Cable Reel or Filament Spool support hubs using skate bearings

thingiverse

A useful reel support hub, ideal for mounting reels on bearings (eg 3d printer filament, wire/rope for assembly robots etc) for minimum friction in unwinding the reel. Print in pairs. Use the pair opposed to support a reel, on the same M8 shaft. Requires four bearings per reel. These reel hubs accept a pair of skate bearings pressed into each side and run on an m8 threaded rod as an axle. A couple of sets of double nuts are all that's needed to locate the reel where you want it. A spring on the axle is helpful for maintaining the reel centrally and providing just enough friction in the bearings to prevent the reel from unwinding itself all over the floor (eg heavy flexible cables or ropes). Accepts a wide range of reel widths and inner diameters. Updated to add a model suitable for driven spool winding applications. This accepts an M8 threaded rod by default but is easy to change. Update I recently tried printing with TPU filament and found these spool supports solved all the under-extrusion problems I was initially having. I found that the filament was wound quite tightly on the reel and the extruder pulling the filament was sometimes unable to overcome the friction of getting the reel unwound without using these bearing supports.