I ordered my AMS two days ago, so it hasn’t yet arrived, and so before that I wasn’t aware of any downsides to buying filament on cardboard spools, which I’m now reading maybe problematic for the AMS.
You could try and print those adapters for cardboard spools but make sure they’re not too tall. It has just little bit of room left.
You could print with the AMS open (though it defeats the purpose of a closed system)
You could respool them either with a simple print or print that really advanced one that automatically moves the filament left to right while spooling.
Or you could try to transfer them by taping them up, ripping of one side and inserting the spool into a bambu one, same with the other side
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I got frustrated with rings and electrical tape and I use my pastamatic printed respooler most of the time instead.
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Yeah, after just now watching that video, the tape-up method took him almost 11 minutes. How long does re-spooling take? I’m guessing it might be less than 11 minutes.
About 5. He did 2 spools. That’s why i sent you the video timestamped to skip the first. It’s generally not the best video but the only one i had at hand.
Depends. It might take less than 11 (5) minutes but require a 24 hour ling print if you want the advanced one that properly respools it
Here: 2 minutes
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I go with the Pastamatic to run the Bambu and printed Bambu spools. It saves the hassle of getting halfway through a side ripping event to find they’ve changed the core size or even worse have an accidental blowout. Pastamatic isn’t the easiest build initially, needing a long print and 14 skateboard bearings, but I’m happy with the quality and ease of spooling up all matter of filaments.
Are the inside diameters sometimes so different that the taping method just can’t work? e.g. if the inner diameter of the cardboard spool is smaller than the BBL plastic bobbin, then I’m assuming the tape method just can’t fit it on there. Or is this a concern about something that just never comes up in real life?
Edit: I think GenericUser may have just answered this question while I was typing it.
Couldn’t tell you. I don’t buy cardboard spools so i got no experience with it.
You can measure the insides, I didn’t the first time and hence had the big birds nest fail trying to save it lol. I’ve seen it done and I’m impressed, still not for me though 
I’ve transferred spools with success, but as previously noted there can be issues with the sizes, not just with the inner ring diameter, but also with the width. I’ve had to create adapters to narrow the width of the spool holder so the inner ring wouldn’t sit loosely in there. Respooling would probably be the “best” solution, as you don’t have to worry about such things.
Most of my spools are Polymaker cardboard and I honestly just quit worrying about it and I’ve just started chucking the cardboard spools into the AMS naked. I’m not seeing all this dust people are worrying about and I’ve yet to have feed issues, though it might happen at some point. I’m not advocating for doing this, I’m just being lazy about it. Time will tell if I’m doing it all wrong or not.
I printed a respooler first, but ended up finding it tedious to use and had other issues with filament breaking after respooling. In one particular case, a spool more or less exploded in my AMS. It looked a right mess. (That did happen rarely, but did happen and I’m pretty sure it came from the stress of respooling) I favor the rip the sides off and stick it on a bambu spool method. I have a spacer I modeled though that is made to accommodate variances in sizes, since it doesn’t wedge, but uses the keys on the spools to keep everything aligned. It mostly works, but there’s still enough variance in those cardboard spools that there’s the off spool that gives trouble.
I’ve had spools mushed up enough that I couldn’t just chuck them into the AMS like RandomKhaos has, although I have done it without issue too. If you don’t drop your cardboard spools, you probably would be fine, haha. I did try and print those edge guards, but that got jammed up on some slots in the ams, and just don’t recommend.
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I’ve seen people complain about similar issues. From some of the discussions I’ve read, it appears to be related to spooling it too tightly, not sure if that’s your experience or not. It’s the exploding filament part that has me pause on planning out a project to print a respooler.
I’ve had a few that were warped enough that I had to rip the sides off and transfer to a new spool.
Kind of my experience with the edge guards too, they didn’t perform as well as I expected.
Ahh! I don’t think my respools were ever all that tight. I think it might have been more to do with the moisture content of the filament with rapid respooling, and the filament itself. I’m just theorizing here, so don’t quote me too wildly. I just imagine the conditions are different when you first wind up a spool, vs respooling. When it’s freshly extruded, and being spooled for the first time! It’s settling into that wind. By the time you get the spool and respool it, it’s settled, and I think that process of respooling it can stress the filament from that natural state it conformed too. Just like an old guy getting up from a chair. My knees! Through regular printing, I think it moves at a pace that doesn’t stress it the same way, and you’re melting right away too, so.
With that one that exploded on me, there were parts that became brittle and easy to break, but other sections that still seemed to have their bendyness. Reminds me of a black transparent pla I really liked, but was difficult to work with because it had a tendency to break off in the PTFE tubing if you let it sit. So it was fine on the roll, fine during printing, but anytime you’d let it sit, the stress would grow and break it. I did try and dry that roll, but it didn’t change anything. Not sure if that was just the way that filament was, or if it was just a not so perfect roll.
I found a couple of different variants on the same design:
and
and there may be others.
Out of everything that may be out there, which do you all recommend?
Pastamatic is by far the most popular, and I think that makes it the right choice for a lot of users - it has tons of accessories, remixes, and adapted parts available for it.
I have a few ‘aftermarket’ parts for my pastamatic that made it easier for me to use.
Reinforced Axle (I destroyed the original very quickly)
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I’ve been pretty happy with this one. It seems to be more space conscious than others models.
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Soner or later you will be happy to have a respooler.
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Looks very nice! Did you print yours in PLA or PETG or…?
If I start now, maybe I’ll have it printed by the time the AMS arrives.
Printed in ABS.
There is also the Mini version without the top spool mount.
To be honest, I repooled my first couple spools with a center mounted to a drill (linked below). It’s not as fancy as the stand alone spooler but it works and is simple. It also worked best for a “split” spool that really had issues with trying to run on rollers.
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