This is a great mod. It's worth mentioning that my bearings had so much drag from the factory (between the grease, balls and the seals) that the filament spool would just SLIP on the part called "outer cylinder" instead of actually turning it, defeating the whole purpose. The fix for me was to remove the rubber seals from the bearings, wash out the factory grease (e.g. with IPA), then re-lubricate the balls with lower viscosity lubricant. Now it works like a charm.
Ideas for improvements: I'd like to be able to directly hold the spool onto the outer cylinder since my filament spools often 'walk' off onto the high-drag stationary clear plastic factory part of the hub. I can imagine several ways to do this. The ideal method would hold the filament such that the entire F-Box could lay on its side if desired (i.e. on its actual feet), while having the bearings carry the spool instead of dragging on the inside walls of the F-Box. (edited)
@karlfife_1116878 One of the problems I ran into was that some of the ID of spools I have don't have enough room for me to make the inner cylinder any bigger, and some spools were too wide to have the bottom flare out. You're welcome to remix, or if you like I can send the STEP files.
This is a great mod.
It's worth mentioning that my bearings had so much drag from the factory (between the grease, balls and the seals) that the filament spool would just SLIP on the part called "outer cylinder" instead of actually turning it, defeating the whole purpose. The fix for me was to remove the rubber seals from the bearings, wash out the factory grease (e.g. with IPA), then re-lubricate the balls with lower viscosity lubricant. Now it works like a charm.
Ideas for improvements:
I'd like to be able to directly hold the spool onto the outer cylinder since my filament spools often 'walk' off onto the high-drag stationary clear plastic factory part of the hub. I can imagine several ways to do this. The ideal method would hold the filament such that the entire F-Box could lay on its side if desired (i.e. on its actual feet), while having the bearings carry the spool instead of dragging on the inside walls of the F-Box. (edited)
@karlfife_1116878 One of the problems I ran into was that some of the ID of spools I have don't have enough room for me to make the inner cylinder any bigger, and some spools were too wide to have the bottom flare out. You're welcome to remix, or if you like I can send the STEP files.
@StephanieS_86341 Thank you! That would be amazing if you could provide STEP files!