When I first got my 3D printer it came with a small bundle of filament. Unwinding this as my prints were created was fine initially, but after sitting and watching builds for hours on end it eventually gets a little less interesting.

Whilst sitting watching builds I was able to ensure that the filament was feeding correctly, but obviously if I was to leave it creating things on its own I would need something better to feed filament.

About the same time I also pretty much used up all the filament I had so I ordered a 1Kg spool from eBay.

Now, when this arrived I realized that I needed something to hold the spool whilst the printer is printing, so I did what pretty much everyone with a 3D printer does... I built something.

What we have here is a triangular stand which holds a 1Kg spool of fillament and allows it to feed fairly freely to my Mendel printer. I did think about using bearings, but it does not really seem to need them.

Of course... the irony of my first useful print being a spool holder is not lost on me !!!