The answer is a mix of a historical choice, engineering tradeoffs, and an absolutely arbitrary consequence of what 3D printers actually do. Although filament-based 3D printers have been around for ...

Most 3D printers come with a pretty basic filament holder — often little more than a bar to hang the spool on. [Ivan Miranda]’s 3D printers run bigger spools than most, though, so he had to ...

Though the 3D printing hobby is jampacked with do-it-yourselfers, making your own filament is still out of reach for most ...