Why Didn't I Think of This Sooner?

Recently I'd been having an occasional problem when leaving my reprap unattended, especially if there was a big new reel of plastic on that barely fit, where the filament being unwound into the extruder would be close to the outer edge of my spool.
After a while of being pushed and pulled with the printhead movements, since the friction on the PLA bushings I used in the spool hub had such low friction, the filament would unwind itself loose enough for one loop to flop off one side of the spool, get caught on something and pull the extruder carriage to one side, skewing the whole piece being printed.

A lad on the reprap IRC channel going by the name DavideV tells me he uses some fancy piece of kitchenware called a Perfect Tear Paper Towel Holder to hold his spool, which apparently ratchets around in one direction providing some tension with a spring to stop kitchen paper rolls from unravelling. I looked around for other similar products to try and find a simple mechanism  that would keep my filament in place, and one was simply using this method of pressure:

SimpleHuman "Tension arm paper towel holder"

Which inspired me to create this:

My Bungee Cord Plastic Filament Retainer (BCPFR) needs to be on quite loose so that it doesn't create the same problem that it's intended to solve.

Glory be to the gaffer, the bungee and the methylated spirit, ramen.

Preventing Jams: Contradictory Constraints

Recently (okay, a couple weeks ago) after leaving my reprap printing while out buying food, I came home to find this calamity:

Extruder body print ended with some wispy filament and then a big gap of nothing.