instructables

3D Printed Spool Storage

by charlie-nino

Hello! My name is Charlie Nino and I’m a 4th-year Mechanical Engineering student at San Jose State University. I’m the
acting president of our University’s American Society of Mechanical Engineers Club (ASME). For my project, I wanted to
nd a way to repurpose the lament spools we use in our club. After seeing the rolls of lament we go through, I got the
idea to repurpose and design something to help store small items for our club. One of the leading issues with lament
spools is the waste they cause when thrown away or even placed into a recycle bin. I’ve found a way to repurpose in
particular the spools we use for our club projects to help nd alternatives to the trash.
Supplies:

In order to complete my project, I needed the following materials:

Empty Hatchbox PLA 1.75 mm Spool
Metallic Red Hatchbox PLA 1.75 mm Spool
Metallic Yellow Hatchbox PLA 1.75 mm Spool
Metallic Green Hatchbox PLA 1.75 mm Spool
3 #8 Screws
Ender 3 Printer
Cura Slicer Software
Fusion 360 Software

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Step 1: Fitting Design

I tried to nd the measurements of the spool online, but I was only able to nd the outer diameter of the spool to be 200
mm. However, this allowed me to nd all the other measurements for the spool using my caliper in millimeters. I started
by nding the inner diameter of the spool’s lament compartment, which I found to be 80 mm. I also needed the

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thickness of the spool compartment, which I found to be 60 mm. The last measurement I needed was the positioning of
the hole from the quarter point of the spool. I found this to be 9 mm horizontally and 4 mm vertically.
Now that I had the measurements done, I was able to make a small model of each cabinet. I didn’t want to make the
tting 60 mm tall to save cost. I was really con dent that I measured 62.3 mm for the spool’s lament compartment’s
thickness. I wanted to be shorter than that at 60 mm to allow space to screw in additional spools to stack them. I also cut
out the lling of the tting because I only needed the border to verify the tting of the pin through the hole and the part
in the spool.

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 View in 3D Download

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F1M/CRPZ/L5JM65WC/F1MCRPZL5JM65WC.f3d

Step 2: Fitting Fabrication

I ended up printing four ttings to verify my system. Each print came out really well and allowed me to continue my
design process to the nal cabinets.

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Step 3: Quarter Cabinet Spool Design

I started with a quarter cabinet for the spool. In order to do so I made a quarter-circle sketch in Fusion360 that I extruded
up 60 mm. I then made a 3.4 mm hole in the piece for the screw to go into. Once this was completed I shelled the object
with a 6 mm wall thickness. I also added a handle protruding out from the opposite side of the screw hole. Finally, I used
the “ llet” feature to round every side of the cabinet so that it wasn’t a tight t.

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 View in 3D Download

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F9F/M0ZQ/L5JM65QQ/F9FM0ZQL5JM65QQ.f3d

Step 4: Quarter Cabinet Spool Fabrication

I printed the quarter cabinet twice in the Metallic Yellow and Metallic Green Hatchbox PLA lament we had in the club
room. Each print took roughly 10 hours to complete and cost 78 grams of lament on our Creality Ender 3 printers
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Step 5: Half Cabinet Spool Design

Rather than using a quarter-circle sketch like in the previous cabinet, I made a semi-circle sketch. However, I repeated
each step from the quarter cabinet to complete the half cabinet design.

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 View in 3D Download

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FTD/HQTJ/L5JM65RF/FTDHQTJL5JM65RF.f3d

Step 6: Digital Assemblies

I created a virtual assembly to verify that the cabinets t. I've included the spool that I used to verify the tting. You can
use the spool to make your own designs that will t in the Hatchbox spool!

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https://www.instructables.comhttps://a360.co/3PuTdvn

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https://www.instructables.comhttps://a360.co/3uOYVR1

https://www.instructables.comhttps://a360.co/3PtaMfh

https://www.instructables.comhttps://a360.co/3yKya12

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 Download

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FR7/BF00/L5MH4KX0/FR7BF00L5MH4KX0.f3d

Step 7: Half Cabinet Spool Fabrication

I printed the half cabinet once in the Metallic Red Hatchbox PLA lament. This print took roughly 17 hours to nish and
cost 136 grams of lament on our Creality Ender 3 printers.

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Step 8: Testing

Once all three of the cabinets were complete, I screwed them into an empty Hatchbox spool using #8 screws. Each t
great and had additional space to stack more spools above. Over the course of this challenge, the club used the spool
storage to hold small printed parts that other groups made to pick up. After the competition, the spool storage is
currently being used to hold di erent-sized screws.

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Step 9: Final Models

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Step 10: Future Plans

With my current model, a kilogram spool of Hatchbox PLA will create 3 and-a-half spool storage. I’d like to make further
improvements to increase the amount of spool storage we can make with a one-kilogram spool. I think I could also try
taking out a wall and replacing it with plexiglass to reduce the amount of lament used.
Nice job on the design!

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