SPOOLCHANGER 5000 (Bambu Lab Spool Swapping Tool)

Important!! This is made for Bambu Lab filament refills specifically, and while it may be possible to use it with other brands, I have not tested them and therefore cannot guarantee that they will work!

So! More in-depth instructions below, but some things have been brought to my attention, so I wanted to include this analysis first:

I wanted to solve two problems with this.

1. It costs extray money to buy a roll with a spool attached, so I wanted to save money there.

2. BambuLab spools don't indicate what color they actually are. The problem is that my method doesn't actually solve number 1. I'll go over why, and then a proposed solution.

I'm rounding numbers a bit for simplicity's sake, but: A roll of BambuLab Basic PLA filament costs $20 without the spool, but $23 with it attached, meaning that the spool part is $3, and the actual filament is $20/kg, or about $0.02/g. The roll I recommended, according to Bambu Studio, uses about 150g of filament, which when you multiply it out, means that it uses about...$3, eliminating any savings you might have. I made the stupid assumption that it would just be cheaper to print it out, to which I was wrong. Of course, if you use more expensive filament, the cost increases, and makes it no longer worth it.

However, this does not solve problem #2: BambuLab spools stil don't indicate what color the filament is. To solve this, my recommendation is that you print the spools according to the 3mf included with the Spider Spool (Link Below) , with the desired filament only on few bottom layers and some other cheaper filament for the rest. This way, your expensive filament only uses 21.46g, which amounts to about $0.43. Of course, the rest of the 128.54g will need to be printed with some other filament. A quick amazon search found a $14 overture PLA, which could be printed at $1.80. This results in a total of $2.23, which is indeed cheaper. Of course, you can experiment with bambulab/offbrand filament ratio, you can adjust the print settings to use less filament, or simply print out a different, lighter roll.

The pros and cons of doing this:

Pros:

*You save money on a spool

*the spool's outer color represents its contents

Cons:

*Takes time and effort to do 

*Uses up filament you probably want to print on other things 

*May not be as sturdy/last as long as Bambu Lab's official ones (I have no long-term testing to confirm or deny this)

End discussion

This is the SPOOLCHANGER 5000, a device designed to save you from ever buying a Bambu Lab filament roll with a spool attached ever again, as well as allowing you to have filament rolls that are held by spools that they printed, allowing for easy filament color identification at a distance.

Link to a spool design by me below, but any spool designed to replace Bambu Lab official spools should work as well!

I highly recommend you watch the video below for instructions (the instructions themselves begin at 4:24), but written ones are included below.

Oh, and uhh… if you save a few bucks through this tip, why not send some of your savings my way in the form of a boost?

1. Print out the SPOOLCHANGER 5000 (any filament will do)
2. Buy a refill that you want to create a spool for from BambuLab’s store
3. Put an official (or any other) spool on the refill
4. Print out a spool using the filament you want to re-spool on the first few layers, and then a different, cheaper one for the rest
5. Insert spooled filament (with the “temperature resistance” text facing down, if you’re using the official one) into the SPOOLCHANGER 5000 such that all 4 of its corners slide in between the filament and the spool itself
6. Undo the spool and let the roll fall into the SPOOLCHANGER 5000.
7. While lining up the tab on the spool with the notch in the cardboard filament roll (just as the instructions the refill comes with dictate), attach the new filament roll
8. Remove the SPOOLCHANGER 5000 while doing the final tightening on the spool
9. Enjoy! Your roll of filament is now wrapped up on a spool that it printed, and you’ve freed up a spare spool to repeat the process if you buy another refill.

Spool design by me: https://www.printables.com/model/1079346-spider-spool-bambu-lab-alternative-spool

Explanation video: