3D Printed Antenna Radial Storage Spools

My larger multi-band antenna, a Wolf River Coil, comes with a trio of pre-cut radial wires to attach to the legs. No matter how carefully I roll them up into a tied off bundle, the next time I get them out and setup the antenna, I spend a significant amount of time untangling them.

I’ve been thinking about solving this problem with my 3D Printer for a while, but I have a ton of projects like this in the works and it’s taken me a while to get around to it.

While shopping for some other radio parts the other day however, I saw a commercial radial storage spool design in a portable antenna kit that I really liked. It was elegant, practical, and not overly complicated. So I dove into Fusion 360 to draw my own version of the design.

Finished Antenna Radial Storage Spool Design

I exported the design to a .STL file, sliced it up in Cura using the draft .2mm layer height profile and 20% infill with a brim, and zipped it off to my OctoPi for printing in a dark blue PLA+ filament on my silent-steppered (mod) Anet ET5X.

The spool about halfway printed. The nozzle was just a little too far away so I used the blue tape to hold the brim down to the bed!

The resulting spools (I printed three) came out great!

Finished 3D Printed antenna radial spool.
Much better antenna radial storage!

I’ve uploaded the design to Thingiverse if you want to print your own 🙂