I was getting rid of some spool ends the other day by manually feeding them in while printing. That way I was able to push all these ends past any sensors and into the extruder for uninterrupted printing. It came out fine but was quite tedious.
So this got me thinking: Do any of you guys splice filaments? Not only would this allow for more efficient material use, but I suspect a print made from a bunch of small segments of different colors could look kinda cool.
I’m primarily printing with PETG, so my question is specifically about that, but I’m sure the concept should work for other filaments too.
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Yes. I bought one of those cheap sunlu filament joiners (I think CNC Kitchen did a video on it?).
Basically, when a spool is at the point where I start caring how much filament is left on it? I put it off to the side. And two or three times a year I just listen to a podcast while I fuse all those spools (with the same material). Makes for some fun multicolor prints when one color ends and the next begins and basically means I have all the “infinite filament” benefits of a multi-filament system without costing hundreds of dollars.
I don’t do much PETG but the sunlu has a setting for it (185C).
I have done it back in the day. It’s a real hassle. And I went to the trouble of designing a proper heating and aligning tool to do the job. I could produce a smooth and pretty good splice. The trouble with it was different brands/colors of filament were always iffy about staying welded due to the additives. While it mostly worked, the welds could break just often enough to piss you off. I finally gave up on trying to make a reliable product happen.
Automatically switching spools on runout is the one thing my AMS lite is really, really worth having. It’s why I bought my Mini combo a year ago.
In my makerspace, we’ve printed using the ends of rolls just to make random multicolor prints. I also recently bought a cheap 3D printing pen for repairing prints or other random purposes, so that’s also a good use for the ends of a roll.
if I want to torture myself and, hum, make a custom multicolor filament, yeah.
I prefer to respect myself, so I have a sign saying “Don’t” on the box of junk with the splicer and similarly bad ideas.
I need a Don’t box.
1m of filament represents 6-10¢ of value for basic filaments like PLA/PETG/ABS/ASA from a quality manufacturer, less for cheap ones. I will never bother with the hassle of splicing filament pieces for that.
Small pieces of filament are good for a 3D pen if you have one. Splicing filament isn’t really worth the effort just to use up such a small amount of filament.
MMU units like the ERCF allow you to use a functionality called “endless spool”, which detects spool run-outs and automatically switches to another spool in the same group.
You still waste some filament, to be precise the length from the MMU unit inlet gates to the extruder, but whatever.Bambu allows you to automatically switch to a different spool from ams when you run out and continue printing, so this becomes unnecessary.
Yep. I think other manufacturers do this with multi-material units, too. It’s a really clever way to handle the issue and one of my favorite features of the AMS. Spool running low? Just throw a second one on there, tell the printer they’re the same material, and bam. Wake up the next morning to an empty spool and a completed print.
Not completely unnecessary. I have several 95% used tricolor filaments that aren’t wound with the colors in the same orientation so I can’t just feed a replacement in. I’ve tried splicing but it’s been insanely difficult to get them to line up properly while the plastic is still heated.
I meant in the context of the post where primary focus seemed to be using up the leftover bits of filament
