Radial filament guide for cabinet mount

thingiverse

This is a filament guide designed to ease the path of the filament and prevent it from over-bending. I've put the 3D printer into a cabinet and feed the filament from the top and through the side (as seen below the guide). I was using a PTFE bowden tube as a guide previously, but since the spool is on top of the cabinet, I needed a support structure to avoid pulling straight down. Turns out, this simple guide without the PTFE tube entirely reduces the friction by more than half, since a minimal increase in tension will cause the spool to unroll immediately, without letting the filament touch the guide most of the time. There are two parts: the guide, and a small clip that snaps on top which prevents the loose filament to exit the guide. The clip is open, so the filament can be inserted from the side. I used weak double-sided tape to affix the structure to the side of the cabinet. I use this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2791247/ spool holder (another TUSH variant) sitting on top of the cabinet, combined with these hooks https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2923602 for the display panel.