My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
I love the idea of the wallet system as a way to keep retracted filament under control. However, I'm also very limited in space. Therefore, I've designed this ultra compact, extensible, wall mounted spool holder. I'll be putting it together over the next week or so, once some parts arrive.
Wallet style retracted filament storage? Check.
Easy insertion and removal of filament into the MMU? Check.
Compact, extensible design? Check.
Stores up to 600mm of retracted filament off the spool? Check.
Minimal hardware requirements? Check.
It should also be adaptable to work on the lid of an enclosure, but that's very low priority for me at the moment.
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
beautiful, very nice work, down hat !!!!!
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
This is a killing spool holder, very clever desing, curious to see it working.
Did you publish something on Thingiverse ?
Nice job, realy impressed.
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
Very cool! Post pictures once you get one built, and a video of the filament!
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
You could take that one step further and mount the MMU 2.0 unit below those holders at the same hieght and just behind the printer so it doesn't provide the additional vibration to the printer.
Yet, when it's changing filaments you're not really printing.
Once the new filament is selected are there any motors running on the MMU 2 unit that can create vibration?
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
You could take that one step further and mount the MMU 2.0 unit below those holders at the same hieght and just behind the printer so it doesn't provide the additional vibration to the printer.
Yet, when it's changing filaments you're not really printing.
Once the new filament is selected are there any motors running on the MMU 2 unit that can create vibration?
Nope. Once the filament is loaded the MMU2 is completely idle and out of the way. It's still powered on, and there is power to the steppers to maintain position, but really no vibration.
Mounting the MMU2 on the wall mounted holders printed here might not work, depending on the relative position of the mk3. The selector needs to be about the height of the top of the mk3 frame, and within a 6" or so square forward of the center of the frame, to match the expected geometry. It might work further (depending on the bowden calibration limits in the firmware), but could cause issues on load/unload
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
I'm very interested in moving the MMU around a bit, to try and avoid the 500mm height needed for the feeder tube. That's really tight in my enclosure. However, I haven't found anywhere yet.
Unless I find somewhere to mount it with clear benefits in terms of height needed, I'm happy for it to live on the printer. That makes it easy to service as I can just pull the printer forward a bit and get it out from under the spool holders.
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
This is a killing spool holder, very clever desing, curious to see it working.
Did you publish something on Thingiverse ?
Nice job, realy impressed.
I will publish it on thingiverse once I've built it and started using it. An early variant of this style spool holder is there already, as is my reverse bowden setup.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2956886
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2967579
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
I jumped the gun. Uploaded it to thingiverse before I've completed it. I've built one panel and it seems to work as intended. The rest have to wait till some parts arrive.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3180671
Enjoy.
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
That's darn interesting - I wanted to do something like it but never came up with something I liked.
I'd consider having the filament feed across the top - when you do flexibles, much of the tension-based predictable shapes can go away, even if it works once or twice you can't count on it.
It's probably just fine if you flip the wallet part upside down and leave the rest alone. I'd love to see video of it in action, mocking up even one channel is well worth doing.
Also, not a problem, but it's a little harder to see what's going on with what in this set up - I've found having the slack already in the wallet can help, since initial feeds can pull quite hard on the spools on a first load.
I really like it! You could/should post a link in my other thread about devices like this, you've made a lot of good suggestions here!
I maintain an informal list of San Diego, CA 3D printing enthusiasts. PM me for details. If you include a contact email and I can add you to the informal mailing list.
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
Thanks Abraham.
I'm not too worried about flexibles because it's a very constrained path. They can't escape between the SHARK and the MMU. However I'll obviously keep an eye on it and make sure nothing unexpected happens. I'd rather avoid putting the filament path at the top, as the top of the wallets isn't well supported. It would probably require a second brace. If flexibles do turn out to be problematic I'll think of something.
Unfortunately (for me) there's no solution to the lack of visibility. I just don't have the space to put the wallets elsewhere.
I'll post it to your thread. Cheers.
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
I have a Repbox on the way... It has a profile pretty close to this... wonder if I can mod it to have inside filament pockets like this.
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
I just assembled my RepBox this weekend. Looking at it I don't see why one could not make a "wallet" on the top. I'm considering it now and took some measurements and sketches Sunday night.
Neal
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
You should be able to mount it to the wall, as I had mine originally. It was just for that reason - I wanted to be able to see it, and mount it behind the printer, with the spools above. It worked VERY well like that, took nearly no parts, no cost, and doesn't have issues like a weak top or whatever.
Anyway, what you're doing looks cool. Good luck with it, and keep the photos coming!
I maintain an informal list of San Diego, CA 3D printing enthusiasts. PM me for details. If you include a contact email and I can add you to the informal mailing list.
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
I'm also considering the wall mount. Unfortunately it is slats anchored into the CBC wall with pegboard over the slats. Easy to work around so I can hang the box but I just do not care for anything anchored into concrete like that. Every bump, jostle, wiggle, or other movement just weakens the anchor.
Neal
Re: My take on a compact, spool system, with wallet style retraction zone.
Just thought I'd post an update on this.
I modified it slightly from the original design. It now has a fold down arm that makes loading easier. I've also swapped out the festo for a little clip that works with rivnuts on the PTFE tube.
Loading is easy, and works just by feeding in through the short PTFE tube with the lever held down. I've never had a jam in the wallet, and the slight friction caused by the roundabout feeding tube doesn't seem to be a problem for the bondtech and MMU gears.
I can safely say that at this stage my spool holder and filament keeper works better than the MMU. 😀
