filament ball bearing holder for Ender 3

This is an upgrade for the filament holder of the Ender 3D. The upgrade consists of 2 ball bearings, that can be printed directly in on piece, 2 brackets (consisting of an upper and a lower part) and a spacer. The brackets are fixing the bearings and prevent the filament from falling down. When the bearings are installed correctly, the filament can be pulled of smoothly, which avoids unneccesary tension in the filament while printing.

This upgrade is intended for filament rolls with an inner diameter of at least 73mm and a width of ~65mm. For other widths, the spacer needs to be adjusted.

Printing hints:

I used PLA for printing, Nozzle 0.4mm. The brackets and the spacer were printed in draft mode (0,2mm layer height).

For the bearing I’ve printed it in 0,1mm, this worked for me. I tested it in 0,2mm as well, but the movement was not very smooth, so I would recommend at least 0,1mm. The bearing balls need support for printing, otherwise I got the problem, that they were ripped of the panel while printing. The bed needs to be adjusted very accurate in order to gain maximum stability during print.

After printing, the bearing balls probably need to be loosen (and the support structure removed) in order to get the bearing working.