3D Printed Gear Bearing Spool holder

myminifactory

Up for a challenge? After creating a basic, robust, easy to print spool holder for this competition, I decided to see how elaborate I could go and still keep the spoolholder entirely 3D printed. The result is a roller style spool holder with gear bearings at each end that also doubles as a torture test. Does it work as well as a roller with real metal bearings? - No, but it works better than a spool holder without bearings. Is it easy to print? - Well... If your printer is well tuned, reasonably accurate and your retraction settings are good, then, Yes. Otherwise, you will likely have issues with the gears fusing in place. I don't live in the USA, will this fit other sizes of wood? - The Fusion 360 file is included with full design history, as well as a set of custom parameters allowing you to change the design to suit any size of lumber / wood. I really want to print this, but, I dont think my printer will handle it. - Individual bearing scales are also adjustable using custom parameters as well. If the gears are fusing together too much during the print, you can reduce the scale multiplier parameter to give the gears more clearance.   This design actually works very well and I learned a lot about gears in the process of designing it. I put a lot of emphasis on keeping my design entirely 3D printed and printable without support material. If you are having trouble getting this printed, try adjusting the parameters in the Fusion file to allow more clearance, run your printer slower and/or increase your cooling. I hope you enjoy the design, good luck and happy printing.