Replicator 2 Top Mount Filament Spool Holder/Dispenser Upper Deck

thingiverse

So this is derived from my original spool holder (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:74050) and is an add on. I recently purchased some PLA from MatterHackers (https://www.matterhackers.com/) and the Pro series spools had centers that were only 0.75in diameter. They would not fit on my previous design as my spools were not wide enough and they had end flanges that would not fit through the MatterHackers spool. So I designed a simple tube to replace them. I then decided that I wanted as many of my colors as were manageble to be mounted on the the printer. So I took the lower design and modded it to add a second tier. There are a few other additions that make this a better print than the lower one. Things like breakaway tabs to prevent some bridging issues in places. It all seems pretty stable and it cleaned up my workspace a bunch! Instructions As with the bottoms you need to print a left and right tower. You should also print some spools as they act as bearing surfaces for your PLA spools. Break out the tabs that are in the top shaft area and the one for the clearance at the bottom. If you are using blue tape I have found that if you rough it up with a little sandpaper you can get rid of most of the curl in any print. Yes it makes it harder to get off but it stays on the build plate. I used a 3/8 x 36in threaded rod (Home Depot) and supporting hardware which includes 2 nuts that seat in the towers, see http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:74050 for how that works. You will need some nuts at the ends of the rods as well. I used self tapping sheet metal screws to put them together. There are 5 of those per tower. When you put them together you will hear a lot of crackling noises from the screws. I am pretty sure that is just the interior fill engaging with the screw. But if you printed your bottom with the 5 shells there will be about 1/8 of material to get purchase for the screw. Sometime I will revise the bottom so there are holes there to start with. Print Settings: Shells 5 (this is a must!) Layer 0.34mm Fill 10% One more item of note, there is one issue to be aware of with this incarnation, and that is that the lower rod will now require you to remove the screws to gain access to change the spools in the middle. I am thinking of ways to change that in a future design.