Hi
Thanks for this amazing project.
Can you design a small spool for "sample filaments" (around 250g / 100 meter)?
It will allows us to buy several sample filaments and change them without printing multiple spools.
We will have a large printing choice, without having a large filament stock.
When we want to change filament, we just have to zip tie the filament thanks to the holes of the spool.
A smaller spool means filament saving.
Thanks.

For a typical 1kg spool. how long would the zip ties need to be for these spools? I'm debating rigging up a spool winder to move existing spools of filament to this master spool design to allow for better dry box storage (my theory is that no spools on the resulting re-wound filament means increased exposure to heat and silica beads) but would require me to purchase a large quantity of zip ties.

I like the idea. Much better than having a bunch of reels that need to be recycled.

Is there any way to get a STEP file ?
I like to downsize the other diameter to 180mm

I have a bunch of empty eSun spools lying around. They come apart with two bolts, so I'd like to use those instead.

MasterSpool is ID 102mm, width 46.7mm, mounting hole 52.5mm.

eSun spool is ID 90.5mm, width 56mm, mounting hole 51.5mm.

So it should be pretty trivial to design a spacer which brings an eSun spool to MasterSpool specs. Awesome!

I started a concept project for anyone who'd like to finish it off: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2843755

a list of manufacturers that support the master spool would be helpful, does anyone know of some?

Do you have designs for various amounts of filaments like 2.2 kg or 5 kg filament spools? I deal with a lot of bulk filament, and it would be great to masterspool them and not deal with a avalanche of large spools.

COEX, LLC manufactures 3D printer filament and used your design to place on our extruder winders to produce an environmentally friendly package to ship to our customers. We are not quite ready to ship this way but really love the idea and we’re hoping for feedback from the other Thingiverse users. We’ve also added another user friendly feature to our process. We actually used a resealable zipper bag in the shrink wrap process. If you’re interested in checking out our filaments, go to: www.coexllc.com Thanks for the design RichRap.

Hi Richard,

I'm currently designing variants for printers with smaller print beds. I realized that your V4 doc doesn't mention the sticker/label dimensions - should I measure them from your designs or isn't that something that shouldn't be part of your master spool standard?

Regards
Uli

Would this print OK with a 0.35 layer height? Slic3r offers only 0.2 or 0.35.

The FreeCAD file for this just has a bunch of meshes. Is there a solid model anywhere? Exporting to step didn't get me anything usable for making any modifications.

I like it a lot, but the center hub of both parts is a little odd. There is a smaller center pipe within a larger pipe shape. They eventually get bridged together. Why not just make that space solid. With sparse infill the whole thing will likely print faster, would be stronger, will not require bridging, and will not have a thin ring that remains on its own during the first half of the print. I had mind center ring break loose before the bridging happened.

Great concept and brilliant design. I am printing one as we speak. Idea: have markings so you can measure how many grams you have. I really like polymaker for this becasue you can measeure every 100grams.

Не подходит для GREG. Внутренний диаметр катушки слишком велик.
Not compatible with greg's filament. Inside diametr the Spool very big for it.

I think the majority of 3d print enthusiasts would not have a print volume to be able to print this.

The FreeCAD files are just mesh files. Are you able to provide solid files so we can customize this to work on our machines?

i came across something very similar on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075K4X7RV/ <--- the refills.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075JBYS3S/ <---- the refillable spool

Ive been buying it for a while now, its pretty decent stuff.

Not sure if ther refills would fit the printed spool though.

hi there i love your project really i do but we all got old spools and thats a waste printing your spool is more than a day printing aint it an idea to cut an ecxisting spool in half put some screw in it and 2 rings for taiwraps and begin fila and end fila glue it in en go.. Less printing less waste and if you got a multy material like me not a week of printing lets try to reuse the original spools with some adjustments. its an idea thats all and less waste mayby more easy to store as the more we print more colours we store

That drop-shape is getting really close to that tie-wrap slot.

What settings are the parts are supposed to be printed with? Infill?

With 3 Shells, 10% Infill and 0,2mm Layer Height I get a printing time of 20 hours for both parts and 233 gramms of filament.
That is a strict no-go on my side.

I really do like the idea and I know it is working because my company is using two-part spools and re-fills for wires since at least 2005..

But I totally fail to see how 3D-printed spools are a good thing for the enviroment.

Great idea and design. Unfortunately I have a printer with a bed too small to print this. Could I make a suggestion? How about a variant that is just the central core and uses the flanges of an existing spool? I could take an old spool, saw it in half and fit each side into a central core that is essentially the same as your existing central core.

There are two possible ways to do this, not sure which is best. Either cut the existing spool in half halfway along the central cylinder, or cut it in half and remove the central cylinder entirely and just use the flanges.

I appreciate the size of the central cylinder is not standardised, so there would probably have to be variants in different sizes. And attaching the flanges might prove difficult - but either friction fit or friction fit and glue might work fine.

Hi, thanks.
This is a great design. Can you please share step files to make is easier to modify?

V3 Part A STL has some defects according to meshmixer. This prevented me from remixing it. I would appreciate if you could look into it.

A manufacturer in Taiwan has already been selling these sort of filament.
https://www.colormatrix3d.tw/index.php/product/pla-normal-orange/
https://www.colormatrix3d.tw/index.php/product/pla-supplementary-orange/

Hi, thanks for this great design ! I print a lot with 2.2Kg spools and I'm able to print a Master Spool max 400x400mm. Will you publish a version for 2.2/2.3Kg filament ?

Besides Das Filament, are any other vendors doing this yet?

Thank you so much for doing this. What a great idea!

Best of both worlds
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2782912

That filament catch on V3 is a great idea. I would add one on the opposite side too, though, so you have a catch at each half turn.

Hey there, this is an amazing Idea and gets lots of Support!!! DasFilament in Germany will sell Coil Filaments soon! Check out there Website with Pictures of your Spool and their Filaments they will sell...

Any idea how to print this on a 150x150mm print bed?

Please add some holes where you can put the end of the filament that it won´t tangle up - would be great!

Almost every coil has such holes.

It would be great if you could add indicators for remaining length or weight for typical materials (PLA/ABS/PETG). Only very few manufacturers do that :( If you're using Octoprint there are solutions but not everyone is doing that.

The concept is wonderful, I like the idea to get the vendors into the boat to reduce the amount of wasted plastic a lot.
But I am facing major issues with your provided stl files (here as well as the ones on Youmagine): Neither Slic3r nor Simplify3d are able to slice them well. No hole in the center for both, and the thread is not showing up on slic3r. Slic3r is complaining for 5.8k shell errors. Slic3r 1.38.7-prusa3d with mk3 profile.

Could you simplify this by moving the threads to the inside of the outer cylinder of Part A, and eliminate its inner cylinder. Then put the threads on the outside of the cylinder of Part B ? Reduce the diameter of both cylinder's to keep the 55mm inner diameter, but a smaller outer diameter. This would allow more filament (maybe even up to 1Kg). It would save on weight and filament to print it.
Most spools also have small holes in the rim to let you lock the filament tip into so it doesn't flail around on the spool and tangle up. Maybe add some around one side.
Just some ideas.