How to change filament without an AMS

MakerWorld
1

I have an X1C with an AMS, but also an A1 Mini with no AMS.

I generally use the A1 for quick prototypes, but I am also using it for TPU prints as the X1C doesn’t support the TPU I have.

I have an object where the bottom is PETG and the top is TPU and on my old Prusa, I used to just insert of a pause, change filament and carry on… And I would print BOTH materials as PETG and it came out OK.

But on the A1, its too fast and the TPU section is a bit ugly…

So I have been playing around and found that I can ‘cut’ the model into 2 ‘objects’. Then change teh bottom 1/2 to PETG and the top to TPU… And this is good…

But when I print it, it does the whole thing…

The only way to stop this is to find the layer of the material change and insert a pause, and this is fine.

But is there another way… is there the option make the print stop for a ‘filament change’ without using pause. I know its the same thing, but would just like to see if its actually an option.

Better still, is there a way to actually make the printer initiate a filament change, so it “unloads” when it pauses?

For now, adding a pause is fine, but I just wonder if there is a better way.

2

Paint it 2 colours, the second after the pause. Make that second colour print far slower in the filament settings.

3

OK… So “pause” is still the way?

Cutting it in 1/2 and then making the bottom half PET and the top TPU seems to work… I just wondered if there was a way to do the change without the “Pause”.

4

Two different filament types require manual manipulation ,

5

So I can’t just cut it into 2 objects and set 1/2 as TPU and 1/2 as PETG?

It seems to be working OK. I printed the whole thing in PETG and the whole thing in TPU, so I know what the quality should be like… And then I just did the cut and printed it like this (With a pause) and its come out as well as I would expect.

Somethign changes as if I mark the top and bottom as PETG and slice it I get one estimated time… And then if I change one 1/2 of it to TPU and slice, i get a different time… So there are some settings which change.

6

ive never tried to print one object in two halves , but i have tried to print one object with two filament types (old petg basic with pla basic) before it was changed for supports , it required a pause , but i would be interested to see how bambu studio slices two objects with different types of filaments at once
unless you mean you are slicing the parts on different plates

7

In the preview screen layer selector right-click menu (left click on the desired layer, then right click the ‘+’ sign) there’s a “Change Filament” submenu (it only appears if you have more than one filament configured) that lets you select any of the configured filaments.

8

Thanks… That helps… I did see that option, but couldn’t get it to work… But I just realised that this was because I had already ‘cut’ the model into 2 objects

If I go back to the beginning so that its just a single part, I can now do a ‘filament change’ instead of a pause… So let me do some testing and see how that goes.

Cheers