Spool & bobbin holder for convenient thread matched storage

This is a spool & bobbin holder for convenient thread matched storage. It's a small lightweight peg which allows you to keep your bobbins with thread stored together with the spools the thread originated from without the worry to have to color match your bobbins at a later point.

The special features of the spoolholder are:

• Modelled specifically for super-easy 3D printing
• Can be used with one hand 
• Smart design features that assist with easy of mating, picking it up, and removing the bobbin
• Can be printed as a set of multiple stylish designs or just select your favorites
• Can be easily modified to suit your needs

Will this work on my spools and bobbins?

This design was made specifically for class 15 bobbin and a variety of spools that we had lying around.

Class 15 bobbins fit on a lot of machines, such as the Husqvarna Emerald, and it's likely that this spoolholder model will also fit other bobbins.

If you have calipers laying around, the bobbin inner diameter for this design was 6,3mm and the bobbin height was 11,5mm. The thread spool inner diameter has been tested to work on all diameters between 6,3mm and 8,3mm. Others dimensions are mostly irrelevant for this design.

But the easiest options is likely to just print one. It's about a gram of filament and prints in only a few minutes. After which adjustments can be made to make this work for you.

Multiple designs

Both for style and the ability to differentiate between the spools easily there are multiple designs for the ‘head’ of this spoolholder:

• Bear
• Bunny
• Cat
• Compact
• Flower
• Goat
• Heart
• Moon
• Polygon

Print settings

• Use PETG. This materials is less brittle than PLA and works much better for this type of compliant mechanism. (Printing with PLA is possible, I tested it, but it is much stiffer and is more likely to deform or break over time.)
• Set perimeters to 3 or more. Because you want to only have perimeters and no infill.
• Set layer height as high as you are comfortable (I printed mine with 0.32 layer height on a 0.6 nozzle - for a 0.4 nozzle I would guess 0.2mm layer height is a good start.)
• If printing multiple on the same bed → Choose “complete individual objects”
• Let the print cool down after printing!! I know that you're impatient, but prematurely removing the model from the build plate can deform it and thus changing it's (clamping) function.

That's it! It's a tiny print; so you can experiment a bit one one first before printing more.

Modification

All STEP files are available such that this model can be modified to suit your needs. However, even without 3D modelling skills slight adjustments can be made to adjust this print to your liking:

• If the bobbin just barely doesn't fit (or too tightly) → try resizing the model in PrusaSlicer to only 75% of it's height while keeping other dimensions the same
• If both the bobbin and the spool fit too tightly → try resizing the entire model to 90% size
• If both the bobbin and the spool are too loose → try resizing the entire model to 105% size
• If your bobbin fits nicely, but the spools are way too loose → hit the part with a hair dryer and push the two legs outwards. Wait for it too cool down and try again!

Feedback

Please let me know with comments/images if there is any feedback or any other bobbins that you'd like to see this model adjusted for.