Filament Storage Dowel End Cap

thingiverse

<u>Note Just for Customizer</u>: Customizer doesn't seem to like my SCAD, and the part will look wrong when you first open it up. However, if you start changing values of different fields it will sometimes render correctly, but other times Customizer will crash. You'd be better off downloading the SCAD file, and editing the parameters in the OpenSCAD software. I'll leave it up for now in case someone wants to put the effort in to use it or if someone can look at it and tell me how to make it play nice with Customizer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Put this end cap on a wooden dowel, and you can stack filament spools up on the dowel. I stack my filament on the dowel, put it in a 5 gallon bucket with an airtight screw-top lid, and throw some silica gel packets in there to keep the filament dry. This way I can lift all the filament out at once, retrieve the one I want, re-stack it, and put it back away. It is currently sized for a 1" wooden dowel and a #8 wood screw to secure the dowel to the cap. I found that I got the fit just right to press fit the dowel into the collar and not even need the screw, but it's there if the dowel were to be a bit undersized, and the hole has a countersink to keep the screw head flush with the bottom. The files ending in the word "Test" are a smaller version that I made to check the fit of the inside of the collar to the dowel and also the diameter of the countersink to ensure the screw head would sit flush with the bottom or a bit inboard. It has a smaller bottom flange diameter, thinner bottom flange, shorter collar, and it omits the fillet between the bottom flange and the collar. This was to allow me to print a test part in < 20 minutes to check these fits rather than waiting for a multi-hour print to finish to find out that it needs revision. I plan to add some accompanying parts later. I'm thinking a handle for the top. Also, some annular cages to fill the space between the dowel and the ID of the spools to hold the silica gel packets and keep the spools more concentric with the dowel. I may make use of the currently unused screw hole as a locating feature and put a pin/cone in the bottom of the bucket to keep the filament stack centered. That would ensure clearance to the walls allowing me to put storage features down the inside wall of the bucket for who knows what (tools, printer accessories, etc.). There are also pockets in the top of the lid that look like they could hold some nice little storage boxes, but that geometry is more complicated and could interfere with opening the bucket. If I get around to these items, I'll add them to this thing or remix it into the larger collection or something.