the reel holds 100ft of cat6. the center of the reel houses a panel-mount rj45 coupler, not only for easier use, but mainly for protecting the rj45 connector at the other end of the cable.

an old inland PLA spool from microcenter is the main component of the ethernet reel. a 100ft cat6 cable is reeled around, connecting to a panel-mount right-angle rj45 coupler in the middle, through a hole in the spool. this is held into the spool with a 3d-printed holder.

the entire reel can be used in conjuction with the 3d printed stand, which attaches to the spool with a 3d printed print-in-place bearing. the stand is triangle-shaped with a hexagonal grid pattern to optimize strength and material use.

the history is simple — i had empty filament spools waiting to be used for something, and i also had a 100ft ethernet cable that had no storage solution besides the plastic zip bag that it came in.

a lot of my volunteer work focuses on live event production — more specifically thae av side. being able to have a manually retractable ethernet spool allows the whole team to have connectivity from the front of the venue to the production tables in the back.

through different protocols such as avb, dante, rednet, aes67, etc., ethernet cable can be used to bridge multiple av devices together. we’ve mainly used ethernet cable to connect audio snakes on-stage to the audio mixer in the back of the venue, allowing us to mix audio from the prime location.

this project was pretty simple to research for. i took some used filament spools, and i measured, designed, printed, and fit some center caps to confirm the diameter of the center holes. this allowed me to design both sides of the spool center caps — the side that houses the bearing to attach to the stand, and the side that houses the female rj45 connector.

i ordered said connector, making sure that it was panel-mountable with a retention screw to simplify the design process. i made sure that it fit in the hole, and it was perfect!

the stand was fun to design. i had to learn how to create patterns to extrude-cut, and it turned out great. all the parts were printed in tough pla, ensuring the highest strength with the least amount of hassle.