Sunday, September 23, 2012

A new filament feed for the UP!


My UP! came with a 800 gram reel of filament.  I also bought thee 1 kg reels from the Delta people along with the UP!  Not long afterwards I bought a rather large spool of ABS filament from my usual supplier and had been putting it onto the empty 800 gram reel as I needed it.

This spool to spool transferring was a bit of a pain so when I bought a large consignment of ABS from New Image I had them put it on their own 1 kg reels.  New Image reels looked nothing like Delta's and would not fit onto the UP! spool holder, so I new I was either going to have to print a new spool holder or continue reel to reel transferring.

I was in a hurry with a mechatronic hand project, so rather than use the New Image spools I just unpacked one of my Delta spools instead.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the 1 kg Delta spools won't fit on the UP! spool holder, either.  Totally shocking.

In any case, I went down to the hardware store, bought some plywood, a large diameter bolt and a Lazy Susan turntable assembly.  Here is the new spool holder that resulted.



It works beautifully with both my wide New Image spools and also the 1 kg Delta spools.