All in all im loving my A1 mini. The only gripe i have is the way the fillament constantly gets tangled if you dont keep an eye on it.
This guy found a neat solution, but i was wondering if anybody had any alternative print solutions that dont require glue?
thanks
Wouldn’t just winding the roll a little by hand do the same thing…?? 
Well yes, but I invariably forget, after failed prints etc etc. I was just wondering if there’s an attachment I could print that would just save me from thinking about it as much
i am thinkin on using a spool older with these installed !
Yeah was thinking of doing that. Hopefully this will keep things a little more stable during prints. Doubt it will eliminate the issue of the filament being lengthened at the end of the prints though
I don’t quite understand the problem. How does the filament get tangled? Did not happen to me till now.
Because the tube is attached to the arm that goes up and down, As the print arm gets higher the filament gets pulled off the spool, then - when the arm lowers itself this causes slack in the filament that then gets tangled up around the spool (if not spotted and tightened back up)
I just tested this and I can see how it might be a problem if the spool is small / filled to the brink with filament. Maybe turning the spool around so the filament gets pulled from the top of the spool rather than the bottom might help. That way there is always tension on the spool.
Might give it a try. I just feed it from under as that’s what the videos show. Do you think the filament feeding would work as smoothly if it’s kinked more as it would be if coming from below?
I tried it once for one print just out of curiosity but I turned it back around since I do not have the tangle problem and it definitely puts more stress on the filament due to the different angle but it printed fine.
You could just buy an AMS Lite and enjoy a whole new world of multicolour prints. Maybe that’s what Bambu wanted.
Nah to much waste, added cost and space + there is only very limited actual application apart from coloring in models. Only real cool application would be to use pla as support material for petg prints or combining pla/petg and tpu for for example hinges. But the latter is not possible since you can’t really feed tpu reliably through the AMSlite.
Oh and having 4 spools of filament ready to use and switch between them fast is also cool, but not 260€ cool especially since you need much more space for the machine. I especially got the A1 mini to attach the handle and have it semi portable. I can put it in the garage or in the living room, in the the attic, near my workdesk etc.
Oh and for colored models I don’t really understand the appeal / practicality. When you mass produce you would also injection mold separate pieces with separate solid colors and assemble them afterwards or just injection mold them as one part and paint them. You could also do this with a single color printer and since the AMS adds a lot of printing time it would probably also be faster that way. The only hurdle is modeling for later assembly.
Coming from single colour printing it’s been great to add coloured details conveniently and easily to more of my prints than I originally imagined before. It can be wasteful with poop but if you plan and choose the type of prints you print it’s not that bad. If you don’t need multicolour or have the space then it’s not for you I guess but I thought you might want to consider it as an option to help cure your retraction tangling issues.
I see why it would be fun to do, don’t get me wrong. I was also on the edge of ordering it with the AMS just to try it out. The price is not that high in the combo but if you want to get it afterwards it’s just to much money.
And as a solution for filament tangling it would be nonsensical to add a 260€ accessory to a 320€ printer. The printer should also be designed in a way that it works on its own. And, as mentioned before, for me it does work fine at the moment.
This is far from a huge issue done get me wrong. Just a little annoyance which I was wondering if anyone had made a print to solve.
I’m also not sold on the ams for mixing multicolours into 1 single print. But if I had the space and money I’d be tempted, as it would be really handy not do have to swap filaments so often. I’d probably still separate my models to print colours separately, but at least I could print in object mode in different colours. (Oh, and disolvable supports would also be cool 
)
I can understand your reluctance based on cost and doubt of usefulness to yourself as I was in two minds when ordering my A1 Combo but I’m glad I did as it’s added more fun for me personally.
The solution you might require would be to mount the filament higher than the print head reaches during a print. My A1 has the non-AMS spool mount high up on the z axis crossbar and I don’t have tangling issues.
I would recommend a spool holder with open bearings. They run more easily and should also get the spool moving a little due to the slight pressure that the filament makes when it is pushed back. So the filament should put itself back on the spool.
That would make the problem worse.
It worked on my Sidewinder X1 back then. But I’m currently looking for a second project of mine, where I installed a return spring that ran in the outer ring with teeth that moved by one tooth if the tension was too high.
A bearing would cause the filament to roll out faster. What this would need is a little tension…JMO