Filament control

[truckle 0]

I use a lot of Faberdashery filament which comes loose in a large spool. You can't really bend it tighter to get it round a spool. So when printing I have to keep a close eye on it to stop it spinning into a tangle and, at worse, snapping. I have tried arranging it on a 'lazy Susan' but with little success. For a long print I can't simply leave it for hours without re-arranging the filament. Looping it loosely around the spool on the back is also prone to it slipping off.

To be honest I also have trouble with the spool/filament that comes with the UM2 - it needs watching or it can unspool and catch/ tangle. I think that filament feeding is the weakest point of the UM2 and certainly not a 'start it up and walk away' experience. Everything else about the UM2 is great btw!

Does anyone have any advice on controlling the filament feed? Any ides on improving the UM2 feed reliability?

[gadgetfreak 7]

I tried Faberdashery filament a year ago or so. Really great quality, but the fact that it doesn't come on a spool makes it too inconvenient to use, especially for long (>5 hours or so...) prints.

I think Illuminarti and some other have managed to get the lazy Susan method work ok, but I'm not sure exactly how long those prints have been unmonitored.

The problem with Faberdashery/filament not on a spool is that even though if you have a really nice super-low-friction turntable/lazy susan it will still tangle easily as you carry/switch between rolls because the strands will intertwine/lock eachother eventually, that's my experience. Like with headphones in a pocket.

So, my advice would be:

1) Get quality filament on spools. I recommend ColorFabb (there's a reason I chose their filament as our first brand to resell in Sweden). Also, their new spool holders are transparent so you can see that they are nicely rolled all the way.

There might of course be other good filament suppliers in Europe.

2) I agree that the spool holder and filament guide design could be improved, there has been some discussions on this recently and people have made some nice designs. My colleague Anders made a mashup from a bearing http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:118205with the https://www.youmagine.com/designs/um2-universal-spool-holder. You can download the files of the mashup https://www.dropbox.com/s/nnjosmv6nme94ad/Ultimate%20spoolholder%20for%20UM2.zip(could be put up on YouMagine/Thingiverse of course...). It provides way less friction even without the balls.

There is also a https://www.youmagine.com/designs/filament-guide which looks nice - haven't tried it yet.

Also, as the filament diameter gets smaller, friction will increase.

I think that commercial FDM machines have rolls with a larger diameter (I think Makerbot just changed theirs also for their new models) and I'm guessing it would be to have less friction. Can anyone confirm this?

So, a future improvement would be to have a larger inner diameter; of course the spool would have to be a little bit bigger then unfortunately...

 

[xeno 108]

I stopped ordering from Faberdashery, when it gets tangled it is almost impossible to untangle.

you could try this adjustable spool holder, for the larger diameter:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:19122

 

[gadgetfreak 7]

Xeno, that's nice however it seems that adjustable spool holder could still tangle up; I would prefer a traditional spool holder with a solid cylinder where the filament can lie neatly side-by-side.

I saw this filament spool system

http://www.filabot.com/products/filamatic-filament-spooling-system

but it's out of stock.

Also, I dont see that it would actually shift the filament back and forth over the roll so it is perfectly distributed across the cylinder...any other spooling systems that anyone knows of?

It would be fun do design one but there's too little time...

 

[geeks 1]

Hello

 

There is also a rolling filament guide for the UM2 which looks nice - haven't tried it yet.

 

It is a medium that I drew when my guide is found worn to the point where it was making noise. :cool:

 

Since I installed the pulley with this guide, I do not have any problems.

 

I am more than ready to release plans for Ultimaker to change the guide they put on the U².

 

I try to print up 4h with and frankly it's nickel. :-P

 

I hope to see more people take the plunge and give their feedback.

 

[gr5 2,269]

You could build something like this. A smoothly sanded and then painted dowel. But build one much higher off the floor for large loops of PLA.

 

 

[gr5 2,269]

I have tried arranging it on a 'lazy Susan' but with little success. For a long print I can't simply leave it for hours without re-arranging the filament.

 

I found this works fine for me. I can leave it for hours. I've watched it and occasionally the lazy suzan rotates. The lazy suzan goes on the floor.

 

[gadgetfreak 7]

I found this works fine for me. I can leave it for hours. I've watched it and occasionally the lazy suzan rotates. The lazy suzan goes on the floor.

 

Well "hours" doesn't really say much as most small prints are a couple of hours. My longest print so far was 44 hours and I regularly print 20+ hour prints.

And think of it:

To print the entire build volume of the UM2 would take something like 10 days if you could keep up with 10mm3/s extrusion (which is not really viable at all for the random object). Also it would be an object weighing over 11.5kgs (25 lbs) so you would need to change filament once per day!

It would actually be a really cool test. Imagine making a perfect block of 11.5kgs PLA with no signs of underextrusion

Probably it's idiotic to waste all that plastic but it would indeed be a cool test of the sturdy UM2 platform and an improved feeding mechanism.

I'd love to have more consistent extrusion...and I don't think having a loose coil would ever work well enough for really long prints...

 

[geeks 1]

Hello,

 

He just got me one!

 

I currently iprimé and ottoman , suddenly , sub-extrusion ... :oops:

I look a little closer , it comes out more . I check the menus to move the fillament manually. no extrusion, but ... :oops:

 

The wire pulls, i solved the sake of the guide wire. But now , the spool gets stuck so that the stepping motor is no longer able to send enough material. Every 10 minutes , I , too, require the monitored fillament !

 

In short, this is a new problem set .

 

From what I 've seen on youmagine or website other, there are things based ball bearing . In my knowledge , I demand help of friend is mechanic.

 

It is important to know that the metallization of mechanical parts is a similar principle to the extent that we are also extruded iron under high temperature on a slowly rotating axis. It should good quantity of the material in a nozzle as in our machines.

 

While the mechanics should have the solution we seek. :cool: