# 3D Printing > 3D Printer Parts, Filament & Materials >  My Gooood! How to avoid failure printing due to cross tangle 3D filament?

## William.T

I bought a 3D printer and learned a lot in the past 3 months. It is really a good thing that I can make some fun models and share with my friends. But sometimes I can not print the model successfully.  
Yesterday I wanted to print an owl to my niece Joyce. It had printed for about 7 hours with smooth surface, then the printer head was moving with no filament coming out. The filament jammed on the spool due to cross tangle. What a nightmare! 7 hours for nothing! I confronted this issue last month but I thought it was a random issue. So I didn’t care that much. But now this happens again. Does anybody can help me to solve this issue?

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## curious aardvark

weird my extruder motors just keep going till the filament snaps.

And short of respoolingthe plastic - there's not much you can do except try another supplier. Some do tension the spooling machines too much in order to use a slightly smaller (cheaper) spool.

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## Bruce White

It’s awful. The knots may be caused by the filament supplier’s poor coiling.

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## jimc

as CA said, use a different supplier. i have had this happen a few times in the past year and unfortunately they were all my fault except one. be sure you never let the end of the filament on the spool out of your hand. as soon as you let that go it will unwind a little and can get under one of the other coils without you noticing. sometimes it can take a few hours of printing before it finally locks up. print yourself out a bunch of little filament clips so as soon as you remove the spool from the machine you can clip the end in place.

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## William.T

Maybe different printers react differently.

I will see how the filament works in the following days. If this issue keeps happening, maybe it's time to change a supplier.

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## William.T

Thanks for the advice. That's quite a way to handle this tangle issue. If this doesn't work out, it's time for me to search another supplier.

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## William.T

Actually it is not an inextricable knot. When I cut out that part, the spool still pulled easily. It’s just that knot which stopped the pulling.

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## Mjolinor

Whether it was you or not it is still the fact that the end has gone under some winds that makes it do that. Rewind it onto another spool and never let go of the end and you will find it never jams. Once you have a jam you will never fix it without rewinding. If you make a habit of dropping the end then you are going to have to make a habit of rewinding the spool onto another one.

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## WillBe

it is the winding issue when the filament was produced. a random issue but really troubled

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## William.T

Thx~  I will remember to tight up the filament when I withdraw it from the printer. Rewinding it onto another spool may be another choice I can try.

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## William.T

Yes, it is really annoying when this tangle issue happens.

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## GOC

-     After learning a little gcode and working with the Repetier-Host software I found that you can restart prints with a little practice (_and a couple minor crashes_). 

1) Use the manual control to find out what layer your on.
2) Using the preview tab navigate to the proper layer within the gcode.
3) By selecting the code the pathing lines will highlight. By visually looking at the part and using the selection highlighting, find the segment where it stopped printing.
4) Delete All of the printing code up to that point. (_it will make the part look like its floating_)
5) Adjust the 'Heating' code so that it gets everything up to temp at the proper z-depth above the part. (_or else..crash!_)
6) Add some custom code after the "Heating" code but before the printing code to give it a slow approach to the part.
7) Then start the job and keep you mouse over the E-Stop button until you feel its good.

* I realize these are really vague instructions, I'll work on putting together an article on this in the near future.

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## William.T

Thx~ Looking forward to your article.

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## Terry

I had this problem before. Remember to tight up the coils every time you finish printing. Knots and tangle will happen if the filament is loosen. 
Another reason I think is possible is because the filament was not coiled smoothly during manufacturing.

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## joshqic

met this before & found taller spools are easier to tangle than shorter ones

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## Terry

Maybe that’s because for spools of shorter height, the moving distance of filament is shorter. Makerbot filament uses big-diameter spool, wonder if that’s relevant?

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## William.T

Well, I am not sure that's relevant.

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## Echo Moo

Two reasons for this issue. First is improper use of filament during 3d printing. The filament should not be loose during printing, so we need to tighten the coils after using. Second is that knots emerge without manufacturer’s notice during winding process. Regarding this issue, our company has found a solution. See more at http://www.reprappertech.com/blog/Ne...iled_filament/

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## Zhall

Try getting filament from Zen tool works or Sansmart. 

Cheap filament = poor spooling.

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## Mjolinor

Well I buy the cheapest I can get off ebay and have only ever had a problem with a Stratasys roll that cost a fortune.

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## William.T

Hi, Zhall

Thanks for the advise. Might look in these two brands you recommended.

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## William.T

@Mjolinor
Well, lucky for you to get good filament at lower cost.

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## 3DPBuser

Some maker is supplying a perfectly-wound filament.

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