Ender/Aquila OE spool shaft spacer/collar

thingiverse

For reasons unknown, some filament makers insist on packaging their product on spools with excessively large diameter center holes, which present a severe mismatch to the stock spool holder axle on the Ender 3 series printers, their clones, like the Voxelab Aquila and others. This mismatch results in a lot of rotational resistance, causing the spool to lurch sporadically in fits and starts as the filament is drawn in by the extruder, and is not conducive to optimal printer function. While this issue can be mitigated to a certain extent by simple solutions such as spool adapter/reducer inserts with smaller bore diameters (which should ring a bell to those familiar with 45 RPM vinyl singles), they can encounter problems of their own, since there is also excessive clearance along the lateral axis, allowing the spool to walk and wander side-to-side as filament is consumed. Additionally, if the adapters are ill-fitting, or loosen and lose their grip on the spool over time, they can become dislodged, and cause the spool to collapse and become askew, made possible by the excess lateral space. TLDR - in short, this collar is designed to prevent a filament spool, or a spool with adapter inserts, from shifting laterally as it rotates, by closing the gap between it, and the end of the spool holder shaft. It snap fits onto the 30mm outer diameter by ~90mm wide spool holder shaft shipped with Ender/Aquila printers, and on the newer versions with the 36mm outer end flange, will also securely help prevent the spool and adapter inserts from coming apart and collapsing. A quick and easy print for those who don't want to get into more elaborate spool holder setups. Derived from the original scad drawing by Dvogonen, so thanks to them for making the scalable drawing available.