Easy One: What to do if filament runs out?

[LesHall 95]

What do I do if the roll of filament runs out on a print and I don't realize it? I would think I'd have to open up one end of the Bowden tube, is that it?

Les

Les figure this out!

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Use pauze. Load new fillament....

And maybe try it once before it happens on a 30hr print

[DidierKlein 729]

Yes indeed use pause.

With the UM2+ feeder i find it difficult to push one piece of filament with another one.

The easiest way to go is to remove the filament and put a new spool.

If you use the change material procedure, i found out (the hard way) that the priming isn't good enough when you resume the print so i would advise to release the tension in the feeder with the lever and push your filament until it comes out properly.

Then resume the print

[LesHall 95]

I am confused, and here is why: wouldn't the filament have travelled beyond the gear's ability to extract it if you have run out of filament? I mean, it pushed all of the filament off the spool so there is nothing left to grip onto?

Les

Les try to understand!

[SandervG 1,521]

Hey, what happened to Lets make history?

If your filament has already ran out then yes, you would need to open up the bowden at the feeder so you can manually pull it out. But your print is most likely ruined then because your head will continue to move and your Z will continue to drop.

When there is still like 2 cm left you could follow UltiArjans and Didiers tips.

If it completely ran out you could measure the size of your printed model, find that exact same spot in your gcode, delete the toolpath part from the gcode prior to that point and continue the print but that is rather a finicky process.

[LesHall 95]

OK thank you all, i have a better understanding now.

And about the sig, well i got tired of the same old thing so I thought I would mix it up a little. Maybe make the sig relevant to the post.

Les

Les understands now!

[AE Superlab 1]

Hi Les,

 

This just happened to me for the first time as well. I assume you figured it out alright. Any tips/things to avoid when extracting the rogue filament?

 

Thanks!

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @AE Superlab, are you looking to pull out filament that has moved beyond the extruder motor because you ran out of filament directly from the spool? Which Ultimaker do you have?

 

Basically, you should remove the horseshoe clip, push down the tube coupler and while this coupler is pushed down you should be able to pull out the bowden tube from the feeder housing. 

 

Good luck! 

[AE Superlab 1]

Hi @SandervG, yup thats correct, came to find that the filament ran out of the spool. When I tried to unload the material as per usual, the motor did not seem to be gripping anything and the filament was not moving. I have an Ultimaker 3, Would that make a substantial difference in how i remedy this? Basically I imagine that this must happen to people all the time (there really should be a sensing mechanism to prevent this) and was wondering if anyone had any tips for me so i dont destroy my printer as i attempt to unclip the bowden tube and pull out the filament for the first time!

 

Any particular step by step info on how to safely do this would be greatly appreciated (eg. how to unclip the tube, does the nozzle have to be hot when i pull out the filament, etc.)

 

Thanks!

[SandervG 1,521]

2 minutes ago, AE Superlab said:

When I tried to unload the material as per usual, the motor did not seem to be gripping anything and the filament was not moving.

 

Do you have a photo of what it looks like now? Did the filament run out, or did the extruder motor grind part of your filament away?

 

3 minutes ago, AE Superlab said:

(there really should be a sensing mechanism to prevent this)

There is, on the Ultimaker S5. 

If you are interested, you may want to check out this thread: 

 

6 minutes ago, AE Superlab said:

Any particular step by step info on how to safely do this would be greatly appreciated (eg. how to unclip the tube, does the nozzle have to be hot when i pull out the filament, etc.)

 

These resource pages contain some photo's and instructions. But do mind, the goal of those instructions is to replace the entire bowden tube, you only need to detach the backside. 

 

I wouldn't worry if I were you, I don' t think I've heard of anyone applying permanent damage to their Ultimaker by removing the bowden tube from the feeder. (No, it is not a challenge! ?) 

[AE Superlab 1]

@SandervG OK. Thanks, I'll give it a shot and report back.

 

6 minutes ago, SandervG said:

These resource pages contain some photo's and instructions. But do mind, the goal of those instructions is to replace the entire bowden tube, you only need to detach the backside. 

 

btw, did i miss a link here? ? thanks again!

[SandervG 1,521]

Here you go, my bad. Must have been the end of the week ? Let us know if you need more help!

[AE Superlab 1]

Thanks! I was able to detach the bowden tubes, "unload" from the print menu, manually pull out the orphaned length of filament from the extruder, and put everything back together without too much trouble. I did get some weird almost kinked extrusion when I first reloaded the material, but that seems to have worked its way out. Thanks again for the advice.