Hang 'em high

Storing and using filament is a bit of a problem for me. That is to say I haven't found an elegant solution to storing and using my filament that I like yet so most of the time they sit in the boxes they were shipped in on the floor next to my Makerbot. I've kind of always wanted to have one of those hanging filament holders, but I worried the existing solutions weren't sturdy enough. Until I saw Scottbee's soltuion on Thingiverse. I was so impressed that this would be sturdy that I decided to build a whole shelf, thing, around his design.

I toyed with a few ideas how to build it but finally decided I'd need some dowel holders. No prob, I can 3D print those. But all the ones on thingiverse we're quite what I wanted. Why should I use 2 screws to hold it in place? Why can't I use a screw to hold on to the dowel instead? And excepting Zheng3's they were all so bland.

So instead of going with one of theirs I took an hour and modeled my own. Then i decorated it with gears and knobs because... well, no reason. it not like anyone is ever going to look that closely at it. But what's the point of 3D printing something if you can't do it with a little pizzazz?

You can download this model on Thingiverse.

Now, there's a moral to this project, if you can't believe it. Scottbe's hanging rod is branded. He put a little SB on the bottom of it. However, since it works so well without modification, I just left Scottbe's brand on there. Sure, I could edit it out, but why when I don't even need to open up the editor to get what I want. This has happened before with toothpaste holders. There's nothing wrong with a little branding, in fact I encourage it. And if your design works well for me I'll use it with your brand or logo on it. In this case Scottbe's brand was pretty unobtrusive and I say he should make it more obtrusive. make it so I can find your website just by looking at the finished thing, and if you don't already have one make a website for me to find. It's okay to use a free design to build your brand. I'm okay with it at least.