I’m looking to print a wall mounted spool holder and just wanted to get peoples opinions on the material to use. I’ve loads of PLA lying around that I’d like to use but not sure if it would hold up in the long run.
This is the bracket below. Holding two really light weight aluminum rails and the spool holder would hold a max of 12 spools.
Plan was to print with 20-30% gyroid infill and 5-6 walls for added strength
Your bracket should not fail due to the weight, but your shelf will fail only because your bracket stops movement in the vertical axis. Since your rails will be sitting in the 2 slots on the bottom, your bracket will allow horizontal movement away from the rail, allowing the rails to fall.
I recommend a redesign, to only using 1 rail actually, using a U-channel design (like how you install a closet rail/pole) that will cup the rail. It won’t stop horizontal movement of the rail, but it’ll be more secure and you can make the U-channel tighter to better grip the rail. Since I’m recommending a U-channel design, try looking for a round pole instead of an oval. You can do this with 1 rail and have the spool rest against the wall (unless this section will be floating, i.e., you have 2 pillars the brackets attach to and no wall in between)
There are designs already existing of this type, but I applaud you for wanting to make your own. I’m not trying to deter you, but actually encourage you to redesign as I’m sure you’ll learn a lot!
Thanks for the detailed reply !
The reasoning behind the U-channel is simply because I’ve two spare rails left after removing a wardrobe that I thought could be put to better use instead of being thrown out !
If I’m understanding you right, your saying with this design, there could be a possibility that if force was applied on the inside of the bracket pushing against it and away from the channels, the channels could slip out ?
Yes, any horizontal force applied, whether it be you pushing the rail in or simply knocking one bracket to the left or right, will allow room for the rail to come out of the channel.
If you want to use the existing rail, what I would suggest then is to make the brackets closer to each other. The cut out you have for the rail, make it a thru-hole. This will allow the rail to go through the bracket and any horizontal movement shouldn’t allow the rail to fall out. You want to push the rail to where it’s flush to the other side of the bracket. I can illustrate this for you if you’d like.
This unfortunately means there’s less spacing between the brackets and can affect the amount of spools you can load in.
If you make something out of PLA that is constantly under tension it will start to creep. The PLA is not good at keeping shape over longer times when a constant load is aplied. This model might suffer from that too. PETG would be a better option.
I can just make the cut out a thru-hole and make endcaps that go into the rails and prevent the rail from being pushed out. I think I’d still manage to fit 12 spools on as it had some extra space, just not enough for another whole spool.
Because of the shape of the bracket, I believe the large radius will help it keep it’s shape. The load is placed on the 2 railings, dispersed over several feet onto these 2 brackets, secured with screws into the wall. In certain instances, PLA is stronger than PETG.
Yup that sounds like that should work! Try it out!
Very nice! This should last pretty well. The only failure I would see at this point would be if the spool was placed back kind of hard. That may put some stress toward the upper section of the bracket where it wants to pull out of the wall. It shouldn’t do that but the force would really be like if you’re throwing the spool downward.
Yeah they turned out great. To be honest I’ll be the only one using it and will take care when taking/placing the rolls on the rack. Just need to get more filament now to fill it up !!
Looks great. Just keep an eye on potential sagging over time due to PLA creeping…
Thanks 
. Yeah I’ll be keeping a close eye on it to make sure it holds up. If it does end up failing, I’ll reprint it in PETG or another material !
