Filament issues
In spite of investing in five F-boxes and a filament dryer, I cannot leave filament in the printer; it shatters into pieces about an inch long. Reloading the filament is complicated. You should sell a flexible metal push-rod that allows me to push the filament out. I am physically handicapped so unloading several spools of filament every night would be challenging.
I have had pretty good luck so far with ASA filament, although it takes forever to heat the bed and nozzle. I am hoping this solves my filament problems.
I would like to see the equivalent of a Bowden extruder that could push the filament through the tube until it reached the hot end, and which point the existing direct extruder would take over and the Bowden extruder would disengage.
RE: Filament issues
Old filaments tend to get brittle over time. I only had that issue with PLA filaments older than five years. Never had that issue with PETG or ASA or newer PLA.
It would be great to have an automatic filament loading system. But I expect that this would end up to add about 100...500€ on the costs which the customer will have to pay.
RE: Filament issues
Old filaments tend to get brittle over time. I only had that issue with PLA filaments older than five years. Never had that issue with PETG or ASA or newer PLA.
It would be great to have an automatic filament loading system. But I expect that this would end up to add about 100...500€ on the costs which the customer will have to pay.
100? Take my money.
RE: Filament issues
100€ per Head 😅
RE: Filament issues
I am talking about filaments that are less than a few months old, have been run through several drying cycles, have been placed in F-boxes with live fessicant, worked fine on Tuesday and shattered into dozens of pieces when I tried to print 24 hours later.
It would also be nice to having a fully-enclosed printer so I could easily, safely and successfully use ASA and ABS, but that would cost like (I’m guessing here) something like US$650. Maybe it could have a bellows that allows it to be opened and have places to mount cameras.
Maybe they could sell a WebCam so I could watch the printing in PrusaSlicer.
US$100 per head for an auto feed? Wow! How soon can I get five of them? As a physically handicapped user, this would be a bargain! Cost per feeder: US$100. Not having to deal with severe pain while feeding filaments? Priceless.
RE: Filament issues
The problem is the majority of people would not want to pay the extra on an already expensive machine. Basic commercial sense is you only develop things that you can sell sufficient quantity of to recoup the development costs, whilst that does not help you it is the reality of the situation. I have sympathy for you as my wife is also disabled and we have also come across difficulties.
I'm not familiar with the XL but one thing to bear in mind is the way Prusa say to set things up is not the only way. For instance on my MMU I not use the buffer as it is horrible and a pain to load. Instead I keep the reels in a drybox on a shelf above the printer with rewinders, this does the same job but is far easier to deal with and avoids reels sitting out in the open. It may be possible to rearrange the setup you have to at least make life easier for you.
RE: Filament issues
Idk. I think I might pay 500 for auto rewind. It has some long Bowden tubes.