This is my take on placing the spool inside the printer. My chamber with a 105C on the bed, get to about 55-57 C…..perfect for drying out filament! So having the spool inside the printer while printing is a good thing! In addition, this design allows you to print a couple of these brackets, and you can have OTHER spools drying inside your printer, while you are using one to print from.
You will need a 16mmx6 bearing (4 of them,), and some hardware to attach them to the holder, pretty self-explanatory (look at the pictures, and you will see how this is put together.
The original spool design, even though good, would be very prone to tangling of the filament, especially on a spool that is new. As it would rotate, the inertia of the initial movement would cause the spool to rotate in the opposite direction, causing the filament to unwind, and then tangle around the holder. This is especially true if there is no filament guide. With this design, I have eliminated this, since as you can see, the spool is supported in the bottom by the bearing and the sides of the holder. If it back rotates, the filament cannot go to the sides, and this should eliminate the tangle….at least this has been my findings so far after using this holder for a couple of prints. Would love to hear your results if you use this, so that if there is any modification required, we can do that. You can also mount this bracket to the back of the printer, as there is also clearance there. It is meant for a 1KG spool, around 200mmx67 or so..standard size. Anything bigger it will not fit, but all up to you to modify or remix as needed, as I have provided the source files. The bed will NOT interfere with the spool, as there is enough clearance, and the holder sits BELOW the bed, when the bed is all the way down....so no issues (tested this on a 400mm Vcore3, others should be similar, let me know). I printed in ABS, .3layer height, 3 walls, 25% infil....I printed it VERTICALLY, and no supports needed of any kind.
You can use PTFE tubbing to guide the filament to the top of the printer, and for this I created some clips that you can print and use as required. I would recommend a 3mm inside diameter for your PTFE tube, since most are running a direct drive extruder. This will give you a “Reverse Bowden” configuration, with very little friction, and very good results. You can see one of the pictures here how I mounted mine. You can vary this as needed.
Start Printing and Drying!! :-)
