FlashForge Finder Filament Spool Holder

The FlashForge Finder has a build in spool holder, but it only holds the relatively small FlashForge reels. I generally want to buy 1kg reels and from other suppliers, so after recently acquiring a laser cutter, this seemed like a good first project. I designed this holder to sit next to the printer, held in place by a hook to avoid any chance of it falling over, and to hold 1kgs spools.

I designed this in Shapr3D - I would include the native document of the entire design but that is not currently a supported file type for Instructables.

You need:

• 3mm MDF (plus enough around to cut cleanly):
• 2 x 200mm x 350mm
• 1 x 75mm x 350mm
• 1 x 75mm x 200mm
• 2 x 4mm bolts to hold the hook.
• Filament (ideally red).
• Spray paint (option, ideally black and red).

You need a 3D printer (presumably you have one!), and a laser cutter.

Laser cut the four pieces. The tabs are 3mm x 20mm and the slots are 3mm x 19.5mm. For my wood and my laser cutter, this resulted in a reasonable fit. The left and right side are mirror images, so you can probably use the same dxf for both unless your wood has different faces. Technically one of the sides could not have the two 4mm holes in it, but that allows the holder to be attached to either side.

Optionally spray paint the wood. This covers any burn marks from the laser cutting. I chose to paint the sides black and the back and bottom red to match the colour scheme of the FlashForge Finder.

Glue the sides, back and bottom together. The slots should help hold it together. Any glue should do, strength shouldn't be much of an issue.

The feed routes the filament into the feed tube. Rotate the STL to print with the side with the largest area at the bottom and no supports should be needed. When the glue is dry, push the print into the slots at the top. You can glue it in if necessary - mine was a tight push fit so I left it at that.

The hook grabs on to the bottom left (or right) edge of the FlashForge Finder to help hold the spool holder in place. Rotate the STL so the larger side with the two holes is at the bottom and no supports will be needed. Attach the hook to the side of the holder with two M4 bolts. You can bolt all the way through and use nuts, but my 3D printed holes were slightly undersize and so I just screwed relatively short M4 bolts from the inside through the wood and in to the Hook.

Rotate the STL so the large round side is at the bottom and it should print without any supports.

The assembly attaches to the side of the FlashForge Finder and the hook holds it in place. The axel slides through one side, through the filament spool, through the far side and then just drops down to lock in to place. The weight of the spool holds the axel in place. Feed the filament through the Feed, and the feed tube and into the printer.