Self Adjusting Filament Holder 3

thingiverse

This is a remix of a great little holder for loose bundles of filament that aren't on a spool - it's collapsible to insert into the middle of your filament then spring loaded to expand. The original by Rich Wimberly is a great design and works really well for larger spools - I've printed off two and they're heaps better and stronger than others I've tried. [EDIT] After printing a couple of this new version I've modified the arm design a little - it's now slightly longer on each side to catch stray loops of filament, and has also done away with the bushing in the middle of each arm (as its not really needed). This remix has a couple of changes from Rich's original: 1) it's much smaller so it will take filament that's more tightly wound (for example I've bought one of the sample packs from BilbyCNC here in Australia - the spools have an inside diamater of around 80mm which was too small to fit on the original version of this holder) 2) it uses a piece of standard PVC pipe as the central axis - this works better for me as it rotates more freely than the printed version, and you can hang a couple of these side by side near your printer on a single axis. 3) the arms pivot over-centre in the middle so it can collapse and will stay at minimum diameter without needing to remove the rubber bands. The original design works really well - have fun with this remix Instructions Print all parts no raft or supports - low quality works fine. Assemble with 6 x M6x30mm bolts, and 3 x M5x15mm bolts through the holes in the centre of each arm. I used standard PVC pressure pipe with 27mm OD for the central axis. After putting everything together fit medium size rubber bands to the clips on the sides of spool rings to add outward tension. Solidworks source files are included for if you need to change anything!