The Stern-Wheeler is a filament buffer for multi-material-single-nozzle FDM 3D printers. It has a completely enclosed circular design which makes loading filament very easy (see video linked below). Three sizes (mini, standard, and mega) will buffer roughly 640mm, 1068mm, and 1294mm of filament respectively, and can be printed on square 250mm, 300mm, and 350mm (or larger) print beds.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Z2WNvIMlSTY?feature=share
Printing instructions:
- Designed to be printed in ABS but will likely work with other materials. If you mix materials make sure that they have equal amount of shrinkage.
- 2 perimeters, 15% infill for wheel
- 4 perimeters, 40% infill for everything else
BOM
- 2x 608 Bearings
- 12x M3 heatset inserts
- 12x M3x8 or M3x10 cap screws
- 2x M5x16 button head screws
- about 550g of filament (6 lane standard size)
Assembly instructions:
- Refer to exploded view. ;-)
Change log:
5/22/2023
- Centered bearings in the wheel. The wheel should be (slightly) more stable.
- By popular demand I added parts for a 9 lane version. This has not been tested by me. Keep in mind that more lanes means more friction.
5/10/2023
- Lengthened axel to interface with a pocket added to the cover, and enlarged the spacer to fit around the axel. This improves wheel alignment during assembly, and makes the wheel installation more robust. See section view added to pics below. (I had a situation where the filament spool got jammed causing the extruder to pull the filament hard enough to misalign the wheel. This change is meant to prevent this.)
- Remodeled the wheel-mount so that it overlaps the joint between lane #1 and the wheel. This will prevent the thin wall of lane 1 from deflecting and making a gap where filament can escape.
- Added embossed "F" and "B" to the front and back of the wheel to aid during installation.
- Reversed wheel print orientation - it now prints on it's front face instead of the back face. This prevents possible wheel misalignment caused by drooping filament in the bearing pocket bridges.
To update an existing stern-wheeler with these improvements, print and install the following parts:
- wheel-mount
- axel
- spacer
- cover
teookie
