Filament not coming off reel easily

[Allan Bennett]

A few days ago I started a 12-hour print using a new reel of ColorFabb LW-PLA.  About 4 hours in I went to check progress and found that at about (I guess) the 3 hour mark there was a layer about 4mm wide where there was practially no material.  Above that level printing was continuing okay.  The problem was the filament was not wound on the reel neatly, so that at some points it was extremely difficult to pull it off the reel.  Now with that particular reel I'm pulling filament off the reel by hand about every 30 minutes to make sure I won't have that problem again.

 

How do others overcome this problem?  And is there a good-quality brand of LW-PLA that is always reeled neatly?  I could maybe tighten the 'gripper' that gives the filament drive a bit more grip, but I would be worried about over-tightening it in case it burns out the drive motor trying to get filament off a really stubborn reel.  My printer is an Ender 3 by the way.

[Graham Bowers]

I know you shouldn't have to, but I think I'd be re-spooling this reel onto a spare reel. If you don't have a spare, improvise something to pull it off, then back on. Hopefully it's something in the first few turns that won't clear it's self. A sort of knot that won't unravel.  I really wouldn't adjust anything in the printer to compensate as you rightly say, it may mess something else up.

 

I do use this filament as do others I know personally, and I've not come across this before. And I'm as sure as I can be that if there was a general problem, the 3D printing Facebook groups would be groaning under the strain of complaints.

 

The only time I've had any problems with any filament of any type not spooling well off the reel it's been due to the end having been fed under the first couple of turns, and once I'd pulled a couple of turns off and wound it back on it was fine.

 

Not sure if this helps or not, however it's all I have knowledge of. I'm on a Prusa, however doubt the printer brand matters.

[PDB]

I’ve used various ColorFabb PLAs, including their LW PLA, and haven’t experienced bad spooling. In addition to re-spooling I’d raise with ColorFabb.

 

I’ve heard of it with another brand but surprised with ColorFabb being a premium brand.

[Ron Gray]

I’ve encountered that problem on a couple of spools and ended up pulling several metres off the spool then rewinding (in the middle of a print run!). I agree with Graham, I wouldn’t overadjust the grip force on the hot end feed.

[Allan Bennett]

Thanks guys.  The problem with this reel is ongoing, not just the first layer.  I had another print wrecked yesterday.  Seems like re-winding the reel is the only option.  I'll take it up with ColorFabb too -- I'm relatively new to 3D printing but I've used a couple of reels of their LW-PLA already without any problems.

[EvilC57]

I’ve put two reels of ColorFabb LW-PLA through my Ender 3 V2 now, and can’t say I have encountered this problem. Although I did have it once with a reel of Sunlu PLA. It sounds like you’ve just been unlucky.

The first reel of CF LW-PLA I had was on a plastic spool, but they seem to have gone over to a cardboard one now (trying to be green I guess), but both unspooled OK.

 

To ease the path of the filament, a couple of the first things I did when I got my printer was to make and fit a guide pulley and this filament holder from Thingyverse.

Edited August 22, 2023 by EvilC57

[Allan Bennett]

Thanks EvilC57.  I've used 1-1/2 reels of ColorFabb LW-PLA before this one, without any problems.  All were on cardboard spools.  I'm using the guide pulley that you linked, but only the stock holder.

 

I've sent an email to ColorFabb with a photo showing how the layers are overlapping.  I'll report if I get a reply.

[EvilC57]

Hmm, interesting Allan. Be interesting to hear what ColorFabb come back with. I must admit the possibility of the reel snagging and hanging up is always at the back of mind whenever I’m printing, but you can’t sit there and watch all the time while an eight hour print runs!

 

I gather some more upmarket printers (Bambu X1 for one) use a camera and AI software for ‘spaghetti detection’, to detect print failure and stop the print from progressing. I don’t know whether they detect print starvation though.

[Ron Gray]

26 minutes ago, EvilC57 said:

to detect print failure and stop the print from progressing. I don’t know whether they detect print starvation though

No they don't!

[EvilC57]

What happens if you’re trying to print a 3D model of a plate of spaghetti, do they stop then?!

[Robin Colbourne]

It sounds a bit like our gliding club's winch; if the cable was wound on under too much tension, a turn of cable could get pulled under two adjacent turns that had a small gap between them.  The cable was then trapped which would then cause the weak link to break when towing the cable back to the launch point.
Synthetic cables also had an issue if wound on under tension, then left until the following week.  It wasn't unknown for steel cable drums to be crushed by the cumulative effect of all the turns shrinking a little bit each.  The winch manufacturers advised always having the last 'wind in' of the day just towing a tyre across the airfield, to ensure the cable was relaxed. 

In terms of the printer filament, if it was wound on when warm or under a lot of tension, and allowed to get very cold, the tension could similarly have dragged strands to where they are trapped by others.
 

[Simon Chaddock]

Just a small point but if you ever pick up the loose end but do so under an exisiting turn it will never clear itself no matter how much filament you unwind.

I hand a hard to unwind spool until I spotted the filament was passing under in my case two turns. 

It is important to ensure you keep hold of the loose end until you can secure it on the side of the spool or feed the end into the printer. 

[Allan Bennett]

I'm pretty careful about keeping track of the loose end, but it must have got beneath an existing turn at some point.  Since it was a new reel, I'm reasonably sure it was at the factory.

 

This afternoon I started hand-winding the filament onto an empty reel, but after successfully doing only two layers I had to cut the filament because I came to this impossible tangle:

 

 

[Allan Bennett]

Having cut the filament and then picked the loosed end out from under the other layers, I'm now 40 minutes into another print and it seems to be coming off the reel smoothly.  So, as Simon Chaddock has pointed out, misplacement of the loose end from the outset -- either by me or by the factory -- seems to have been the source of the problem.

[Graham Bowers]

2 hours ago, Allan Bennett said:

Having cut the filament and then picked the loosed end out from under the other layers, I'm now 40 minutes into another print and it seems to be coming off the reel smoothly.  So, as Simon Chaddock has pointed out, misplacement of the loose end from the outset -- either by me or by the factory -- seems to have been the source of the problem.

At least you have some sort of closure.