Filament box / Spool holder / dry box

Features:

• Takes spools from 50mm up to 95mm width, with a 200mm diameter
• No need for bearings or fancy hardware (only 3x10 and 3x20 bolts needed, or similar)
• Can run on its back just fine!
• PTFE Tube can be fitted in two ways
• Low friction, self centering rollers inside
• Easily loaded / unloaded
• Straight forward printing
• Can be fitted with a 45mm x 25mm hygrometer
• Smal foot print 
• Customizable

Printing:
Depending on your preferences, you might print at least bottom and lid in their given orientation. They'll print fine without support, except the latch_splitted. If you are uncertain about your printers bridging capabilities, use support for the lid. For the latch however, a brim is needed. 

Due to the parts sizes, youll need at least a printable hight of 215mm on your machine. This is also true for the X, Y dimension of your printbed. Maybe youll be able to fiddle with the parts orientation to get it going on smaler printers but i wont bet on it.

I used a 0.6 nozzle, 0.35mm layer hight and two perimeters with 15-20% infill for lid, bottom, tags and latches. This made the print reasonably fast and sturdy enough. 0.15mm layer hight for flange, screw_cap and cap will work fine as well. For them i used a 0.4 nozzle. I didnt try them with the 0.6 one, so feel free to try it your self.

Assembly:

1)  Put rollers(6x) into bottom

Make sure to rotate them in such a way that the markings “INSIDE” will face the opposing roller. The BIGGER diameter of the roller must ALLWAYS be on the spool boxes inner side.

Start bolting the rollers with the outside first. The inner side is best be fastened then by holding the bolt in place and spinning the roller with your fingers. 

M3x10 up to M3x20 bolts will work here, but the shorter ones are installed more easily of course

All six rollers in place. Make sure not to tighten them to hard and to leave them spinning freely

2) Fit the lid

Just put the lid on the bottom part and put one bolt in each side of the big hinge on the back. 

M3x18 up to M3x30 bolts will work here

3 a) Version A (Filament OUT on the lid)

Fit the flange part on the lid and the cap on the spool boxes bottom. 

M3x8 up to M3x12 will work here. I choose M3x10 to make swapping the part later faster.

Fasten the latch down to the lid with two bolts and slide your tag in place

Screw on the screw_cap down on the flange. you might need to fasten and thighten it several times to work the threads free. This is done without PTFE tube

M3x12 up to M3x30 will work here. No bolts needed for the tag of course

3 b) Version B (Filamet OUT on the bottom)

Fit the flange part on the bottom and the cap on the spool boxes lid. 

Screw on the screw_cap down on the flange. you might need to fasten and thighten it several times to work the threads free. This is done without PTFE tube

M3x8 up to M3x12 will work here. I choose M3x10 to make swapping the part later faster.

Fasten the latch_splitted down to the lid with two bolts and slide your tag in place

M3x12 up to M3x30 will work here. No bolts needed for the tag of course

4) Slide in the plug

Press the plug in place with force. You can push it back out from the inside later.

If you fancy, you might also use a 45mm x 25mm hygrometer instead the plug

DONE!

Notes:

Will this last without “proper” bearings and why are the rollers cone shaped?

They are shaped like this to make the spool “self center” in the spool boxes middle. By this the spool wont touch the walls, which makes it low friction. by the way, this is how trains stay on theyr rail roads, just “backwards”.

I have my verry first prototype (for 50mm spools) still in work up to this day. This unit (white one) saw around 3.5kg material go trough and is just fine! The other ones are not frequently in use anymore but are fine too. So, no metalbearings are no problem i guess. If you fancy, you can remix the rollers your self to accomodate bearings of course

Why are there different tags to chose from?

The tags where concidered to be a filament swatch and to be made from the material currently inside the spool box. The blank one can be writen on with additional information, the striped one is more like a design element. In the end you can modify them to your own needs though. 

CHANGE LOG 27.08.2023:

Added A Gasket for the cover and plugs for the screw holes.  This weatherproofs the box even more. They are intended to be printed out of flexible filament. The Plugs however might also be printed out of other materials and be glued in place

CHANGE LOG 23.04.2023:

Added two Flange parts to fit your own metal PTFE-tube connector to. One version to screw the connector right in and one version to drill to your desired diameter first. The second version features a 5mm pilot hole for this purpose.

CHANGE LOG 21.03.2023:
Widened the inner diameter of the flange part (the one for attaching yout PTFE tube to) to make it more easy to slide slightly thicker tubes in. Thicker tubes regards to manufacturing inconsistencies on theyr outer diameter

Part for the desicant holder 
https://www.printables.com/de/model/425209-universal-high-volume-desicant-holder-for-silica-g