I bought 10 rolls of filament when it was on sale and got an additional 4 empty spools. I have purchased about 40 rolls of replacement film since and have had serious issues with tangling in many of them. I have been very careful to install and tighten the spools before removing the strapping. At this point I have thrown away a bunch of partial rolls and have excessive wear on the rollers of one slot of the AMS. Is there something I am missing during my spool reloading?
2nd issue: After one really bad tangle that actually pulled the roll out of the AMS the filament would not feed. I pulled the head, cleaned the extruder with no success. Frustrated I set it aside for a month or two. Purchased a new nozzle, replaced all 4 rolls of filament and now I can’t get filament more than 4 inches into the PTFE tube after the rear junction. I removed the tube and find no nicks or issues. Any suggestions for that?
1st issue: A frequently overlooked step when installing refills is the need to give the roll a very good squeeze after spool closure. This pushes underlying filament to the edge of the spool. Otherwise, this is where filament will get trapped.
It is step 4 in here
2nd issue: You probably need to open up your AMS (new or old version?). Check for worn PTFE’s first, have a look at the rollers, try to use a piece of filament to check the hub and if all slots are a no-go, you probably need to (carefully) open the hub to clean it out.
I have been squeezing them a bit. I don’t want to take the chance of breaking them though. As for the AMS it is the second version. The PTFEs I have looked at and don’t see any issues. The rollers on the other hand are pretty worn from staying still as the rolls are stuck. The worst are the last pair and it just won’t feed if the roll is not full.
Don’t worry about squeezing/massaging. I am not able to damage the filament any more than the AMS 2 can when trying to pull in a stuck filament…
I am not as familiar with my 2 AMS 2’s as I am with my 2 original AMS. But I learned to double check spool placement by giving the inserted spool a slight roll to ensure it sits well.
On my AMS, I did have to replace a single roller only after 5000h. I had used single side filament clips which created a slight unbalance…
I have been testing and it seems that each ams position pushes it through to about the same spot. I will get some more ptfe tubes but it acts as if it has lost tracking of where the filament is. I have removed the tubes and it still feeds to the same location. Is there a way to just bypass the AMS? I think it is just plain FUBAR’d.
I replaced the tubes, replaced the print head, replaced all filaments, did a pretty thorough maintenance and the AMS: still feeds about halfway between the buffer and entering the machine. That is on all ams locations and each time it feeds to about the same location inside the tube, pulls back, and then gives an error.
At this point, I’d look deeper into the rollers of the AMS and/or the AMS hub.
If the filament rolls are not placed straight on the rollers of an AMS2 the tend to lock-up. I usually try to remember to give them a gentle spin before inserting the filament into the funnel. However, with damage to the rollers reported, you may need to replace those.
Before you order though, you should also look at the internal hub.
Be careful about the 4 spring-loaded magnets though.
Alternatively, you could approach support dirctly as it is rather difficult to try to diagnose without pic’s and from afar and my considerations may accidentally be leading you in a wrong direction.
Refills are wound a little smaller than the inside of the plastic spool halves so that it doesn’t keep you from getting the spool halves to mate and lock.
That “little smaller” bit leaves tiny gaps between the filament wraps and the inside of the spool walls which filament can pull down into and jam.
What Eno is referring to is after you get the refill mounted in the spool and the halves locked together (try locking an empty spool a few times to make sure you know how that feels/sounds) and remove the bands, you “massage” the filament by pressing it towards the hub all around to make the filament wraps spread out side to side to fill those gaps.
If you are getting jams with refills, you are likely seeing those in the gap jams or if you are losing track of the free tail, it might be over/under type of tangle. I use those little holes around the rim to hold that tail always when loading a refill. Over/under wraps are notorious.
Worst case is you unspool wraps until you know there are no tangles and spool it back on.
Thing is you have to be very mindful when loading a refill since there are a number of ways to go wrong. Always keep that free filament tail secured and be meticulous about massaging the wraps down to fill the side gaps.
Once you get the hang of it it’s really easy but can be a trouble spot for many until then.
One other issue is “the notch”. The cardboard hubs in refills have a notch in the hub on one side. Be sure that matches and mates with the feature on the spool half hub to keep the refill from just spinning in the spool. It’s an anti-rotation feature between hub and spool. Anyway, some haven’t noticed the notch and don’t engage it properly when mating up spool halves. If not properly mated it makes it really hard to lock the spools halves and the spool can come apart.
I appreciate your effort. Once I got through the rolls I purchased with the machine it has not been an issue. I also noticed that it was only a problem on the red and blue rolls. Grey (dark and light), white, Green, gold and black had no tangles at all. Of course, that may be because I have used exclusively grey for more than a month. The only issue I have lately is the AMS problem. It has been a pain to change rolls running singles from the back.
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