Swapping filament in middle of a print

[chuck-yanke 10]

I want to change colors of filaments in the middle of a print job. I can not find a post on how to do that. Can some one direct me to a relevant post? I looked at the Multicolor post but those are all separate layers. I don't understand how you can change the filament but not effect the print head location to continue printing.

chuck

 

[chuck-yanke 10]

Miss typed title should be "Changing color in middle of a print". Fat fingers, sorry.

Chuck

 

[pm_dude 27]

Hi Chuck,

There are no way to change the filament during the print unless you changed the feeder with one that let you manually feed the filament in and out of the bowden tube.

Here is the one I use:

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/alternative-um2-feeder-version-two

Once you have a feeder that allow you to manually feed you can then pause the print at any point and change the filament. You can use the pause at z plugin to pause at a specific height. You will need to manually purge the nozzle with the new filament before resuming.

 

[3dmaker4u 0]

Oops, why not? If you can pause the print, who prevents you from issuing adequate G-code commands to retract the existing filament and push a new one? There could be differences for Ulti G-code and "standard" G-code, but I don't think is absolutely impossible

 

[pm_dude 27]

On the UM2, settings while printing doesn't have extrusion controls so you cannot manually retract the filament. Additionally the Pause at Z plugin seems to prevent the user from doing anything in the menu which is a bit annoying. As soon as you press a button you resume the print (at least on the UM2)

 

[solid-print-3d 30]

I thought the new um2 firmware cuts the power to the extruder motor when pausing the print, allowing you to pull out the filament and feed new in, regardless of feeder type?

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

But you'll probably end up with a thin strand of wrong colored fillament left in the bowden/feeder .... a feeder you can open is just so much easier ...

 

[pm_dude 27]

Yes Solid Print, it's possible that the firmware does but like UltiArjan said it just makes it way easier.

[solid-print-3d 30]

True, True

 

[micha_el 0]

So... If I understand correctly, just pause the print. Then pull out the filament manually and put in the other color manually!

Sounds easy!

Did I miss something?

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Micha_el ,

It is indeed that easy when you use the pause function on the printer. the printhead will move to the front left on your printer during the pauze. For more control on when & where the printhead will pauze use cura's pauze at z plugin.