Filament 'pigtails/barrel roll' between spool and extruder as print runs  

RE: Filament 'pigtails/barrel roll' between spool and extruder as print runs

Coincidentally, I have a print running right now which is showing this.  It's a mostly full roll of Solutech PLA.

Twice I've had to take the spool off of the stock spool holder and give it a couple of twists to let it feed straight.

RE: Filament 'pigtails/barrel roll' between spool and extruder as print runs

Update.

I just walked in to check the print, and saw a right-to-left X axis motion of 152mm (the width of the print) and I saw the moving filament push the outermost layer on the spool up to the point that it almost slipped off of the spool to the left.

I'm wondering if a couple of turns of filament were simply pushed off of the spool to the left that caused the twist in the filament.

RE: Filament 'pigtails/barrel roll' between spool and extruder as print runs

Do people manipluate their spools to ensure that they don't pick up a lot of friction and loops?  Is it more an issue with things like PLA?  I think I had a print fail because one of the loops kinked.

I have the MMU2s and I'm looking to do a system where I have all five spools in a drier that will run periodically to keep things dry.  So having to play with spools would be something I have to plan for.

I generally swap spools on and off every few prints or tasks as I make new things, so maybe this isn't an issue if you are taking spools out of service- but with an MMU, I'd like to keep them all active and run a whole spool with out ever touching it.  "Luckily" running an MMU isn't that seemless... so far.

RE: Filament 'pigtails/barrel roll' between spool and extruder as print runs

Posted by: @jsw

[...] I just walked in to check the print, and saw a right-to-left X axis motion of 152mm (the width of the print) and I saw the moving filament push the outermost layer on the spool up to the point that it almost slipped off of the spool to the left.

Thought I responded to this earlier... There's a design for a top-mount spool holder that orients the spool along the X axis instead of Y, with the idea that there is less side-to-side movement in that orientation, and fewer chances of snags. I'm working on a design for my Sidewinder based on that principle. My Mk3 spools are all underneath.

RE: Filament 'pigtails/barrel roll' between spool and extruder as print runs

Posted by: @milehigh3der

Do people manipluate their spools to ensure that they don't pick up a lot of friction and loops?  Is it more an issue with things like PLA?  I think I had a print fail because one of the loops kinked.

I have the MMU2s and I'm looking to do a system where I have all five spools in a drier that will run periodically to keep things dry.  So having to play with spools would be something I have to plan for.

I generally swap spools on and off every few prints or tasks as I make new things, so maybe this isn't an issue if you are taking spools out of service- but with an MMU, I'd like to keep them all active and run a whole spool with out ever touching it.  "Luckily" running an MMU isn't that seemless... so far.

A few comments here.

There's really no standard way people set up their spools, as each user has different needs.

Some use a very simple scheme.  A lady I know who has a printer like mine (without MMU2S) uses the stock spool holder and nothing else.  She puts the whole thing away in a closet when not in use and then puts it on the kitchen 'island' to print something.

Others have extremely elaborate multi-spool dryboxes with fittings for the filament to pass through, even through a wall from an adjoining room.

Mine is kind of inbetween.  I have the printer on a counter in the home office with a pipe rack of spools of filament that I use most hanging from some bookshelf brackets above the printer.  I have the MMU buffer mounted vertically right behind the printer.  On the shelf above I have a couple of those MMU spool holders for 1-2 rolls that are not on the spool rack for whatever reason.  If I use the MMU I'll load either of the above through the buffer and into the MMU, and unload everything when I'm done with the multi-material print.

For single filament printing I'll usually just feed the filament from the spool rack through a guide on the printer and into the extruder.  If it's a filament I don't use that often I'll get out the stock spool holder and use it, as I did earlier tonight, or put it on one of the spool holders on the shelf.  Right now I'm doing window assemblies for a model railroad building with black ABS frames and transparent (translucent) PETg for the panes, both of which I use semi-regularly and are more or less permanently racked up above.

For the filaments I use regularly, I really have not had to worry about them getting wet.  I typically use them up in several months at most and I have a humidity gauge in the office which at most reads in the low 30s.  I have not as of yet had any issues attributable to wet filament.

For the filaments I don't use regularly I have two dry boxes made out of Home Depot storage tubs, each with a cheap humidity gauge mounted on the side with a 3d printed bracket and four of those silica gel dry packs.  When the humidity in them starts to creep up I'll bake the dry packs in the oven for a few hours.  I try not to open the dry boxes unless I need to, as each opening lets more humid room air in.  I use one dry box mostly for full-size spools and the other for respooled tag ends and samples and the like.

I thought about permanently running a few filaments I use most into the MMU.  I gave up on that idea mostly because there are more than five that I use regularly and even with the buffer modifications, it's a pain to change them.  Also, despite my good luck so far with the MMU, it's a point of failure that seems to have a mean time between said failures far less than the Mk3S as a whole.  Just read the forum here.  🙂

That's the way I currently do it.  I'll probably adjust things off and on as needed.  Others have different needs and do things differently than I do.