Wall Mounted Spool Holder - 3D Printing Guardian

3D Printing Guardian Spool & Tool Holder


Disguised as a wall mounted spool holder 3D Printing Guardian watches over the whole 3D printing process. He immediately made our lives easier as now we can replace a spool in seconds. It is especially handy when changing filament for multicolor 3D printing. The idea was to design something functional but with an interesting theme to it. That’s how our 3D Printing Guardian was born.


Wall Mounted Spool Holder – 3D Printing Guardian

We designed the arms and the face in Meshmixer by editing and sculpting its objects. As we have never used the sculpting tool in any other software it took us a while to get the right feel. The fingers were the hardest part.

Wall Mounted Spool Holder - 3D Printing Guardian in Meshmixer
3D Printing Guardian in Meshmixer
(Screenshot: Meshmixer)

3DPG – Wall Mounted Arms

The arms were specially designed in a way that they could be used on a table as well. We have printed the arms and they have already been used for over a month fixed to the wall. They are still strong and stable. Please check our printing settings as it is important to get them right. With the layer height 0.2 we added 8 bottom layers and at least 3 perimeter shells. More bottom layers are needed for the density of the plastic so that the screws can hold well. More perimeter shells should provide extra strength for the vertically printed parts.

Layer height: 0.2
Top layers: 5
Bottom layers: 8
Perimeter shells: 3
Infill: 5%

Even though it is possible to print both arms at the same time, we recommend you to print them one by one. One arm took us 7 hours to print.

The shape for the holes was designed in Tinkercad by using different geometrical objects. It was then imported to Meshmixer, where we made the hole shape solid and with the Boolean Difference option inserted it into five places: two per each arm and one for the head.

Wall Mounted Spool Holder - Hole for the Screw
Boolean Difference Object – Hole for the Screw
(Screenshot: TinkerCAD)

Set-Up Instructions

A tricky moment in fixing to the wall is to get the distance between the arms right so that it all looks proportional. We provided the measurements in the picture below.

Wall Mounted Spool Holder - Measurments
Measurement Instructions
(Image: 3DWithUs)

3DPG Mace – Spool Holder Pole

Instead of using a plain pole we’ve designed in Tinkercad a magic mace for our Guardian. As the majority of desktop 3D printers have a 20x20x20 cm build volume, the mace was split into 3 parts. The ends have treads and can be screwed to the pole so there’s no need for the glue. We also recommend at least 3 perimeter shells for the pole to make sure that this item can hold the load. If your mace’s parts fit too tightly, a little oil can help.

Wall Mounted Spool Holder - 3D Printing Guardian Mace
3DPG Mace – Spool Holder Pole
(Screenshot: TinkerCAD)

Important: Mace is easy to break. Please, do not overtighten it. It is recommended that the thread section is printed solid. Mace End/Head and the thread part connection are very fragile and can break when screwing them together. It has to be made solid as much as possible. If the screw system gets broken, just print out the reinforcement rings. See the picture below.

Reinforcement Rings for a Spool Holder Tube
Reinforcement Rings for a Spool Holder Tube
(Photo: 3DWithUs)

Sculpting the eyes for the face was as hard as the fingers. The gear star was exported from Tinkercad. The Boolean Difference option in Meshmixer was used to customize it to fit the face. Goggles were made out of a ring from the Primitive object selection in Meshmixer. It was made solid and low poly. All three items could be designed as one, but we preferred to print in different colors and use glue. It can still be printed as one if rearranged in Simplify3D. Please watch our YouTube video 3D Printing Guardian – Wall Mounted Spool Holder.

Wall Mounted Tool Holder – Triangles & Gears

We played around in Tinkercad and as a result, we have another themed 3D printing accessory: a wall-mounted mini tool holder. Printable as 1 object plus goggles. Can be printed with the color changes to make a triangle, a gear, the body and the goggles in different colors. Easy to print, with 0.2 layer it takes only 2 hours.

3D Printing Guardian Pen Holder
Pen or Tool Holder
(Photo: 3DWithUs)

Mind the stringing. If you have stringing between the hands in the beginning, then there is a big chance that the fingers will fail.

Read More: The Story

To understand 3D Printing Guardian you have to know his story. The artifact that turned a human into a guardian, Trianglerium goggles, came from a shard that fell from the sky. From then onwards he could only see the world as a mesh, full of triangles.

3D Printing Guardian Comics Thumbnail New
3DPG – The Story & Present Day Comics
(Comics: 3DWithUs)

Read More: The Current and Future Projects

Welcome to the main page of 3D Printing Guardian. 3DPG is not simply a spool holder, but also a comic strip hero and a YouTube channel anchor. In this main post, “About 3D Printing Guardian,” we will briefly go through all of his current and future roles.

3D Printing Guardian - Current and Future Projects
3D Printing Guardian – Current and Future Projects
(Comics: 3DWithUs)

Polymaker Matte PLA Filament on Amazon (affiliate link)

Wall Mounted Spool Holder & Tool Holder – STL Files

Spool Holder:
Thingiverse
Cults3D
MyMiniFactory
Tool Holder:
Thingiverse
Cults3D
MyMiniFactory

Please don’t forget to share your make if you print one.

Wall Mounted Spool Holder - 3D Printing Guardian
Wall Mounted Spool Holder – 3D Printing Guardian
(Photo: 3DWithUs)


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