Spool horror
Does anyone have any tips on spools that are wound really bady? I have this spool of PRUSA orange PLA that has cause 5 failed prints already and I'm not even half way through the spool!
I've started designing a mandrel uncoiler for my spools. It will support spools with different size center holes. I think that unwinding the spool at the same speed at the feeder will prevent this from happening. If the filament isn't able to tighten down on itself this problem shouldn't occur.
Re: Spool horror
I don't see how that can happen unless somehow the free end got 'under' one of the other wraps. That's supposed to be impossible- UNLESS you clipped it off one time without holding onto the filament to keep it from 'sproinging' out of control.
Re: Spool horror
I can see why that is causing issues. Have you actually pulled the filament THROUGH the knot?
In theory, as mentioned on Tom's 3D, no matter how ugly it's wound, it *WILL* feed without issue, unless YOU made a boo boo. (or there was a boo-boo at the factory, which is unlikely, but possible)
I had a spool I had laying around a while, and decided to print with it, and I noticed it making terrible sounds. (filament slipping on spool)
I looked, and I noticed the "pull" line, was NOT the 'top" line, it was the "second" line. meaning every time the filament goes "back and forth" across the spool, it "caught" the 1st loop, and started to super-tighten itself down. I simply VERY carefully pulled the filament through the "first loop", so that the "feed" line, was on the outside...
I really don't know how to explain it.
Hi, I'm Sean. I used to work on CNC machines.
I try to not make mistakes, but the decision is YOURS.
Please feel free to donate to my filament/maintance fund.
Re: Spool horror
This is the only spool I've had this much trouble with. The entire spool is bumpy as if the filament was not coiled on evenly. This is a fresh spool that I started printing with 2 days ago and it has not come off the printer since I loaded it. Even as the filament is coming off the spool you can see that it has waves as if it were bent back and forth. I think I just got a bad spool. Maybe they had problems with the filament at the factory.
Re: Spool horror
To un-tangle it, you would have to remove it from the printer.
Not blaming you, but I would guess it has a crossover on it somewhere?
Hi, I'm Sean. I used to work on CNC machines.
I try to not make mistakes, but the decision is YOURS.
Please feel free to donate to my filament/maintance fund.
Re: Spool horror
Spool tangle is 100% your fault. You essentially put an overhand knot into the filament while handling it. It's surprising how many people complain about this considering how obvious it is. Education system at work.
The way these spools are made, the filament is loaded onto the spool from some larger source, whatever source that may be. It just goes straight on and that's it. If you think the tangle came from the factory, then please describe/design a machine that intentionally puts an overhand knot in the middle of spooling from one continuous source to the next.
Remove the spool and start pulling filament until you reach a virgin part of the spool without tangle. If you hit a tangle, undo the knot and continue again until you reach virgin part of the spool.
Rewind it and be more careful next time.
Re: Spool horror
It's surprising how many people complain about this considering how obvious it is. Education system at work.
Wow...nice constructive criticism...
Re: Spool horror
Hey, at least it's not a bug fossilized in a roll of PETG. It happened to me. I'm glad it didn't get to my hot end.
Re: Spool horror
Hey, at least it's not a bug fossilized in a roll of PETG. It happened to me. I'm glad it didn't get to my hot end.
20180228_080638.jpg
You need to print a dinosaur with that filament!!
When someone asks you if you're a god, you say, "YES!"
Re: Spool horror
This pic match better with the title of this thread. LOL
Re: Spool horror
To be fair, while a spool can't get tangled while it is created, after the filament is cut it is entirely possible that the end got loose and the filament was tangled - then some helpful worker at a factory wound it up again, made a mistake, created a knot, attached the end, and then sent the spool away for packing and shipping.
I'm not saying that that is what has happened here, or ever. I'm saying the people vehemently asserting that all filament tangles are definitely the fault of the end user should be careful how they phrase their assertions.
Re: Spool horror
To be fair, while a spool can't get tangled while it is created, after the filament is cut it is entirely possible that the end got loose and the filament was tangled - then some helpful worker at a factory wound it up again, made a mistake, created a knot, attached the end, and then sent the spool away for packing and shipping.
I'm not saying that that is what has happened here, or ever. I'm saying the people vehemently asserting that all filament tangles are definitely the fault of the end user should be careful how they phrase their assertions.
I had a spool of Inland PLA, that knotted. I would swear that *I* didn’t eff it up, but assumed I must have somehow.
This will be my story going forward. 😀
When someone asks you if you're a god, you say, "YES!"
Re: Spool horror
To be fair, while a spool can't get tangled while it is created, after the filament is cut it is entirely possible that the end got loose and the filament was tangled - then some helpful worker at a factory wound it up again, made a mistake, created a knot, attached the end, and then sent the spool away for packing and shipping.
I'm not saying that that is what has happened here, or ever. I'm saying the people vehemently asserting that all filament tangles are definitely the fault of the end user should be careful how they phrase their assertions.
THANK YOU Zaz! I'm not and idiot and I know that I didn't put a knot (crossover) in it myself (as a certain previous poster had so rudely put and even put blame on the education system). I put the spool on the holder, pushed some of the filament back from the hole in the side of the spool that holds the end of the filament, clipped the filament at an angle with side cutters before the hole (I always throw away the part that goes through the hole) and fed the filament directly into the feeder. I never released the filament from my fingers from the point it was cut to the point it was fed in. I do this same procedure for all of my filaments.
Re: Spool horror
I can't count the times that I have stored my reels badly and allowed one end to pass under the roll... Sometimes it still feeds, but I have had cases where it pulls the reel off the holder right onto the bed.
My current printer does not give me any way to pause the print and sort it out, so I have countless cases where I have had to baby sit the print, ensuring the reel doesnt't jam.
But after 3 years of doing this, I recently worked out something obvious. If you simply pull off a few loops of the tangled filament, you can then untangle it during the print by passing the WHOLE REAL through/under the filament which is tangled. Then just wind it back onto the reel. It was so obvious but I never thought of it before, favoring the baby sitting approach.
I guess this makes me an idiot too!! I was outraged to see the reply questioning your education. The poster should be ashamed of himself.!
Re: Spool horror
Have you tried this method of trying to untangle the filament?
Another, more time consuming, solution is to rewind the entire filament onto a new spool. If you think that is worth it.
Re: Spool horror
I don't see how that can happen unless somehow the free end got 'under' one of the other wraps. That's supposed to be impossible- UNLESS you clipped it off one time without holding onto the filament to keep it from 'sproinging' out of control.
Well, it does happens that the factory is at fault. It doesn't really matter how. I had a tangle not even 5 meters into a spool of Solutech3D. I took the spool out of its sealed bag, put it directly on the printer, took the filament out of the holes, cut the crooked part and fed it into my printer. So it certainly wasn't my doing.
Re: Spool horror
I had the same problem with a roll of transulent red PET. Roll started out fine, about 25% through the wind got messy and I had multiple failed prints due to binding. The problem was that the filament got stuck under another coil and bound. It was not mishandled, removed from the printer, or otherwise twisted
If I was quick I could release it simply by pulling it out from the loop. After I hit mid roll all was fine for the rest of the roll.
I think it just happens once in a while
Re: Spool horror
About 60 years ago I had a summer job working in a fishing equipment sales and rental shop. at the time saltwater fishing did not use spinning reels but old fashioned sort that took a bit of learning how to cast you had to use a thumb stall on the reel to control the line or you wold gt a huge backlash snarl. one of my jobs was clearing these snarls on the rental returns and more were returned snarled than not... and about a third of them all you could do was cut away the mess and put on new line. this was getting expensive for the shop so the owner added on a backlash deposit to the rental fee
4 years ago I had a cheap reel of no name PLA that was just garbage there was a huge range of diameter in the stuff and at about 1/4 way in it was so badly snarled the it had to be cut away about 20 meters then what was left was so brittle as to be useless and I dumped it after a drying session in the oven did not help....
moral: purchase quality plastic that has been well made and spooled. 😀