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"Out of Filament" issues  

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mpeill
(@mpeill)
Eminent Member
"Out of Filament" issues

I've now used a number of filament reels, and allowed the printer to use all the filament, relying on the "out of filament" sensor to provide the check and control of adding a replacement reel.

On every occasion, the sensor has done its job well and pauses the print, waiting for me to unload, reload, and continue. However, also on every occasion, unloading the filament fails, with no filament tail being reversed back out of the feed block. Every time I have to open the idler pulley door and use pliers to carefully extract the tail, worried that I will disturb/damage the ptfe tube or damage the pulleys, then needing to abort the print and start over.

Does anyone else suffer from this, or is there a fix in some way?

Opublikowany : 27/04/2020 5:24 pm
Jimbo70
(@jimbo70)
Estimable Member
RE: "Out of Filament" issues

I have the same problem. I find it depends on how the filament end is attached to the spool.

eSun bends the end and inserts it into the hub. The bent end will always get caught in the filament sensor.

Filament One spools have the end completely free (not bent or attached) and there is no problem. Also, unrelated but a nice feature of Filament One, is the winding is very neat, not haphazard as with eSun.

Spool samples also have no problem - the end is straight and smooth.

Opublikowany : 27/04/2020 9:15 pm
mpeill
(@mpeill)
Eminent Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: "Out of Filament" issues

Yes I understand that, but in my case, while there are still a couple of final rings of filament on the spool, I cut the distorted end off to leave a clean edge......

Opublikowany : 27/04/2020 9:24 pm
Terry Sherman
(@terry-sherman)
Active Member
RE: "Out of Filament" issues

Mine does this even if I cut it off. I have decided it’s because it has a strong bend from being I the middle of spool.

Opublikowany : 28/04/2020 12:03 am
mpeill
(@mpeill)
Eminent Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: "Out of Filament" issues

I wonder if this is related. When I come to unload a filament manually if I'm not going to print for some while, or to change colour, I press the button to unload, and pull out the filament. However, it never offers to feed out by itself in any way, not even the slightest, and I have always got to give it a really strong steady pull.

Opublikowany : 28/04/2020 7:45 am
Dave J
(@dave-j)
Trusted Member
RE: "Out of Filament" issues

@Terry-s4 i agree. I found that I need to cut the kinked end off, then straighten the final 30mm of the filament, this works consistently.

@malcolm when the filament runs out, and you select unload, 20mm+ of filament comes back out of the extruder when it works properly. This is enough to grab hold of and pull.

Cheers,Dave Jackson"Enthralled Nooby (not so much maybe, ~58 years old)... If 3d printers had been around 40 years ago... "

Opublikowany : 28/04/2020 8:02 am
mpeill
(@mpeill)
Eminent Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: "Out of Filament" issues

In my case, nothing is ever fed back out of the extruder. When I open the idler pulley door, the end of the filament is sitting internally at about the same level as the idler pulley.

Opublikowany : 28/04/2020 8:24 am
Dave J
(@dave-j)
Trusted Member
RE: "Out of Filament" issues

This suggests that the end of the filament is kinked, or the diameter end of the filament coil is too tight, this is most likely the reason for it not coming back out when you select unload, because it gets trapped near the pulley. Cut the kinked end and straighten the final 30mm of filament. Try it a few times to see how much you need to straighten the end of the filament

Cheers,Dave Jackson"Enthralled Nooby (not so much maybe, ~58 years old)... If 3d printers had been around 40 years ago... "

Opublikowany : 29/04/2020 8:50 am
mpeill
(@mpeill)
Eminent Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: "Out of Filament" issues

I’ve tried straightening the end of the filament, and looks like you could be right, because this time it worked!! I had previously cut the end straight, but not removed the curve from bring wrapped round the spool.

This is fine when being present when it runs out, but not to be left alone for it to take its course. It might be good to have a menu item to manually change filament on demand when close to the end. That way there would be plenty of filament to pull without worrying about the curve.

Anyway, thanks for your advise, much appreciated.

Opublikowany : 02/05/2020 6:57 pm
With_Maltodextrin
(@with_maltodextrin)
Trusted Member
RE: "Out of Filament" issues
Posted by: @malcolm

It might be good to have a menu item to manually change filament on demand when close to the end. That way there would be plenty of filament to pull without worrying about the curve.

Use the Pause menu option, and then you can choose Load and Unload Filament to swap just as you would if you weren't printing.

Opublikowany : 02/05/2020 9:14 pm
mpeill
(@mpeill)
Eminent Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: "Out of Filament" issues

Oh, I never knew you could use multiple menu functions then resume printing. One more lesson learned, thank you.

Opublikowany : 02/05/2020 9:27 pm
Sembazuru
(@sembazuru)
Prominent Member
RE: "Out of Filament" issues

The few times (recently) that I've run into this issue of the filament not feeding back up even if I clipped the end of the spool, I've found that is actually easier to push the remnant down into the extruder when prompted to open the door and pull the remnant out. Once I've pushed the filament remnant down to almost the top of the PTFE tube, I push it down further with a hex key through the regular filament path. Then close the door and feed in the next filament. Now, if there really is a bad kink, this technique might make things worse though...

See my (limited) designs on:
Printables - https://www.printables.com/@Sembazuru
Thingiverse - https://www.thingiverse.com/Sembazuru/designs

Opublikowany : 05/05/2020 3:58 am
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