MakerGear Forum

Hi,
I wonder if anyone else has had this problem. i return to the printer after a couple of hours and find the filament jammed. It won't come off the roll because the layers in the roll are disrupted. Roll was new, worked well for first half, now I'm wondering if I need to unwind it or wind it on to another reel. the set in the filament would likely cause problems in the rewinding. I'm thinking this is a warranty issue.

ideas?

john

It happens. Frequently. I don't know how much of a warranty issue it is, since if you ever accidentally let go of the end, those kinks can form further down in the spool where you can't see them.

If you catch it happening, you can remove a few loops from the spool and unkink it to keep the print going. Otherwise, just cut it and remove the knot. The rest should be fine.

Hi Jules,
I could have been clearer. The filament on this reel is not wound in layers, but some is close to the hub and some on the outside. It looks as though the entire rest of the roll may be like this. I'm going to see what Esun says about it? It sounds from what you say that this is unusual so maybe since I had not trouble with the first 2/3rds of it to just take my lumps and switch to a new roll.

Thanks, john

John, 99 out of a hundred times, filament tangles are self induced. As jules said, if you ever let the end of the filament go tyen thats all it takes. Sometimes it can take quite a while for that to finally show up. Never, ever let the end of the filament out of your hand. Winding on a machine is next to impossible to cause a tangle since the filament come iff i the order it was wound even if its not would evenly. Not saying its impossible just highly unlikely

I can accept that. I did change the roll for another one for a couple of jobs. It might have been prudent in light of what you say to have taped the end to the flange on the reel before putting it away.

I always through this hint out there when this problem comes up.

Have a look at the video link posted in that thread too on how to fix that problem if it does happen again.

very good idea. I guess this is a problem you don;t find out about until you do it to yourself like I did.

We included it in the Beginner's Guides here on the forum....but yes, generally everyone runs across it once.

About half the spool was left and I was loath to toss it. I think I should have. I tried unwinding about 30 feet of it to where what was left looked properly wound. I then rewound it carefully without letting go of it. And Voila, it fed ok for the next couple of prints but then snarled again in the part which had not been rewound. I suppose that i should just take my lumps on the $10 worth which is still on the roll, but...

I used to run into this problem on a marine windlass which I was responsible for. I guess it's the same story, if the cable was wound on the drum not under tension, it would snarl.

Yikes.

You can still use it if you are nearby for the printing....this is possible:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2729

But you can't just let it run overnight without being there. Not a bad idea to unspool as much as you think you'll need for a print and rewind that portion before starting, with a little extra. S3D gives the filament requirements for the print on the preview page.