The FlashForge Adventurer 3 is truly a fantastic 3D Printer, but because it was designed for environments like classrooms, it is built with a small, enclosed filament loading bay to keep small fingers out of harm’s way.

Unfortunately, while we do understand the thought-process behind the design, we’re not big fans of it, since it means that it doesn’t naturally fit the nice big spools that we sell.

However, this is very minor and easy problem to fix (since you now own your very own 3D Printer!) and you can simply print yourself a cool adapter by using the small filament spool that is included with the FlashForge Adventurer 3.

In fact, you can even choose between multiple different spool holder adapters, with each offering a distinct advantage over the other.

So, for your very first functional print (which is what 3D Printing is all about for many Makers) check out the following cool adapters, so that you can move on to larger spools of exciting colours and exotic polymers without hassle, and of course, if you run into any problems along the way, we are right here and ready to help.

  • The Adventurer 3 Spool Holder Extender : This is the same adapter that we use in the office on our own Adventurer 3, and we’ve enjoyed over 500 hours of printing now without any problems at all. The unit simply slides onto the end of the existing spool holder peg, and fits perfectly with a snug grip thanks to the small slots included near the top.
  • The Adventurer 3 Spool Holder Adapter with Stabiliser : This is a slightly more interesting design that is a simple extender, but also includes a small stabiliser that fits flush with the small gap where the cables go. However, we felt that this was unnecessary, and because we impatiently just wanted to get straight to printing, we opted for the simpler design instead. However, this design is clever, and if you are patient, this may even be a better choice compared to the simpler design.
  • The Adventurer 3 Spool Holder with Filament Guide : Although we personally felt that this next design was a little over-engineered, we do feel like it’s a valuable addition to this list. This spool holder adapter features a small arm at the bottom for the filament to run through in order to help prevent tangles on the spool. This is enhanced even further with the option for adding a Bowden Tube from the guiding hole to the filament intake hole, which doesn’t necessarily offer any major benefits, but certainly does look neat with a professional appeal.
  • The Adventurer 3 Spool Holder with Hinge : While this is a really cool design, with a bend halfway along the adapter to accommodate the filament better, but we can’t help but feel like there is more potential for this adapter breaking compared to the previously mentioned adapters. As such, while it is a great design, we still recommend an adapter that doesn’t have moving parts.
  • The Adventurer 3 Spool Door Cover : This spool solution takes a slightly different approach, and instead of a spool holder, this is a design for a door for the side of the Adventurer 3 filament loading bay. This allows you to use almost any standard desktop spool holder, with a small gap to allow the filament in from almost any angle you need. And while it may not be necessary for an average Maker to require a door, it can certainly be very beneficial in classroom type environments, in which curious little learners run the risk of hurting themselves on the drive gears – which is really the only potentially dangerous part inside the filament loading bay.

As a final consideration, be sure to check out the printing instructions and recommended settings on each page before printing, as some of these may require a specific settings like infill percentage. Additionally, it’s important to remember that learning is all a part of the fun with 3D Printing, so don’t be scared to experiment with various settings or with different filaments once you’ve gotten your first spool holder printed, and, as always, we are right here to assist if you run into any major problems along the way.

 

The following two images demonstrate how you can use the included filament to print your very own spool holder, which is quite exciting since it encourages users to immediately begin printing genuinely functional prints – offering a great feeling of accomplishment when you take your first ever print off the bed and attach it directly to your new favourite functional fabricator.

 

 

 

Additionally, you may be pleasantly surprised at the “Out-Of-Box” quality this machine is capable of, and we were quite delighted to find that we could simply set the infill to 20% (As per the Thingiverse instructions) and produce a fully functional model that not only worked well, but looked great too!