New life for my Old Microcenter master spools -- Respooling with PASTA Lite Receiver / Donor

[Ray Price]

I had thought that while I had definitely saved the cost of my collection of original Microcenter masterspools, MC's recent "update" to their masterspools made the old ones useless.

Not so. A while back, I had one of the new MC master spools come apart in my AMS, and hilarity ensued as they say.

I found the PASTA lite Receiver - a Pastamatic Remix - Free 3D Print Model - MakerWorld, and man, if you don't already have a respool solution, this one is the bomb.  Easy to print, and worked like a charm to recover most of the burst spool.

At that point I thought, well this will go on the shelf and probably not be used again for a long time .... Not so.  Going through my archive of unopened filament, I came across a sealed roll of Amaz3D PLA, and thought I'd use it for prototyping, only to find out that the center hole was so small, it wouldn't fit on any of my bed slingers.  PASTA Lite to the rescue, along with the PASTA lite - Donor Spool Roller Beta - Free 3D Print Model - MakerWorld  Set up a MC master spool on the receiver and we were off to the races.

Really well designed, and a breeze to use.

Highly recommend.

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Oooo… A thing of the week!

[Dan Flemming]

I printed the PastaMatic.

  They even have electic variable speed motors for these.

  I have to say, this is quite amazing using my drill as the power source.

  I haven't had time to splice all my short spools to get her yet, but I'll eventually get to it.

Also, I had a welder spool break apart on my mig welder, what a mess, darn near 3/4 spools unusable, but this PastaMatic should save that spools (might not be wrapped as neat as new, but usable none the less).

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[Ray Price]

Yeah, same here.  Using my drill was a breeze, and the design is top of the line.

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[vr...@optonline.net]

OMG Ray - what a GREAT Thread you started!!!Your comment of "master spools come apart in my AMS, and hilarity ensued as they say" - was Great! But, better yet - I gotta find the VERY FUNNY  respooling video I took - of my buddy/co-worker Jarren (who - as a funny joke within the co. due to a Viral video - I called him "my son") - this one time we were at work late having FUN - and trying to respool from a MASSIVE Spool - which I think was like a 5Kg or maybe a 10Kg spool - onto a Smaller spool. I gotta find the video and share it here!

 

-K 

 

------ Original Message ------
From: r...@theraypriceshow.com
To: newmi...@gmail.com Cc: 3d-printing-...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, March 12th 2026, 04:19 PM
Subject: Re: New life for my Old Microcenter master spools -- Respooling with PASTA Lite Receiver / Donor
 

Yeah, same here.  Using my drill was a breeze, and the design is top of the line.

 

On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 12:23 PM Dan Flemming <newmi...@gmail.com> wrote:
 

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[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

I found the Video. Did an upload to YouTube - here it is:   https://youtu.be/VSQ3wcqrcmo

Jarren was a Total Blast to work with. And, although he comes across VERY Goofy and Playful in this video - the dude is INSANELY SMART!!!!

-K

[Ray Price]

LOL, the laugh at the end is great.

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[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

EXACTLY! He was So Hysterical!!!!

[david merten]

Great little clip! How many machines did they have out there?

               David

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[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

Dude - that was at the Essentium Office - where the HSE machines were Developed. Those BIG machines you see in the pic are the 180(single head) and 280(2 head) machines. In that area - maybe like 14-16 machines. But, on the other side of the building - we have like 2 more of those big machines - but, at the end of everything - we had like also  approximately TEN of the new 240 machines - which were smaller - but, in many ways - more powerful and more sophisticated - and they were ALL in Testing - before everything went FUBAR!

I should try and find a pic of one of the 240's - as they WERE at a Big 3DP Show - I think it was FormNext - and it had a great Skin on the machine - that made it look AMAZING!  When I was last working there - I split my time between 280 filament purge testing - and purge testing on the 240's. 

Will admit - writing this makes me VERY Sad - as those times and working at Essentium - was the MOST Amazing Work and Time of my Life!!!!

Sadly - sometimes in Life - the Good Times do not last...

-K