I have been running the new Maker Farm 10" i3v Kit for a while. As far as I understand, recently it starting coming with a spool holder, but the holder wasn't working out that well for me so I had been searching Thingiverse for alternatives. I ordered some bearings (R4-ZZ Ball Bearing - 5/8" x 1/4" x .196") from http://openbuildspartstore.com for a new spool holder. I really liked the placement of the Maker Farm holder so in the meantime I had been thinking of possible mods to make it more useful for me.

The issue was that the stock holder used a flat wood piece as a bearing for the inside diameter of a filament spindle. So far, I've only bought filament from a one supplier from eBay and the way the filament is routing around some of the spools, a small piece of filament protrudes into the center hole of the spindle which interferes with the stock spool holder bearing (see photo). I tried cutting off this protrusion as much as possible but it wasnt enough to stop the interference. This issue made it necessary for me to nurse my print jobs when using these types of spools. Basically, I would have to unspool the filament manually to leave a lot of excess for the extruder to grab so it didnt have to pull on the spool for more material.

I replaced the stock spool holder bearing with a piece of hobby wood stick (see photo) called a "Woodsie". I just so happened to have these laying around my garage to use with other projects. The bearings (R4-ZZ Ball Bearing - 5/8" x 1/4" x .196") fit over the wood sticks really well, nearly a press fit. The wood sticks also fit into the stock spool holder really well also. So I attached two bearings over the wood stick so the spool could freely ride on it. I used a little super glue where I wanted the bearings to to stay on the wood stick even though the fit is tight enough where glue may not even be necessary. There are many improvements that can be done like attaching more bearings or making a new woodsie/bearing with the bearings at a different location to handle different configurations of spools and adding shims to raise the woodsie up a little if more room is needed...or even strengthening the woodsie to handle heavy spools. This was a quick dirty mod (my favorite type of mod) that will suit my needs just fine and maybe others.

STOCK SPOOL HOLDER




FILAMENT PROTRUSION


WOODSIES


BEARINGS ATTACHED TO WOODSIE




MOD INSTALLED ON STOCK SPOOL HOLDER