The spool holder shipped with the Ultimaker2+ is ok and with the new extruder there should be no issues with underextrusion. Depending on the size and type of the filament spool you might encounter squeaking noises from time to time. Surely not serious enough an issue to substitute the spool holder. But what if a spool does not fit on the spool holder and gets completely jammed? That’s what exactly happened with a spool from REC. Time for a new spool holder!
sneakypoo designed a nice bearing based Low friction spool holder and put it on Thingiverse. Thank you! The spool holder requires five 3D printed parts together with two bearings, a threaded rod and a couple of nuts. It comes in two different lengths for big and not so big spools as well as two different diameters to either fit 626 or 608 bearings.
I printed the short 608 version which is sufficient for standard 750g filament spools. The holder is very well designed and everything fit perfectly. Except the spacer which was too long so I had to rasp it down by approximately 4-5mm. A couple of commenters already pointed that out on Thingiverse. So trust them (or me, or all of us) and shrink the spacer in your slicer prior to printing!
The following picture shows the order in which the parts have to be assembled.
The assembled spool holder.
And the new spool holder attached to the Ultimaker.
Check sneakypoo’s video to see what low friction looks like in real life. Awesome!
That thing is virtually noiseless and gives real Jesus gliding action. Luv it!