Upgraded Spool Holder (MOST Delta: Athena)
This upgraded spool holder is made to be fully compatible with the current wire holding mount hardware included with the Athena Printer. The edges are rounded instead of square for better rolling/sliding on the surface. Also the larger size on the upgraded holder is stronger than the original spool holder. The original spool holder had sharp edges and made filament feeding difficult and could lead to miss-prints. Also, mine broke, leading to me beefing up this spool holder for added strength.
Original Author: Zachary Verran
Design and Printing
Design
OpenSCAD was utilized for all modeling operations. Measurements were made to model the mounting bracket already on the printer. Then I designed my upgraded spool holder around this, subtracting the mount from the holder so I knew it would be compatible. The biggest different between the spool holder that is currently utilized on the printer and my upgraded version is the edges of the holder are rounded, making for easier rolling of the spool on the holder. Multiple iterations of trial and error with making the mount stay horizontal with the spool on it were printed, with the final version having a small rectangular protrusion jut out from one side to hold it in place.
The rounded edges of the holder were designed using an OpenScad file found online on Thingiverse. Thank you to user WilliamAAdams for this file. A combination of various sized rectangles based on the Thingiverse file and other primitive volumetric shapes were used to produce the final version.
Printing
A bed of blue painters tape was used instead of the conventional glue on the glass bed method taught in class.
- Print Parameters Utilized
- Layer Thickness: 0.20mm
- Shell Thickness: 1.0mm
- Top/Bottom Thickness: 1.0mm
- Temperature: 210C
- Speed: 50mm/s
- Flow: 100%
- Infill: 20%
- Filament: Yellow Push Plastic PLA 1.75mm
Installation
Link to Files
The file repository is located on Thingiverse: Link to project files and images.
Other Improved Spool Holder Ideas
- Other solutions to spool holding can be found here.
- Thingiverse is also a good source to find spool holders.
See Also
Open Source 3-D Printing Athena Printer Build Overview MOST Delta Mods