I love this project of transformable filament spools because about a month ago I had a dozen empty filament spools, and I went to throw them in the recycling bin because I didn’t have anything else I could do with them. I was trying to think of a project, something I could make out of them, and I didn’t really have the time. They didn’t have any recycle symbols on them, so I hope they got recycled but I don’t really know. So when we saw this project, I was excited.
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Transformable Filament Spools Project
This is eumakers.com. They have their own 3D printer filament spool that their filament is sold on. They give you free 3D models where you print additional pieces to add to the spool parts, and you deconstruct the spool and create these cute objects. They are great DIY projects.
Disassemble the filament roll and convert into lamp stand!
First I want to say that I really respect this company for taking the time and caring enough to design their spool for disassembly. That was critical. A lot of people make one solid mold of a spool, and it’s very hard to do anything else with it except reuse it, but nobody ever ships them back to a filament manufacturer to be reused.
K-Cup stand
They call it a convertible spool. It comes apart, and it converts to a new object. They have some cool things. You know those K-Cup things where you get single serving coffees, and they come in those plastic packs. It’s a K-cup holder. That is a really cool project.
They have an ice cream bowl. It’s a fun bowl. I like it. You could use it for a lot of things beyond just ice cream. They have a headphone hanger and a lamp. I want to do the headphone hanger and have it here for our headphones at the recording desk. We don’t have any of their filament yet; we should get some. It comes from Europe, so it ends up being more expensive with a lot of shipping. I want to buy some just so I can use the spool and make some of these projects.
They thought of everything in this headphone hanger, which I like. Not only can you see that they use the bottom of the spool and what is the centerpiece becomes a stem. The piece you then print that is created on top has this place for your cord to be coiled up and held. It’s for those over-the-ear headphones, like the ones we use. The cord coils up and is out of the way. It’s brilliant.
They have a lamp, too, which is really fun. I have designed a few lampshades that we have 3D printed recently. In this case, I might reuse a spool and then convert my lampshade to fit their part.
You can start with some ideas from their projects and reuse their parts and make them your own. You don’t just have to do what they give you. But they have done a great job. There is also a tablet stand, which is really cool.
I am impressed with this. This should really inspire us. This is what Design Inspiration Friday is all about. It can inspire us for our next project. The scary part about recycling filament spools, I had these college dorm nightmare thoughts that you might make coffee table things out of spools. I really don’t want to see that; I want to see them transformed. That is what these do really well here. You can take something, and with the use of 3D printing added pieces, and transform it into something personal. That’s cool.
That’s the inspirational message for this weekend. Go out and think about a project where you can transform something you were going to throw away, something you weren’t going to use, into something that doesn’t look or function the same way again and really doesn’t look recycled either.
That is what is so great about this. They don’t look recycled. They have taken these spool parts, and as they design the spool, they had to have been thinking about this. What could you use that big flared round section for? It could be a base for objects. If it’s a short object, then you don’t need the middle stem. If it’s a big object, you use the stem. It’s fantastic. Why not make it so you can use these?
Filament spools come ready to disassemble
I was impressed with the filament spool from 3D Print Life that is disassemblable and recyclable. They were making sure it was made from material you could throw under your local recycle bin and it will get recycled because it’s not made of plastic. It’s made of thick chipboard and a steel core. It comes apart easily, and it can be recycled. That is admirable as well.
But I really appreciate not even needing to recycle parts but reusing them in a new way. EU Makers, great job. Really impressed. I’m hoping they continue to do more of these things. And they are free. You can download these files for free. You have to buy some filament first to get the spool you are going to work with, but that’s the way it is.
We hope this has inspired your weekend project!
Important Links
- EU Makers
- Free 3D Models to upcycle your filament spools
- 3D Print Life
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