Help! - Filament keeps getting tangled

[Tord MT]

Hi! I’m trying to print a disc. It’s a quite big circle (21 cm). So every round the filament gets a new twist, and it ends up intertwining and gets tangled and subsequently offsets itself and ruins the print.It’s a fourteen hour print, so there is no way I can sit and watch every second of it. I tried to print some directional attachments, but it doesn’t seem to work. Anyone has encountered this problem or have any suggestions on how to solve this. Btw this is flex filament, but the same problem occurs with regular pla. Attached some pictures. Any help would be extremely appreciated as this is turning into quite a headache. Thanks!

[Bikeracer2020]

Guessing here......

Could be filament trapped under another winding on the reel, also check the route of the filament from the reel to the extruder.

In the pic it looks like filament is being pulled sideways of the reel.

Should there be a bowden tube to feed the filament through?

[Tord MT]

Hi!
Thanks for your reply!
It’s actually none of the above, but these has also been a problem. And I’m pretty sure this printer and filament doesn’t require a tube, I could be wrong.

It seems it’s the big circular motion, it keeps dragging out a long “string” on the far side and when it comes back close to the spindle it pushes it back and also every round gets another twist in the filament, which after a while “springs” the filament off the spool and gets tangled up..

I’m thinking of maybe make a hanging spool where the spool hangs flat over the printer and the filament can be pulled down and hang free..?

Any help is more than welcome!

[Bikeracer2020]

Perhaps see if you can use a bowden tube from the extruder to where the filament enters the printer, or better still, as close to the reel as possible.

Probably need a loop upwards from the reel and then over and down to the extruder.

The reel needs to be free to rotate vertically, are you trying to feed sideways off the reel? Hard to see from the pics.

[Tord MT]

The picture is after everything (literally) went sideways. It is feeding over and through the hole in the arm in front and moving freely vertically. -I would think a tube would still be pushed back after the extruder had made the whole round around the disc. Idk

[Bikeracer2020]

Try flipping the spool 180 degrees so that it feeds from underneath and not on top.

[Tord MT]

Ahh yes. That might work I think. Good idea! I will give that a try. Thanks!

[slybunda]

happened to me, lack on tension on the filament coming from the spool, i switched to a filament holder that holds the spool vertically with bearing rollers on the table and its now pulled up by the bowden extruder and when retracting the filament cant go sideways off the roll it just hits the table and stays inside the spools sides.

[Tord MT]

Im happy to hear that solved your problem. This is the solution I’m looking at..