The Goal

To democratize custom carbon fiber tubing for the HB_DFab Capstone, I needed a way to produce consistent, high-performance laminates without the $50,000 price tag of industrial winders. My solution was to engineer a 3-Axis Filament Winder from the ground up.

The machine in operation, laying a ±45° helical pattern on a mandrel.

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1. Mechanical Design: The “Active Eye”

Most DIY winders use a static delivery ring. This causes the fiber to twist and lay unevenly on the mandrel when winding high angles. I engineered a 3rd Axis (Active Delivery Eye) that rotates in sync with the carriage direction.

*Close-up of the Z-Axis rotating the eyelet to keep the carbon tow flat against the mandrel.*

Key Features:

• Motion System: Custom 3-Axis (Rotational Spindle, Linear Carriage, Rotating Delivery Eye).
• The “Spine”: A rigid steel core supports the flexible silicone mandrel, preventing whip at high RPM.

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2. The “Brain”: Klipper & Electronics

Most DIY winders use Arduino (Marlin). I chose Klipper because of its ability to handle high-speed kinematics.

*The full motion system running a dry-wind test pattern.*

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3. The Logic: Solving “Pattern Drift”

The hardest part of this build was the math. Initial tests showed “Pattern Drift,” where the fibers would leave gaps after several rotations. I wrote a custom G-Code Generator that calculates the “Integer + Fraction” ratio to lock the pattern.

You can view the full G-Code Generator tool and try the math yourself in the Project Docs.