Efficient Filament spool divider plate system

I've found myself with not enough space in my storage dry-box so I've designed this spool divider system so that I can keep more than one type of filament on a spool and still have all of them accessible and ready to print. I made this to use as little material as possible so that I can use up odds and ends of filament to print the parts and link them together. It should take less than 25g to make a typical segment of a 3-compartment divider for a standard 200mm spool, less than 15g for a 2-compartment one, and it's possible to print all 6 needed segments at once on a printer with just a 150mm square bed.

The design can be printed in 5, 6, or 8 segments depending on how much overhang your printer can handle and it's designed to print without needing any support at all for maximum efficiency. The design has alignment tabs built in to make assembly easy, just push it together! You can add a few drops of acetone or CA glue to the slots before assembly if you want to make it permanent (wear goggles, there may be splash-out when assembling!). There's openings in the side of the divider plates to save material and there's spring-loaded sections near the center of the divider plates to lock it into the holes in the spool you're using.

I've had success printing this in PLA but I'd recommend the use of a more flexible and tough material such as PET-G, in PLA you may encounter issues with the retaining clip springs snapping during installation although that won't stop you from using the spool dividers. This design doesn't need any support and infill shouldn't matter unless you're printing it with very thick walls. I've been successful printing this without using any brim but unless your printer and filament have excellent bed adhesion you might want to add a small brim to make it more reliable. If you use the "save plastic" option then you should also keep an eye on your retraction settings as it'll do a lot of retractions in a small space and you don't want it stripping the filament.

I've supplied the .SCAD file and I recommend the use of OpenSCAD version 2024.01.14 or later as the "Manifold" renderer is vastly faster than the default one and will make working with this design a lot easier. This design works with the OpenSCAD customizer and here's a few of the important settings to consider

• Measured spool dimensions - Please be as accurate as you can, it won't fit right if you get these wrong
• compartments - How many different types of filament do you want to store on one spool?
• max print angle - This is the largest angle from vertical that your printer can reliably produce. If you say 45 degrees you'll get an 8-part ring, 60 degrees will make a 6-part ring, 72 degrees will make a 5-part ring, these are the only values allowed
• thickness - How thick should the walls between compartments be? Too thin will be weak and hard to print, too thick will waste material and leave the compartments too small. As little as 1mm is technically possible but I've found that under 2mm is often problematic.
• save plastic - If you choose this option the divider plates will be hollowed out with a hexagonal grid pattern to save plastic. This only works properly for thinner walls, if you've specified a thickness over 4mm then this option might not actually save material at all
• tab size - How big to make the locating tabs
• tab clearance - This represents how accurately your printer can produce the tabs, smaller values will give a tighter fit and you may need to experiment to find what works well for your printer. I've found 0.3mm is a good fit, 0.25mm is very tight, 0.4mm falls apart.
• spring csa - How stiff to make the retaining springs, higher values will clamp the dividers into the spool tighter at the cost of an increased risk of breaking on insertion.

The design will throw an error if you've picked settings that aren't likely to work, so check the console log if you're not getting any output

I've included some example parts to show what you should get and what's likely to work when you print it.