Ultimaker S5 R2: use filament leftovers to print

[AKazak 0]

Greetings!

 

I have ~ 2 m of Ultimaker Though PLA Black filament and a new ribbon of the same material.

My part requires 5+ m of the filament.

What is the best practice to utilize the filament leftover in this case?

Can I somehow connect/fuse the leftover to the new ribbon?

 

Thank you.

[GregValiant 1,342]

You can guess at the layer that the filament will run out and use a Filament Change or Pause at Height just prior to the run-out layer.  That can be a bit of a gamble though.

 

When I get to the end of a roll I keep the remainder for "practice prints" when I want to do a partial of a particular area or maybe check the effect of a post-processor. or a support configuration.  That way the roll ends serve a purpose.  

[Enigma_M4 121]

Hi,

if you want to consume the filament without any leftover, the only way would be splicing it, for example like explained in this thread:

But it's a pain in the a**; for me it worked 50% and at the connecting point there WILL be some underextrusion.

With longer peaces, I'd suggest letting the flow sensor oft the S5 doing it's work and change the filament when the runout is detected; the bowden-related leftovers can be used for print core cleaning (hot/cold pulls).

Regards

[AKazak 0]

14 hours ago, GregValiant said:

You can guess at the layer that the filament will run out and use a Filament Change or Pause at Height just prior to the run-out layer.  That can be a bit of a gamble though.

 

When I get to the end of a roll I keep the remainder for "practice prints" when I want to do a partial of a particular area or maybe check the effect of a post-processor. or a support configuration.  That way the roll ends serve a purpose.  

Got it.

The last time a weird thing happened to the printer when it ran out of filament.

I run Ultimaker S5 R2 with an Ultimaker Material Station.

I assumed it will that it will print all the filament and therefore I detached the other end of the filament from its ribbon inner core and start to print. At some point all the filament went to the line and the printer paused with change filament error message (all the filament stayed inside the printer). But when I tried to load fresh filament from a new ribbon to the same port the station didn't take it. I tried few times and eventually aborted the print. It took about 20-25 minutes, but in the end the station has unloaded all the filament back making me happy to get the printer back in a normal condition.

 

Where is the filament driver(s) located in S5 R2?

[NTwoO 8]

On 8/28/2024 at 8:33 PM, Enigma_M4 said:

Hi,

if you want to consume the filament without any leftover, the only way would be splicing it, for example like explained in this thread:

But it's a pain in the a**; for me it worked 50% and at the connecting point there WILL be some underextrusion.

With longer peaces, I'd suggest letting the flow sensor oft the S5 doing it's work and change the filament when the runout is detected; the bowden-related leftovers can be used for print core cleaning (hot/cold pulls).

Regards

"The only way?" Well there is a way. If the layer bonding is not super critical, you can print until the flow sensor pauses the print. Then you disengage the feeder, do the filament swap without removing the existing filament and only reengage the filament feeder after the initial feed is done. Give the purge enough time to settle so that you have no problems with disengaging during retraction. This way you can print multiple bits in succession.

 

There is a person that used a similar technique to print NinjaTek filament. Search the forum for it.

[Enigma_M4 121]

4 hours ago, NTwoO said:

do the filament swap without removing the existing filament and only reengage the filament feeder after the initial feed is done.

That seems to be a nice workaround, but keep in mind that retracts don't work as intended.

[NTwoO 8]

On 9/9/2024 at 7:59 PM, Enigma_M4 said:

That seems to be a nice workaround, but keep in mind that retracts don't work as intended.

Nope, they don't, but it works ROK