When I bought the Afinia H Printer I bought it from USB Copiers, as a bundle with the printer, three extra spools of (Octave) filament in my color choices (Red, Yellow, Black), a set of chisel tools for cleanup, and a head temperature switch (to lower the head temp for the lower-temperature filament, which Afinia says isn’t really necessary. Besides, installing the switch will void the warranty.)

Here’s the thing. The spools of filament Octave makes are much wider than the spool that came with the printer. But the spool holder that came with the printer can only fit the thinner spools.

Here’s where it gets a little meta… I went to the Octave site and found that to fit their spools (and others) I could simply download and print several files that will print new spool holders that you just screw into the printer using the current screws.

The system involves screwing in a universal adapter piece, and then you can just slide in various different spool holders to suit the spool you wish to use.

And with this, you download a new feed system, since the current filament feed holder is a part of the Afinia spool holder.

Weird, right? I can print parts for the printer that’s printing the parts.

Weirder, some models even allow upgrades by swapping out gears and other actual moving parts with new parts printed on the same printer. It’s getting weird out here, folks.