Yet Another Overhead Spool Holder for Rep 1, FF, etc. by garyacrowellsr

Last crawled date: 4 years, 8 months ago

There are lots of overhead spool holders, and for good reason: Mounting the spools on the back is just stu... ah, inconvenient. Up top you can easily monitor for snags, view the quantity left, and easily reload, without climbing around the back to see what's going on. And, the filament feeds almost straight downward into the extruder. Mine first passes thru the filament out detector, the hood, my dust cleaner/oiler (a Dremel polishing wheel) and straight into the extruder; no top plate or guide tubes are necessary. Since year zero I've had my spools sit on rollers sitting on top of the fine acrylic hood I got from Dave Randolph. Filament feeds downward through the seam in the top panels of the hood. But I didn't like sitting the spools there because I've always been afraid I'd crack the hood. So its always been my plan to use an overhead holder. But none of the existing ones seem to fit, because they sit on the upper edge of the case, where it would interfere with the hood, and they were usually too short to clear the hood. I also wanted it integral to the case, not free standing. This holder mounts to the upper side of the case, and doesn't interfere with the use or removal of the hood. The spool bar unclips easily to remove and replace spools.