[MK4S in Prusa Enclosure with tube attached] Empty spool - how to change midprint?
Today, I started a print knowing that the spool would run out before the print finished. I had a replacement spool ready in advance. For context, my printer is inside the Prusa Enclosure.
When there were about 10 cm of filament left in the tube, the printer homed and purged. When prompted to confirm whether the unload was successful, I selected "Yes". However, I then got stuck on a screen asking me to remove the remaining filament from the sensor, which is not possible due to the mounted tube. To resolve this, I had to remove the QSM-M5 fitting on the extruder to extract the rest of the filament.
This led me to two questions:
- What is the recommended procedure for replacing an empty spool during a print when using a printer inside the Prusa Enclosure (with the tube attached)?
- Out of curiosity: How did the sensor detect that the filament was about to run out, even though there were still about 10 cm left in the tube?
As a suggestion to avoid having to remove the QSM-M5 fitting on the extruder, I’d like to propose adding a "Tube Attached" option in the printer settings. If enabled, the printer could fully purge the remaining filament, allowing me to simply push the new filament into the tube and seamlessly load it into the extruder.
RE: [MK4S in Prusa Enclosure with tube attached] Empty spool - how to change midprint?
The tube is a push to connect. Push down on the plastic ring on top of the fitting and you can pull the tube right out. Then pull out the small piece of filament and reconnect the tube by just pushing it on.
RE: [MK4S in Prusa Enclosure with tube attached] Empty spool - how to change midprint?
Thank you for your response. However, I recall reading somewhere that frequently pulling it out and pushing it back in may cause wear, potentially requiring the replacement of either the tube or the QSM-M5. In any case, this seems more like a workaround - I wouldn’t expect to have to disassemble part of the printer just to replace an empty spool, would I?
RE: [MK4S in Prusa Enclosure with tube attached] Empty spool - how to change midprint?
It's not disassembling the print, it removing a consumable tube from a quick release that is designed to release it. It should not damage the tube at all. But even if it does a metre of tube only costs a couple of quid/euros/dollars.
Regarding what to do, before I had the mmu I used to just feed in the new filament as the previous ran out so that the new was butted up against the old, when the new was picked up by the pg you can stop feeding. The printer carries on like nothing has changed