I have been printing now for getting on for 10 years, starting with a Printrbot…
Over the years I have collected a lot of rolls of filament and some are now really old. Some have got brittle over the years, but they still print perfectly.
On my Prusa, I was used to the odd break of filament learned ways to fix it. Broken filament was easy to get it out… Or better still push it through, so i never had an issue dealing with this…
I feared the X1 and/or AMS might be a problem with this filament, and today, I did my first multi colour print and had a failure… A small amount of filament snapped off and I had to dismantle the extruder to get it out.
It was a fairly trivial task, but not something i want to do often… On my Prusa, I would normally be able to heat the hot end and force this broken bit through manually by just pushing a new bit behind it… But of course, the X1 won’t do this as its all automatic… Are there any tips for handling this? Any way to ram the broken bit through? Or am I going to have to stop using the reels of brittle filament that I have accumulated?
I know that people are going to say don’t use the filament… But I have 10s of rolls which all print fine and I would rather not get rid of them. I am now forced to go back to my Prusa to use these old filaments, but would rather not.
Most of the time you can fix brittle filament by drying it. Different types of filament absorb moisture from the air at different rates so it’s possible that sometimes it takes a long time depending on the environment you’re in. You can dry it in the X1C but since you have so many roles I would consider buying a dryer.
The stock configuration puts some fairly low radius bends in the tubing for the filament. If you straighten out the path some with extra tubing or change mounting, maybe feed the extruder from the top with the top glass removed, it might reduce breakage too.
I know this is an old thread, but the topic is relevant to me.
My first 3D printer used an external motor that pushed filament through the Bowden tube to the hotend. This was a total nightmare if filament was brittle and broke in the tube.
Then I got my first direct drive extruder and it made dealing with brittle filaments so much easier.
Now I’m seeing that most of these new coreXY printers use long Bowden tubes to get the filament to the extruder. And I feel like I’m taking a step back.
I guess the solution (ya, besides not using brittle filament) is to avoid using an AMS or the Bowden tube and having an external spool feed down directly into the extruder?
Any other tips and suggestions? I really would like to dive into these new printers!
Correct, but not exactly. The tubing is being used as a guide instead of a crucial extrusion component.
You call them Bowden tubes because you are familar with bowden extruders. When they are really just simple ptfe tubes. Almost all new machines use a direct extruder.
Many people run without the PTFE tubes when printing with tpu. You dont need them, but as you said, they are a required part of the AMS system.