Is footprint worth it?
Hi,
I'm planning to replace my Prusa mini with something bigger, newer and hopefully with multimaterial system, and as sad as I might be I'm leaning towards BambuLab P1S with AMS as Prusas MMU is a monstrosity which requires twice of footprint of printer itself to setup just one more material than AMS, vertical mounting on walls is not really possible for me.
So there are two quastions I have about MMU3:
Why is it created in such way that it requires almost separate european apartment to contain it? Is there any reason for that?
Is this size even giving good results in multimaterial prints?
RE: Is footprint worth it?
I mount my reels on a shelf over the printer and it works well, no prusa buffer. most rooms are 8ft tall so it fits in without increasing the footprint
Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
RE: Is footprint worth it?
Is there any minimal height which it requires to work without buffer? Cuz shelf is out of question for me ATM, but I though of using a desk mounted photography railingy from which I could hang spools, but I've seen on youtube some people trying mmu3 without buffer and they were experiancing issues with spools on desk, is this really solved with spools above printer?
RE: Is footprint worth it?
You need some way of accommodating the back fed filament without spilling over the side of the spool
In my diagram there are two pieces of PTFE and the back fed filament ends. U between the pieces of PTFE
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
RE: Is footprint worth it?
The two pieces of tubing in that diagram need to have room to separate, for the length of tubing that runs between the MMU and the print head (plus a little extra). That's the retraction length.
I'm really liking that solution by the way... it's simple to build and more importantly: makes it easy to load filament into the MMU. The original buffer is a pain to load. Only drawback is that I have to manually rewind the spools to take up the slack, to prevent the exposed section from absorbing moisture (I have 4 spools sitting loaded in a dry box)
If you can't use a shelf or hang the spools off a rail, take a look at the Filamentalist auto rewinding spool holder. It's a desktop solution without a buffer, that takes up far less space than the original MMU configuration. Consists of a few 3D printed parts plus a few € of hardware. I use one of them on my desk for the 5th MMU slot (the other 4 being fed from the dry box).
RE: Is footprint worth it?
I created this stupidly simple model to attach my MMU2 buffer to the wall with velco command strips.
I created this stupidly simple model to extend the bottom part of the buffer to make it easier to load filament.
I used this model to mount my filament spools to the wall above the buffer.
When I upgraded to the MMU3, I never felt the need to upgrade the buffer. I actually thought it would be a step backwards for me, because it would be difficult to mount on the wall.
Since you don't have the buffer from an MMU2, you obviously can't use this. But I'm sharing this to say, "you can set up the MMU any way that works for you." You don't have to follow the suggested setup, or even use the buffer that comes with the MMU3. There are plenty of 3rd party MMU buffers out there, free and paid, and plenty of designs to help you set it up your way.
Good luck!
RE: Is footprint worth it?
I mount my reels on a shelf over the printer and it works well, no prusa buffer. most rooms are 8ft tall so it fits in without increasing the footprint
Joan
I really like this. Sometimes, in our enthusiasm, we are prone to over engineering stuff and overlooking the simple solutions, this is a case in point.
Are your spools on stands or just hung on a bar? I'm off to use this idea to retrieve office space right now... Once I have designed and printed some needless stuff to incorporate.
RE: Is footprint worth it?
at home i have 9 filament rollers, 4 for the MMU1 and 5 for the MMU3when away from home i have used a broom handle. but in that case it is important to feed the filament off the bottom of the reel to prevent the filament derailing when being retracted by the MMU
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
RE: Is footprint worth it?
I love it! @JoanTabb, are you using the stock Prusa spool holders? Do you think it makes much difference in terms of friction, whether the filament is pulled up, down, or horizontally from the spool holders? I plan to try this approach and, hopefully, see if I can simplify it even more. Seems to me the top piece of PTFE in that drawing really only needs to be a short piece, essentially a bushing, to stop the lower piece from moving up during a pull. Stay tuned!
Happy New Year!
Sometimes, in our enthusiasm, we are prone to over engineering stuff and overlooking the simple solutions, this is a case in point.
RE: Is footprint worth it?
four of the filament holders are standard MMU1 version the remaining 5 were standard MMU2 vacuum moulded filament spool holders. however in the early days of MMU2 I Felt that there was too much friction so I Printed enlarged spools to go over the 8mm shafts of the spool holders, these spools had raised shoulders at the outer ends to stop the spools falling off the ends, the solution was partially successful, then I Found 2.5mm x 4mm PTFE, and 3mm x 4mm PTFE which reduced the friction in the filament feed section of the MMU2 setup, and I Never got round to removing the enlarged spools off the 8mm rollers.
MMU1 and MMU2/3 have different filament feed setups. the MMU1 was more direct, however I now use 2.5mm x 4mm PTFE on the input side of the MMU1.
Note.
MMU1 actually uses bowden feed between the extruder motors and the 4 into one fitting on top of the hotend, it is important to use 2mm x 4mm ptfe or the tighter tolerance Capricorn ptfe 1.85 x 4mm I think, to reduce stringing,
this is not an issue on the MMU2/mmu3 setup, because the filament feed is direct feed inside the extruder / hotend assembly on these models of MMU the tube between the MMU and the extruder is effectively a reverse bowden setup and has little effect of print quality.
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
RE: Footprint: is it worth it? An alternative
I wandered onto this topic by accident, but I had similar frustration with the amount of desk real estate needed to accommodate 5 spools of filament. I designed a vertical spool holder with some printed pieces, some scrap lumber, and a copper pipe. I've been using it for several months and it works wonderfully. The design is such that it could also be easily mounted horizontally on a wall or from a ceiling. The key design characteristics are twofold: First, the use of a tapered fitting that slides into the center of the filament holder. This accommodates various diameters and auto-centers the spool on the pipe. The second design decision that has worked out well is the use of bearings that are made for much heavier loads. This means that I can use inexpensive lawn and garden bearing rather than expensive thrust bearings. Files and BOM are at printables.com: https://www.printables.com/model/991249-vertical-fil ament-spool-management-system