minimalistic filament spool holder, fully printed, for Prusa Mini

I needed a second spool holder for my Prusa Mini. There are a couple of nice ones available, but I wanted to make my own version, for spools of variuos widths, and I wanted it to be minimalistic. I had also made one with pens, but I wanted one where I can just put the spool onto for convenience. So this is what I came up with.

It takes only 41 g of PLA, including printed bearings. The rollers are printed in vase mode, but they are quite rigid, and they come in 3 effective lengths (80mm, 100mm, 125mm for the 2kg Prusament spool). You can use 608 type 22mm ball bearings in them for smooth operation, or you can print some bearings. I included 2 variants. I suggest the roll bearings, they are easy to print, but try a single one first, as that depends on printer and filament. If you feel a bit more adventurous you can try the gear bearing; it requires a bit of work to break free and break in, but it's cooler of course :) Use random seam placement for both of them. Other printed 608 size bearings are available here on Printables, e.g. these.

To expose the infill in the connector strips I placed a modifier block there (right click object, add modifier; see screenshot) with zero top & bottom layers.

I also provide some 3mf files with all PrusaSlicer settings (those with “-prusa”), and some gcode files for the Mini.

Main Parts:

• Perimeters: 4
• Infill: Honeycomb 15% or 20%
• modifier on connector mid part: top & bottom layers: 0

Roller:

• spiral vase mode
• bottom layers: 0
• advanced → extrusion widths: 0.6mm
• (skirt loops: 0)

Bearings:

• layer height: 0.15mm
• seam placement: random
• output options → complete individual parts (if printing multiple in one go)