Running out of plastic.....

[ifti 0]

What happens if you run out of plastic mid print??

Do you have so start over, or can you feed more through for it to continue??

 

[illuminarti 18]

That's the best way to do it, yes. Although if you're careful (and depending on the firmware and feed mechanism), you may be able to pause the print, change the filament, and carry on.

In reality, it's a bit of a non-issue. Filament comes in massively long spools, and most prints use only a fraction of it. I've bought and sampled quite a lot of filament in my almost-two-years experience printing, but I don't think I've ever actually finished a full spool of anything.

 

[billdempsey 0]

You probably don't want to use the last few windings of filament on the spool to print anything critical. That last section is more problematic for feeding through the Bowden system, anyway. Basically, your best bet is to always make sure you have plenty of filament on the spool before you start the print. It's a coin flip whether you can keep the print going by sliding more filament in during the print and trying to pause the print is even less dependable. When a spool gets pretty low, I set it aside for printing tiny parts. That way, if I run out mid print, I haven't wasted much at all.

 

[xeno 108]

If I am in the room when it runs out, I just feed the next one.

but if I don't want to wait, I just melt the two together with a lighter, and file it down a bit, works perfect

And buying 2Kg spools also helps

 

[ifti 0]

If I am in the room when it runs out, I just feed the next one.

but if I don't want to wait, I just melt the two together with a lighter, and file it down a bit, works perfect

And buying 2Kg spools also helps

 

Aha, thats a great idea! lol

 

[Daid 306]

On the UM2 it is quite easy to feed in the next material. On the UM-Original this can be a bit more tricky. But you'll have to be there at the right time.

The material estimate of Cura is actually quite accurate. It usually allows me to judge if there is enough material on a roll. But then again, I do have a bit of printing experience already.