This happened to me many times in the beginning of my 3d printing career. What I eventually learned was to never let go of the end of the filament!
Once I made a habit out of fastening the end of the filament to the side of the spool, I never got a filament knot again even once, on any spool (6 years and going).
I think what happens is once it’s let loose there’s a risk that the end of the filament slips under one of the loops and it’s impossible to notice until much later. So once it’s slipped under there it makes sort of an open knot that needs at least 10 spool revolutions until it’s tighened itself.
This doesn’t mean of course that the same thing can happen during packaging in the factory but I think that’s an exception. The winding process itself can’t produce knots, so I’m not worried so much about untidily wound filament.
Not an issue for me. Never had a tangle and use almost exclusively BBL filament. The AMS is not good at winding the filament back on the roll, but its never been a problem for me.
I actually had more issues with my Ender 3 and the roll just free wheeling.
I guess the bottom line is, the BBL rolls are not the prettiest, and the AMS does make them look even worse, but it hasn’t been an issue for me.
Same here. The only filaments I’ve had trouble with (winding issue-wise) in years of 3D printing are the BL spools. I’ve had three spools with tangling so far, and just hoping that I get no more from the already purchased spools in my rack.
In future I think I shall be sticking to eSun etc, as I can’t risk another disaster like I had with my BL PLA Basic half way through a long print last week. Pity, as I really like the Bambu Lab finish on their filaments, and the price is good with the discount scheme.
Same issue here. I found their rolls to be great at first, but I suspect they got swamped with orders from the holidays and sped up production, because all the rolls I’ve received since December 2023 tangle at least a couple of times, and I’m currently fighting a roll that tangles every 15-30 minutes, which is frustrating for a 26 hour print, that is now on day four, due to tangling.
Can anyone recommend brands other than BL that will almost never tangle?
I have the same problem with Bambu refills all the time… the filament gets stuck on the bottom left side of the spool where the filament ends and overloads the AMS then I have to unspool a bit in the AMS. 1 in 5 refill rolls do this not sure why the refills are bound so badly.
I thought I may be putting to much force on the left side of the raw filament roll when putting on the spool but then noticed that all the bad refill are just poorly wound…
i saw someone with a piece of long PTF tube between the entry of the ams on the filament that would prevent the filament from running to the left and jamming but not sure how it stays in place with the AMS is retracting…
compared to other brands that always deliver perfectly rolled filaments, I have to say the Bambu ones are not that great - but their quality is amazing so will keep using them and looking for a better solution.
I had a BL PLA Orange recently that had crossed winding, and was too fat to fit on a BL or third party hex spool I printed. Had a lot of filament retraction errors, but after getting about 1/3rd through the spool, it has been printing fine since.
I’m going to look at printing a Pastamatic or similar in case I need to rewind spools in future.
my refills keep getting stuck on the side of the roll and give me a AMS overload in the middle of my prints… happens with 1 in 4 re-fills from bambu but only with the refills. not sure if there is a solution for this maybe adding a weight inside the spool
@soulbank when I used the refills in the past I gave the spool a massage of sorts after I connected the sides together. It loosened the filament a little and seated it I think. I’ve had one problem where it pulled down the side, I made a practice of guiding the first strand in the middle so it didn’t pull on the first time, from then on it seemed happy and never gave any more issues.
Adding weights in my opinion only loads the motors more than needed and provides no other benefit in this scenario.
You aren’t using any of the filament clips that clip into the side of the spool are you? I ran into a similar issue where I put one on the wrong side (left) and it causes the spool to slightly snag on part of the AMS guide as it rotates. What happens if the filament is near the edge of the spool is that this snag causes the filament to be pull into the edge of the spool and binds it. Just something to look out for.
@JonRaymond I forgot to take one off a few weeks back and didn’t it kick up a fuss. Locked up and printing air for 10min before I caught on (TPU on the external).
Thanks for all the help here, good to know about not adding weights was thinking of doing that but usually the snagging happens early on when the reel has been swapped out so didnt sound like a fix.
Will try massaging the filament ,sounds like that will help even out the filament on the sides of the spool better and prevent the snagging.
Can you let me know what you mean by “filament clips that clip into the side of the spool” - I am reusing the white spools that come with my early orders and they printed ok previously so dont think its my issue… but I do have a grey spool that came with a extra AMS I ordered thats having this issue so will check it out now!
Initially I thought my recent tangling issues was from a tangle I cause during filament exchange. I have done that in the past when careless swapping non-BL spools.
But I’ve now had a BL PLA-CF that has never changed AMS bays get tangled so I am sure it came poorly wound. It was pretty hard to diagnose as the tangle happens right as it’s about to enter the print assembly so the error message kept sounding like it was a nozzle jam. When this happens, the software does not report a tangle (as it usually does) and instead endlessly feed and retract and eventually says something about an overheated AMS motor. It’s unfortunate because I was just starting to switch over from PolyMaker to BL but am now having second thoughts.
i have quite a bit of problems with the refills - after feedback here holding the filament horizontally and shaking the filament up/down then spinning and doing again seems to help before putting it in but it happens a bit to me
Just had this happen to me. The first time i was able to massage it out but on my brand new refill im going to have to respool the whole thing. Motor keeps getting overloaded by bad spool winding. Only happens on refills. Have had it happen twice out of 30 or so refills.
This happens to me often enough, it’s just the refills but not all of them. I use a lot of white so see it there mostly. I can’t tell if it’s from me loading the refill on the spool or the AMS backing it into the edge on filament changes.
I did have some issues with Polymaker too; they said they hear that from folks and the AMS does that sometimes. I use their filament mostly but for lithophanes I just get the Bambu bundle and lots of white refills.
Just failed a print and worked the roll a little but it’s packed in tight, so fingers crossed.
Some or the refill spindles that come wrapped are too thin and the filament falls down the side, some are too thick and the filament at the edge gets wedged in.
I haven’t had a common issue that plagues some other brands, actually twisted filament where you have to pull the filament out of a knot it has created somehow in the spool.
I had it happen to me on a filament with spool. The 13h print got stuck twice due to the filament being tangled. It was fresh spool, first print, on spool.
I just had this issue this weekend. 6 hour print, 2 hours into it using a fresh, new spool of translucent purple filament and luckily the A1 detected the problem and stopped, but I had to unwind, fix the issue and continue. 2 hours later, it hit another snag. I have purchased many spools of filament from Bambu and this is the only spool that I have run into issues with. I’m hoping that this, along with taping the end of the spool is not a new trend from Bambu.
One thing I missed with the BL refills is that after you have loaded and removed the tape, you have to press hard on the filament to make sure it fills in any gaps with the spool. This info is not in the instructions but is at the very end of the BL install video.I was not doing this and I had problems with the filament getting stuck between the roll and the side of the spool.
so will check it out now!