Changing the Dry Box to free wheel...

The Hat

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I have 3 Dry Boxes that all use 1 central shaft to support up to 4 rolls of filament all at one time and small hollow bolts to feed the filament out the front side of the box.

That’s what I had... But now I am in the middle of converting each box over to use individual rails and shafts for the filament reels to run on, so I can easily insert or remove 1 single reel.

I started off with this idea in 1 box, I used a static position for each reel with a central shaft through each bearing and held them in position at either end of the box. Pics (1, 2, 3, 4)
Untitled-4.jpg Untitled-5.jpg Untitled-1.jpg Untitled-2.jpg click to enlarge...

It worked very well but for the fact that not all my current new filament rolls are all the same Feckin size, they vary in width, Hight and core dimensions, the central shaft coped with most of these variations, but the new static rail type couldn’t !.

So I started again, fortunately I had only completed the first box, and was just starting on the second when I noticed my mistakes, so this time I went with something completely different.

I found a STL file on thingiverse.com that might suite, so I altered and cut that file several times in SCAD to get a size and shape that I liked, I then made up a frame to fit both the new rail holders and the Dry box. Pics ( 5, 6,7, 8, 9 ).
Untitled-12.jpg Untitled-14.jpg Untitled-13.jpg Untitled-16.jpg Untitled-15.jpg
I haven’t tested the box out for real yet, but I reckon it will work, because i am waiting on some more bearing to come in the post and I’m also anxious to see how the new bigger bolt outlets cope, when not in use I plug the outlet holes with a tapered bung.

Two more boxes to go..
 

Nifty

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Nice!

Yeah, I really like how smoothly the rolls run on my single-dowel / bearing setup, but it's definitely a pain to switch out individual rolls.

I don't know how much I really trust those bottom-roller systems. I haven't tried one before, but I worry the roll might fall off or bind on one of them.
 

The Hat

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