use it with nearly empty spools, so it doesn’t get used all that often. But it is still intact.
Jeff, you are awesome! This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I will stretch it a little per your comments and will notch the top to be able to use the axle/spool holder from the holder I have for my Printrbot Simple Metal.
Let me know how it goes. Feel free to publish your edited version, it’s probably more useful than mine.
My LTD MP3DP can’t use this anymore. 
Hey Jeff
I was finally able to tweak the design for the 1/2" MDF and also added a little height per your comments. They turned out great and I will share on thingiverse.
Curt
That looks great. Nice work.
Shared on Thingiverse
First like!
