I wanted to mount filament spools on a spindle so they spin freely. I use a half inch wooden dowel as a spindle and National Bearings A-1 bearings, which were the smallest bearings I could get in a local auto parts store. The spool bearing parts are as follows:
bearing_housing_inner - Slips over the spindle and stays stationary. Inner part of the A-1 bearing slips onto it.
bearing_housing_reverse - Outer part of the housing ("reverse" means that it's upside down from my original design). Outer part of the A-1 bearing inserts into this housing - it has a small ledge to keep the bearing from rubbing. This part spins with the spool.
buckle_m3 - A buckle that goes outside of the inner housing and prevents it from slipping. It's designed to take a M3 nut.
knob_m3_20mm - A knob to go over a 30mm M3 screw so it can be tightened without a screwdriver.
Filament spools have different diameter openings, so a spool adapter has to be slipped over the outer housing. I'm enclosing adapters for spools that have opening radii of 14.5mm, 16mm, 27.5mm and 28.2mm.
To spin easily, the fit doesn't have to be exact - you should be fine if your spindle is a smidge narrower than mine, or your spool has an opening slightly larger than the adapter that you're using.
You will need to glue the knob onto the M3 screw and you might also glue your M3 nut into the buckle.
Obviously, you will need two of each piece to mount a spool.
Model in FreeCAD. You're welcome to use and modify as you like.
| bearing_housing_inner.fcstd | 6.1KB | |
| bearing_housing_inner.stl | 34.5KB | |
| bearing_housing_reverse.fcstd | 29.5KB | |
| bearing_housing_reverse.stl | 374.3KB | |
| buckle_m3.fcstd | 51.0KB | |
| buckle_m3.stl | 39.3KB | |
| knob_m3_20mm.fcstd | 34.1KB | |
| knob_m3_20mm.stl | 57.9KB | |
| spool_adapter_14_5mm.fcstd | 6.1KB | |
| spool_adapter_14_5mm.stl | 47.7KB | |
| spool_adapter_16mm.fcstd | 6.1KB | |
| spool_adapter_16mm.stl | 47.7KB | |
| spool_adapter_27_5mm.fcstd | 42.2KB | |
| spool_adapter_27_5mm.stl | 127.4KB | |
| spool_adapter_28.2mm.fcstd | 42.2KB | |
| spool_adapter_28_2mm.stl | 127.4KB |
