I bought my first 3D printer in spring 2020. If it weren't for Covid, I might still be only talking about being interested in 3D printing, but I would never have gotten into it and bought a printer. After months of waiting, the printer arrived, and I had my first Prusa MK3S. Half a year later, it was not enough for me, and I borrowed another MK3S from my friend. And the next year, I bought another Prusa Mini.

Each printer has its own IKEA LACK table by the wall and a window. That was a problem because I like to print from 2.5 kg of spools. You can't put them on spool holders from Prusa, and there was no space around the window where such large spools could be put to spin without any problems.

I had a few quick short-term solutions but nothing long-term. Later, I had an idea to buy a trolley HORNAVAN and put it between the LACK tables. It fit precisely between them.

I used the lower floors of the trolley to store maintenance stuff such as pliers, isopropyl alcohol, spare parts, etc. However, I wanted to use the upper floor for a filament spool holder.

The ready-made solutions online did not work for me; they were massive and did not fit in the trolley. At the same time, I wanted a solution that would allow me to easily remove the spools and not have to screw in something every time. I started thinking about my own design.

The idea was to make two bodies, which I screw into the trolley and connect with a cylinder that will not move in the holder; the spool will rotate on it. I started by sketching the idea on paper.

A day later, I had it thought out and sketched it in Fusion 360. The total height is 172.5 millimetres, the width 215 is millimetres, and the thickness is 1 centimetre.

To be able to screw the stand into the trolley, I also had to make space for screws. I made a cutout for screws about 2.3 millimetres in depth and 6 millimetres in width. At the same time, I made the cutout much longer (13 millimetres) than seemed necessary, but I wanted to ensure that the screw would fit into my trolley without any problems.

The print was fast. One stand was printed in about four hours; I needed a total of four pieces (two for the MK3S and two for the Mini printer).

Removing supports from the screw area was a bit of a hassle, but with long narrow pliers, it was easy.

When I screwed the stand into the trolley, I was very happy that I had made a bigger cut for the screws. It was impossible to calculate precisely where the screw would fit into the trolley.

What I haven't explained yet are the strange protrusions in the semicircle. I thought they would serve as a handle for the cylinder. On the cylinder would be a spool of filament; thus, the spool will rotate on the cylinder, while at the same time, it would be very easy to remove the spool from the stand.

I modelled the cylinder with the edges to keep it on the stand and with a cut-out hole on both sides to fit it on the stand. The cylinder has a total length of 129 millimetres, of which 123 millimetres are dedicated to the spool. The diameter of the cylinder is 41 mm (but the narrower diameter of the spool is 35 mm).

I needed only two cylinders. Until this moment, I wasn't sure if the idea would work, i.e., if the roller would hold in the stand and if it would be easy to manipulate, but it turned out that I was afraid for no reason. It fit perfectly.

I was concerned about putting on and taking out the spools and simply sliding the cylinder into that protrusion. This was another false alarm; it always fits perfectly and easily. All I have to do is move the cylinder a bit and it slides into the hole in the cut, even if there is a 2.5-kilo spool on it.

The spools on the stand rotate, and the system works for both MK3S and Mini and for both regular one-kilo spools and the large 2.5-kilo spools from fillamentum.com, for example.

So far, I’ve had the stand for about half a year, and it prints well with it; I have no complaints yet. It is a compact, simple, and quite nice-looking solution.

STL file

• Universal spool holder