Thing-O-Matic Filament Guide by clintkc

Last crawled date: 2 years, 12 months ago

This "thing" is a filament guide for the Thing-O-Matic, requiring no modifications to the machine body. It simply snaps in place of any of your ToMs' top guide-rod openings (uncovered, of course), depending on the location of your spool holder.
My ToM's Z-axis motor wires run into the back/right opening at the top of my ToM, so I designed this guide with a channel for those wires. Your adaptation of this model may require repositioning that channel, or simply adding that channel to all sides of the model (it's up to you... hey, it's a free world here).
This "upgrade" or "modification" piece was designed to snap into any of your ToMs' top guide-rod openings. My print did not "snap" in, but fit well. The base of the model works very well, but the guide arms need to be fully reworked. After using this in conjunction with my own filament spool holder, I now know the geometry needed to make this part work. The guide arms need to be removed & completely redesigned (they are backwards, and their size needs to be increased).
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS!!! PRINT THIS PART AT YOUR OWN RISK & WASTE OF PLASTIC! I have printed this object with success, but it does not meet my requirements yet(and probably not yours).
This "thing" works, but the arched guide arms do nothing & tend to put a lot of uneccessary stress on the "A" axis (filament drive stepper motor) of my Gen-4 ToM. (My filament spool holder needs a bearing, and my filament guide needs the proper geometry.) Yes, this filament holder works (at least the center part works), but the guide arms need to be reversed (per Z axis) so that they hold the filament UP instead of DOWN... (and repositioned somewhat) and they could be a bit thicker, for sure! (If you don't trust me, go ahead and print this object. You'll see.) Everything but the guide arms work great!
Version 2 is located here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:15066