Filament 'pigtails/barrel roll' between spool and extruder as print runs
Don't know if pigtails is the right word. I have a MMUs/MK3S that as I use a filament, the straight line of filament gets 'barrel rolls' in it. This seems to sometimes cause more friction and then feed issues. I can take the spool and 'twist' it to take some barrel rolls out, to one degree or another.
Anyone else see this? Is there a solution to keep it from happening?
RE: Filament 'pigtails/barrel roll' between spool and extruder as print runs
Coincidentally, I have a print running right now which is showing this. It's a mostly full roll of Solutech PLA.
Twice I've had to take the spool off of the stock spool holder and give it a couple of twists to let it feed straight.
RE: Filament 'pigtails/barrel roll' between spool and extruder as print runs
Update.
I just walked in to check the print, and saw a right-to-left X axis motion of 152mm (the width of the print) and I saw the moving filament push the outermost layer on the spool up to the point that it almost slipped off of the spool to the left.
I'm wondering if a couple of turns of filament were simply pushed off of the spool to the left that caused the twist in the filament.
RE: Filament 'pigtails/barrel roll' between spool and extruder as print runs
Do people manipluate their spools to ensure that they don't pick up a lot of friction and loops? Is it more an issue with things like PLA? I think I had a print fail because one of the loops kinked.
I have the MMU2s and I'm looking to do a system where I have all five spools in a drier that will run periodically to keep things dry. So having to play with spools would be something I have to plan for.
I generally swap spools on and off every few prints or tasks as I make new things, so maybe this isn't an issue if you are taking spools out of service- but with an MMU, I'd like to keep them all active and run a whole spool with out ever touching it. "Luckily" running an MMU isn't that seemless... so far.
RE: Filament 'pigtails/barrel roll' between spool and extruder as print runs
[...] I just walked in to check the print, and saw a right-to-left X axis motion of 152mm (the width of the print) and I saw the moving filament push the outermost layer on the spool up to the point that it almost slipped off of the spool to the left.
Thought I responded to this earlier... There's a design for a top-mount spool holder that orients the spool along the X axis instead of Y, with the idea that there is less side-to-side movement in that orientation, and fewer chances of snags. I'm working on a design for my Sidewinder based on that principle. My Mk3 spools are all underneath.
RE: Filament 'pigtails/barrel roll' between spool and extruder as print runs
Do people manipluate their spools to ensure that they don't pick up a lot of friction and loops? Is it more an issue with things like PLA? I think I had a print fail because one of the loops kinked.
I have the MMU2s and I'm looking to do a system where I have all five spools in a drier that will run periodically to keep things dry. So having to play with spools would be something I have to plan for.
I generally swap spools on and off every few prints or tasks as I make new things, so maybe this isn't an issue if you are taking spools out of service- but with an MMU, I'd like to keep them all active and run a whole spool with out ever touching it. "Luckily" running an MMU isn't that seemless... so far.
A few comments here.
There's really no standard way people set up their spools, as each user has different needs.
Some use a very simple scheme. A lady I know who has a printer like mine (without MMU2S) uses the stock spool holder and nothing else. She puts the whole thing away in a closet when not in use and then puts it on the kitchen 'island' to print something.
Others have extremely elaborate multi-spool dryboxes with fittings for the filament to pass through, even through a wall from an adjoining room.
Mine is kind of inbetween. I have the printer on a counter in the home office with a pipe rack of spools of filament that I use most hanging from some bookshelf brackets above the printer. I have the MMU buffer mounted vertically right behind the printer. On the shelf above I have a couple of those MMU spool holders for 1-2 rolls that are not on the spool rack for whatever reason. If I use the MMU I'll load either of the above through the buffer and into the MMU, and unload everything when I'm done with the multi-material print.
For single filament printing I'll usually just feed the filament from the spool rack through a guide on the printer and into the extruder. If it's a filament I don't use that often I'll get out the stock spool holder and use it, as I did earlier tonight, or put it on one of the spool holders on the shelf. Right now I'm doing window assemblies for a model railroad building with black ABS frames and transparent (translucent) PETg for the panes, both of which I use semi-regularly and are more or less permanently racked up above.
For the filaments I use regularly, I really have not had to worry about them getting wet. I typically use them up in several months at most and I have a humidity gauge in the office which at most reads in the low 30s. I have not as of yet had any issues attributable to wet filament.
For the filaments I don't use regularly I have two dry boxes made out of Home Depot storage tubs, each with a cheap humidity gauge mounted on the side with a 3d printed bracket and four of those silica gel dry packs. When the humidity in them starts to creep up I'll bake the dry packs in the oven for a few hours. I try not to open the dry boxes unless I need to, as each opening lets more humid room air in. I use one dry box mostly for full-size spools and the other for respooled tag ends and samples and the like.
I thought about permanently running a few filaments I use most into the MMU. I gave up on that idea mostly because there are more than five that I use regularly and even with the buffer modifications, it's a pain to change them. Also, despite my good luck so far with the MMU, it's a point of failure that seems to have a mean time between said failures far less than the Mk3S as a whole. Just read the forum here. 🙂
That's the way I currently do it. I'll probably adjust things off and on as needed. Others have different needs and do things differently than I do.