How do you handle your filament

Hi all:

After seeing a couple of photos I started wondering how people are dealing with keeping their filament flowing into their printers.

I looked at a few solutions online and designed and printed this one.

The mount angles the spool so that it matches the angle of the a-frame on the printer. It's easily removable so that I can switch filament quickly. The feeder point attached to the printer works great too.

The downside? It takes over 30 minutes to roll a new spool of filament on to the holder. So I'm designing a new one with snap on spokes so I can just take the filament out of the bag it comes in, lay it in the spooler, and snap on the spokes. I've made one, the dimensions weren't right so I'm making another one. Once that's successful I'll upload a photo.

I only buy filament in spools. I figure my time is worth the usually $6 extra. There are a wealth of great designs, but this one is my current favorite: [www.thingiverse.com]

Isn't that awesome? I saw that one for the first time earlier today.

Pointedstick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I only buy filament in spools. I figure my time is
> worth the usually $6 extra. There are a wealth of
> great designs, but this one is my current
> favorite: [www.thingiverse.com]

I like that design a lot. Once I finish the differental gears print, I think it's next on my list...

Pointedstick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I only buy filament in spools. I figure my time is
> worth the usually $6 extra. There are a wealth of
> great designs, but this one is my current
> favorite: [www.thingiverse.com]

I tried that design but I found that there's still more friction than I like so I switched back to having bearings in the axels which has almost no friction. I think any resistance in the spool degrades print quality since the carriage in the Mendel pulls itself upwards which changes the z-position. This holder works on the Up! printer because it has a second motor that feeds the extruder motor so the extruder doesn't encounter any resistance in pulling the feed.

I had some intentions to modify a fisher tape spool, but have just been using it unmodified.
[www.youtube.com]

I hang the spool above the printer and unroll some slack. The printer will remind me to feed more slack with a clack sound as the filament pulls the spool to fall into the next finger hold. This works out for me because my prints are almost always between 45 minutes and an hour and my printer is never unattended.

I've been using it for several months now and my filament management has went from a headache to just a small annoyance when I need to refill. However most of that annoyance is from not having a hinged tensioner not from the actual spool management.

I used this one [www.thingiverse.com] but I actually have to add friction to it or a slight imbalance will cause the spool to roll forward at some point and the slack filament then jumps the spool and tangles.

brnrd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pointedstick Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I only buy filament in spools. I figure my time
> is
> > worth the usually $6 extra. There are a wealth
> of
> > great designs, but this one is my current
> > favorite:
> [www.thingiverse.com]
>
> I tried that design but I found that there's still
> more friction than I like so I switched back to
> having bearings in the axels which has almost no
> friction. I think any resistance in the spool
> degrades print quality since the carriage in the
> Mendel pulls itself upwards which changes the
> z-position. This holder works on the Up! printer
> because it has a second motor that feeds the
> extruder motor so the extruder doesn't encounter
> any resistance in pulling the feed.



I actually found the same thing, so I modified the design such that it now has zero friction: [www.thingiverse.com]. Now the spool rotates like butter and there's no drag on the extruder carriage at all.

Pointedstick Wrote:
>
> I actually found the same thing, so I modified the
> design such that it now has zero friction:
> [www.thingiverse.com]. Now the
> spool rotates like butter and there's no drag on
> the extruder carriage at all.


How do you keep the spool from wandering and rubbing against the side?

brnrd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pointedstick Wrote:
> >
> > I actually found the same thing, so I modified
> the
> > design such that it now has zero friction:
> > [www.thingiverse.com]. Now the
> > spool rotates like butter and there's no drag
> on
> > the extruder carriage at all.
>
>
> How do you keep the spool from wandering and
> rubbing against the side?


That was my modification; it if rubs against one side, it can just drift over to the other side because there's nothing actually pushing it against either of the sides. It just sits on the bearings and can drift a few millimeters in either direction without rubbing or falling off.