Does irregularly wound filament bother you?

[reprappertech]

Have you experienced this – when 3d printing, the spool cannot rotate freely on the holder? sometimes you have to pull the spool by hands to make sure the extruder gets smooth feed?

We wondered if it’s because the filament is tightly wound or because it’s not wound neatly. If every spool is reeled neatly layer by layer, would it be less likely to loop or get tangled while 3d printing?

Anyone has any thoughts on this? Please share with us.

[Mjolinor]

Some spools just will not behave and some are OK. I think it depends on how hot it is when it is wound.

When I have a particularly badly behaved spool that will not sort itself out I wind it onto an empty Stratasys cartridge then no matter how badly behaved it is it cannot jam or escape and will feed smoothly no matter what.

If you have ever let go of the end of the filament and it has gone under another wind on the spool as it usually does, then you will never get it to feed correctly without winding the whole roll onto another spool.

[reprappertech]

Hi Mjolinor,

Thanks for your tips.

Sometimes we try winding filament around another spool, but as the spool size & design is different, the filament will not fit the reel and deformation may occur. So maybe a little improvement on filament winding will be good for smooth printing.

[IntServo]

That is why we redesigned spool and have a bigger inner diameter (not the hole, but the diameter of first round filament). You can imagine that a small diameter would need more force to rotate.

[reprappertech]

Well, that sounds like a good way to solve the rotating problem. But will the whole spool be heavier after redesign?

[3DPBuser]

I've seen some spools come with a netting over it, and I think the filament feeds out the side of it.

[IntServo]

Yeah spool is bigger and heavier after redesign.

[reprappertech]

A netting over a spool? That's quite new to me. Where can I see a photo of this design? Could you share a link? Thx~

[3DPBuser]

http://www.taulman3d.com/

[reprappertech]

I see, that's taulman filament. Thx~