Functional Print Friday came up with some unique tools. One is a lever for locking and unlocking the spools. Not necessary for most people, but he was dealing with recovery from wrist surgery.
The other is for refills with damaged cardboard that don’t want to go onto the spool. As I’ve only ordered about 6 refills so far, I haven’t run into this. But he orders dozens and has seen this. The video shows a boogered up refill he got from Bambu. Pretty slick idea for that problem once I saw it. The files are available for download.
That’s some very clever ingenuity that he used to solve this problem. But it also highlights a larger point. This wouldn’t be needed if the manufacturing process to make the inner cardboard wasn’t defective to begin with. So if Bambulabs is charging a premium price for their filament, shouldn’t the community be demanding a defect-free product?
The last one I opened had a crushed cardboard inner and too thin so that the filament falls either side between the reusable and the refill spool itself.
It is nice to spend 10 minutes jamming the cardboard over the reusable spool only to constantly need to free the jammed printer every few minutes.
I needed a hobby, ideal activity for a disabled bloke.
I’ve personally already gotten 2 refills that were an absolute nightmare to get on the spool. One of them literally left me with about 1000 little shavings of cardboard all over the place before I could get it on.
Printing my spool buddy today, just so it’s ready for the next time I get one of those buggered up things.
After you posted this someone posted it to Makerworld and it already has 5 boosts. They linked the video and his website but I’m pretty sure it’s not him.
**Nevermind, I guess the license he has on it allows that?
The license allows remixes with attribution. Not a video. That is, if we are talking about the model Lin posted. The creator already mentioned in the comments about it if you take a look.
I also have gotten several refills that constantly jammed up because the filament would hang up all the time. It’s why I printed out a spool rewinder when I run into those problem refills.
What a great product, I really enjoyed the journey to the final Bambu Spool Buddy and he has also made a spool splitter for people who’s dexterity isn’t what it used be or possibly have only one hand. I love watching FPF’s videos as it’s everyday gadgets that he makes.
At the time it was called “Spool Buddy”, I just looked and it’s no longer on that other account. He didn’t have an account on Makerworld the day I posted that. I sent him a note that just said someone had that model on Makerworld and he should really check Makerworld out because the point system is pretty cool. I looked at his account and the models were all uploaded on 11/2 and 11/3… so my message may or may not have put all in motion lol.
