Commercial cable drum unwinders cost ~200€. For my few uses this was just too expensive. So I designed a cable unwinder our of a wooden frame, a aluminum pipe and some 3d printed parts to hold everything together incl. bearings.

My cable drums are of sizes:

• 40 cm diameter x 35 cm width
• 40 cm diameter x 20 cm width

The parts I used are:

• 80x40cm wooded base plate
• 80x20cm wood plates, which I cut in half (40cm x 20cm) for the two sides
• 1m aluminum tube (30mm outer, 26mm inner dimension), which I cut in half (50cm) for the two rollers
• 4x M8x40 imbus screws with nuts
• 4x M8.4x24 washers
• 4x standards bearings 608 ZZ (22x8x7mm)

The 3d printed parts are:

• The insert into the tube. Screw and nut are used to clamp the bearing, insert and a washer. 2 Nm are sufficient
• The attachment, which is mounted to the wooden sides.