http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:168935

It does need a lot of space above the printer though, especially once I decided to extend my foamboard cover over the whole spool holder.

This shouldn't be needed, though some folks have done similar things.

Are you sure you haven't confused X and Y? Looking at the printer from the front, X is left/right.

Yes, thank you elemoret,  I actually meant the Y axis.

The problem - if there is such a thing - should be noticeable when extruding in the X axis, because then all the tension will be on the filament roll and the printer head motor.

And, as you said, this shouldn´t be needed, and probably it´s not. If there is a difference between this solution and the original PVC-pipe, it´s probably only 1/5 of a step.

I can do some testing, and print some objects with the same settings, and report back here

--Thomas

Are you sure you haven't confused X and Y? Looking at the printer from the front, X is left/right.

I don´t know if this is a good idea, or not, but I have created a filament spool arm with a bearing, so the filament roll can roll smoother.

Some times when my SD3 was doing long movements alone the X axis, it felt like the nozzle was struggling hard to drag the filament of the roll. My main concern was that I felt that there was too much resistance between the filament roll and the PVC-pipe that is shipped with the SD3.

And, I have "imagined" that this caused that some of the threads on a straight wall could be inconsistent.

HEre is a pic of the idea,

And here is some video on attaching the filament, and when it´s running:

The best idea would probably be to have the filament on top of the printer, but I don´t have space to put it there, so I have to keep the filament on the back.

Anyone have an opinion?

--Thomas