Spool Rack for Enclosure

I wanted to take advantage of some dead space at the top of my enclosure to store more than one spool at a time in it. 

This model was designed to use 3/8" oak dowel rods I found at the big box home center near me. I have included a quick print model, Test - Bracket Hole, for you to use to size the dowel rod appropriately. I printed this so I could test fit with the dowel sizes available at the store near me. Also, I recommend you sight down the length of the dowels to make sure they are reasonably straight before committing. I sifted through about 20 at my store before I found 3-4 that were somewhat straight. 

In case you prefer metric, the holes for the dowels are 10mm in diameter so a dowel 8-9mm in diameter should work well though if it is not an interference fit I would suggest using some hot glue or something to hold the brackets in place once they are in position.

Getting them in position can get tricky but I was able to get all 6 brackets in position in my configuration relatively easily once I started putting spools in. The spools seem to help keep everything aligned since the axle and bracket have a nesting bit to keep the axle from sliding out. The spool adapter plates help hold the axle in place and keeps everything from moving around so much. I found without these the spools were much more difficult to place in the rack and would wobble around more while printing.

The mounts for the ends of the dowels are made to clip onto the fiberglass rods in my store bought enclosure which are 8mm in diameter. I have included a model, Test Frame Mount, for you to print very quickly to see if it will work in your frame if you have a similar soft-sided enclosure. I highly encourage orienting the model in your slicer so the circle side is on the build plate for all frame mounts. I printed some of the side mounts so that the layers were in the long orientation of the clamp part and the clamp split at the layers immediately.

All of the provided models should be correctly oriented for slicing/printing and only the Frame Mount - Side model requires supports.

Print the following:

4 - Frame Mount - Top - Should be able to orient the model as is.

2 - Frame Mount - Side - One of which should be mirrored along the flat support so the clamp is facing the other way. Requires tree supports for the part that mounts to the dowel rod.

2+ - Bracket - Requires minimum of 2. Each additional bracket after the first 2 will support an additional spool. (e.g. I printed 6 brackets to support 5 spools.) - I printed these with 3 walls, 3 top/bottom layers, and 10% grid infill and they have been working fine.

1+ - Axle - One required for each spool

2x #Axles - Spool Adapter Plate - Choose the one that works for your spools. Spool adapter plates have 20.5mm ID.

If you would like me to make spool adapter plates for any other brands of filiment, let me know what the measured ID of your spool is. Also, it helps to know if the spool is plastic or cardboard. Cardboard spools tend to have 3-4 mm thick walls in my experience. Plastic spools have a tendency to taper out near the edges so that the middle of the spool ID is a different diameter than the outside edges where the plates go. My plastic spools also have a tiny bit of filament sticking out in the ID near the edge that needed to be trimmed back a little.

The Axle has worked for all the 1kg spools I have currently though YMMV. If you would like me to provide a longer axle for a spool let me know how thick the spools are at the widest point.