Anyone been able to reduce the thickness of inconsistent filemant?

[jweaver 2]

This is not related to CURA but I just wonder if anyone here has any thoughts.

Rather than buying my Filament from eBay, I took the decision to pay a bit more and buy something from a reputable seller.

I got a bit carried away with colours and have already bought 10 reels.. But the last one I bought jammed continuously and when I measured it, it was obvious why as it varies from 1.70 to 1.90mm.

The supplier is being surprisingly unhelpful telling me that they have had no problems with it and are offering me a "discount" next time I order.. Rest assured, they will be replacing or refunding or I will simply take my business elsewhere.

Anyway, I am pretty sure that what ever happens, I will end up keeping it.. And wonder if its possible to 'fix' it?

I am thinking that if I sourced a 1.75mm drill (They do exist) and drilled a hole in some plate, I could 'rip' the filament through it and take off the high spots.

Has anyone tried anything like this? Is it a fools errand? To be honest, I have nothing to loose as the filament can't be used, so I am interested to see what will happen if do this.

Does anyone have any other thoughts or solutions to this?

Jon

 

[Daid 306]

You'll break the filament before you "rip off" the bad pieces.

1.90 does not has to be a problem, but it depends on your hotend and feeder. As this is 1.75mm, I assume you do not have an Ultimaker. So the normal Ultimaker solutions might not apply. What kind of machine do you have?

 

[jweaver 2]

I have a Printrbot and have 9 colours which have all printed perfectly.

But I bought brown and it jammed really hard.. The first thing I noticed is that it had an odd (rough) texture.. But then I got out the calipers and noticed that was as was as 1.90mm at parts, which is much fatter than the other filaments..

So my assumption is that it was the thickness which was jamming.

I dont' for a second thing that i can 'rip' of the excess.. But i am interested to try.. So i have ordered a 1.75mm drill bit.. And am going to drill some holes and then experiment with various "profiles" of the hole to see if I can get an edge, to 'scratch' off the excess material..

Luckily I have a workshop, and all the tools I need.. So I am going to make it my mission to make a 'rig' which can re-size the filament.. But I do accept that my chance of success is probably 10% at best.

But I guess, this setup will help me find the fat parts of the filament, and if I can't "rip" them, I could cut them out, and make a bunch of relatively short lengths which I could use for small projects.

 

[Daid 306]

Good luck on the scratching. You might want to go for different hole sizes. Going from 1.90 to 1.75 is 1 go might be a lot. So going from 1.90 to 1.85 to 1.8 to 1.75 might be better steps.

Finally, you could check the hotend of the Printrbot. It might accept filament up to 1.80-1.85. You'll have to measure the internal hole some way, so that might not be easy on those hotends. As I don't think the feeding mechanism is the problem on the Printrbot accepting 1.90

 

[svanbennekom 0]

Try to find out who manufactured the spool and send it to them and ask for a new spool. If it's from a reputable manufacturer they'll probably send you one. If not, well, you tried.

In the worst case situation you have spent 20-30 on information on where not to buy spools.

 

[jweaver 2]

Try to find out who manufactured the spool and send it to them and ask for a new spool. If it's from a reputable manufacturer they'll probably send you one. If not, well, you tried.

In the worst case situation you have spent 20-30 on information on where not to buy spools.

 

To be fair.. After a bit of arguing with them they are replacing.. For some reason they thought I would be happy accepting a 'discount' of my next order.

But I basically told them that as a retailer they are obliged to support me...

However, I doubt if they will want the old roll back.. So I am now experimenting to see if I can 'fix' it.. I was thinking that perhaps stepping down in 0.05mm increments is the way to go.. Once I get the 1.75mm drill, I can see how what happens if I pass 1.9mm filament through it.. If it doesn't work., Then I can try thinner sections until I find what it can take.. If I can rip off 0.05mms, then I will try and source more drills and see if I can make something which will do this..

But at the end of the day, factoring the price of the drill bits, this will soon become cost ineffective. For now, I am just playing and learning!

 

[jweaver 2]

I have a feeling that this might work.. But I might need several different sizes holes to achieve it.

The reason I say this is that I set some calipers to 1.75mm.. And then pulled the filament through.. And was able to 'scratch' off a good amount of dust.. Problem is, it was only taking material off both sides (due to the gap in the calipers) not all the way around.. But I rotated the filament and did it a few times and was able to get the overal diameter down on the high spots.

WIll be interested to see what happens when I get a1.75mm hole to work with.