I had a spool come apart in the AMS and the filament rat nested. It was probably my fault for not screwing the halves together completely. I don’t know, but now I’m not sure what to do. It was almost a full spool and I don’t even think I have a cardboard tube to wind it onto another spool. Any suggestions??
It happens.
It sounds like a refill given you mentioned not screwing the halves together.
Assuming it is still in the MAS (and we are not talking about the AMS Lite), you can take measures to improve the outcome.
It is not a guarantee this will work, but, it is your best bet and what I did when I found myself in your situation.
You will need some items to help, though.
Most importantly, packaging tape (commonly brown parcel tape), if not, a sticky tape that is as wide as possible.
Assuming the two halves have not completely fallen apart, the aim is to get the sides back together.
Depending on the amount of “rat nesting”, you will need to remove any filament still in the filament tube by carefully pulling it out. If you cancelled the print partway through, you must run the unload option on Bambu Studio or the printer itself.
I will try to put these in bullet points and perform the ones that relate to your scenario.
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Unload the filament
If you aborted the print, one end of the filament is still in the hot end and must be removed. Use the UNLOAD menu option on the screen or the option from the Bambu Studio (BS) device tab. You may need to pull the filament manually when that process begins.
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Remove filament still in the AMS.
Remove the end of the filament still in the AMS slot PTFE tube by slowly pulling it out.
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Attempt to close the two filament sides together
Try this before or after point 4, or repeat between the two steps.
Do not remove the spool, but add pressure to both sides to centre the pressure towards the hollow central tube.
The objective is to try and get both sides back together without all the remaining filament unfurling further. If the bird’s nest is causing issues, swap to point 4 before returning to this point.
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Tighten the unfurled filament
You described a bird’s nest, the aim is to reduce that mess.
Try gently rotating the spool away from you while holding onto the end of the filament. The aim is to tighten the filament on the spool.
Depending on how big the bird’s nest is, you may need to rotate the spool towards you while pulling on the end of the filament to straighten it out before winding it the other way to respool.
You may need to try this several times and alternate between steps 3 and 4.
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Wrap the tape
Take your tape and wrap it around the filament between the two sides. Start on one side of the filament spool before working over to the other side.
Ideally, you have one continuous piece of tape; if you cannot do it that way, try to use as long a section as possible multiple times.
The tape needs to give your messy filament strength, so you must go round more than once and get tighter each time.
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Remove the spool.
When you believe you have some strength in the central core, you can remove the spool, hold it with two hands and continue to apply pressure towards the centre.
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If the spool is a PRINTED reusable spool.
Look in the central core to see if the printed locking tab is inside. If it is, remove it, while keeping as much pressure on as possible.
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Place the spool down.
Place the spool on a flat surface, and make sure the label on the spool is facing upwards.
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Slowly untwist the top half from the bottom.
Make sure you do not release the pressure, the aim is to be able to correctly seat the spool halves.
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Relock the halves.
Once both halves are perfectly horizontal to each other and your work surface, twist the two back together.
Provided there is no initial friction stopping you, this should be easy.
You will need to lift the whole thing to complete the lock twist, you will feel it lock into place, and you will need to give it some extra effort than the initial twist.
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If the spool is a PRINTED reusable spool.
Insert the printed locking tab into one of the free spaces that have the same width. It should also noticeably lock into place with pressure.
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Remove the tape
The tape was there to try and keep the filament from completely unfurling.
We are ready to remove it now.
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Pull the filament end away from the spool.
The aim here is to get all the filament off the spool that is clearly not well wound.
Pull the filament end away from the spool allow the mess to start clearly up.
Tip: You may put the filament back in the AMS to help you in this process by pulling the length of filament free.
Once you see the remaining filament is tight, you begin the process of rolling the filament away from you and keeping the filament taught as you spool it back.
Do this slowly and maintain pressure while winding. Make sure to move the filament from left to right and back so it goes on evenly.
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Clip the filament to the spool.
When you have all the filament back on the spool, clip the end to the edge of the spool.
- It should be safe to use again.
You may need to review the first metre to see if there is any section chewed up by the gears; if so, you will need to trim that part.
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Thank you very much for the time you took to give me some options.
I was unable to press the two halves together as so much of the filament has bird nested.
I was able to find an empty spool with the cardboard tube.
I plan to get a helper handle the two spools as we wind and unwind to see if we can save the filament.
I will let you know how it goes.
Thank you again!
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