My wife has a crafting project in mind, where she would need plenty of 10m pieces of filament. Measuring those are a bit of a pita but i started wondering if one of my printers ( either X1C or A1 ) couldn’t do that automatically? After all, if there is no hotend installed, all the printer needs to do is to extrude the 10m and then cut it.
I’d guess that is possible with a custom g code but i have no idea where to begin. Could anyone help me point to something like a library of g codes? What do i need to keep in mind?
How fast can the nozzle-less extruder push filament? I cannot find a specification, with or without a nozzle.
Maximum volumetric speed might give us a clue, even though that depends on nozzle temp and material. I think I’ve seen high numbers of about 40 mm³/s with aftermarket hot ends, but at that speed extruding ten meters of filament would take about 200 seconds. Even if that rate can be doubled, we are looking at over a minute and a half per piece, more if you try to engage the filament cutter for automatic cutting.
I don’t think it will be practical to create and debug the code, and then take apart and reinstall the hotend, unless this is going to be an expensive, dedicated, filament cutting machine.
Just measure and mark 10m on a floor, wall, sidewalk, etc. ONCE. Or around a table leg five meters away to cut down the walking back and forth. Two of you working together should be able to unspool and cut at least four 10 meter lengths in less than a minute.