I’ve been using Bambu Basic PLA in the AMS, “refills” and having two problems.
First, I’ve had two spools with extensive ‘crossover’ filament loops, meaning that the AMS stops printing because the motor can’t pull the filament off the spool because a lower loop of filament crosses over the filament, causing the filament to bind. It’s not technically a knot, as I can fix the problem by loosening the filament and wiggle it around so that it’s freed up and can resume printing. But it’s quite irritating having a print stop in the middle of the night so that it’s not done in the morning, it’s waiting for me to futz around with the filament to un-bind it. It looks like the filament flopped around while it was being spooled, since the filament veered left/right surprisingly sharply, which I don’t usually see in spooled filament. Are others seeing this? And is it just with the ‘refill’ packages, or with regular spools as well? I’m pretty sure I loaded the filament right, leaving it “tied up” until after it’s on the reusable spool, then removing the plastic strips, so the filament didn’t look like it was shifting around. Was I just unlucky? Or is this a widespread issue with the Bambu filament refills?
The second problem that I had was the two halves of the printed spools coming apart after which the spool doesn’t work in the AMS, and it’s impossible (at least for me) to get the two halves back together afterwards due to the filament spreading as it continues printing. That’s fixed by using the shim to lock the two halves together after they’re assembled, even tough the halves feel like they lock in place. So even though it’s not really emphasized on the web site where you download the files, it’s incredibly important to force the shim in to lock the spools together, because respooling filamane from a ‘split spool’ is a mess. I’ve now been printing extra shims, using two per spool, just to be safe.
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I’ve not had a spool come apart but then I’ve only used 6 or 7 spools from Bambu. I have noticed that some Bambu spools are not wound well and look like they will have the trouble you describe. And so far, every spool from Bambu has been wet enough to drive the humidity in my AMS way up. It’s solved by drying the spool but of the dozens and dozens of Overture filament, I’ve not dried a single spool. One Bambu spool of Support W was so wet it saturated the desiccant, requiring it’s replacement.
Wait, what shims do you speak of
@ StreetSports
I don’t know if they come with a new spool, I’ve never seen one in the 6 or 7 spools I have. Here is a link to the knowledge sharing page on the wiki. Look for the reusable spool then the spool spacing shim. I don’t see it mentioned on the wiki page for refilling a spool, maybe it’s tribal knowledge?
The little arc-shaped piece that is printed next to one of the halves of the reusable spool. After you put the two halves together, you have to shove that piece into a slot inside the spool, to lock the two halves together.
Right, the shim is in the file to print, including the one pre-loaded on the printer as well as the file on the wiki, but there’s no mention of what to do with it on the wiki.
It’s only needed for the 3d printed reusable filament spools. The injection molded ones snap together more firmly, and don’t have/need anything else to hold them together.
I’ve owned my Carbon with AMS for two months now. I use mostly Overture filament. And I tried a wide variety of rim adapters and other things and I can’t get the AMS to reliably rewind the spool when changing filament. Probably 1 out of 5 spools rewind at a pace too slow for how the filament is sent to the AMS and it turns into a big hairball in the AMS. If I leave the AMS lid not closed, that’s when I have the most success. I expected using all Bambu spools would alleviate the problem but maybe not based on the original post. Regardless of all that, I still love the AMS. The 4 times that it works right is still 4 manual spool changes I’m not doing that I would on my Anycubic. I’m thinking of giving that Hydra unit a try.
There are a ton of printable spools online. I use this one when I have an Overture spool the won’t play well in the AMS. It locks securely without a 3rd part that I’d probably lose anyway. I have 17 spools of Overture on the shelf right now and have put at least another 15 through the printer. Of those, maybe 5 have been swapped over to the printed spool. I do find that this spacer makes for a more secure fit and prevents the core from spinning when it gets low. The listing has pictures that show how I transfer the filament to the printed spool.
I have one printed spool that is at least 3 colors in one half and 2 in the other and I think there’s a spacer that is 2 or 3 colors. These kinds of things are great for that spool that only has 4 meters left on it.
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Wow thanks a bunch for that. You’re an Overture guru. I had printed a spool and a hand drill powered transfer device and it did not go well. I will dig into these two devices. They definitely will be an improvement over what I have tried so far. I’ve tried many different filaments and Overture has given me the most consistent results. For all the different materials.
Man. I am SO GLAD that you are writing this because I am having the same issue and honestly I am starting to get very, very worried about my AMS motors.
I’ve only had my X1C and AMS for a month, but already on a refill and just like you I followed all the instructions to spool it on a used up spool properly.
Well, no matter what I did, I had the same exact issue as you. There was a massive gap on the one side of the spool and tons of cross over. I did also have some feeding funnel protectors printed with little bits of PTFE tubes sticking out of them (in the ams) to help protect them against wear. But despite this extra flexibility for the filament, this refill has been an absolute NIGHTMARE.
It’s constantly binding because it veers off to the left side almost instantly during printing, gets caught up in the gap on the left hand side and when I try to pull it loose after looseing the spool up a bit, it pulls up other filament from below and that causes even more issues.
You’d think that Bambu would have solid QA and wind their spools properly. I had an Elegoo printer before this, and used Elegoo branded filament. The stuff was cheap, but it was WELL wound - almost PERFECTLY and I never had any issues with it.
I haven’t had the same problem on regular Bambu spools as on the Bambu refill, and I don’t know if just like you maybe I am just unlucky, but I am about to send a ticket for this because it happens so often i am worried about the assist motor on the AMS burning out and then having to replace it at MY cost, when Bambu will probably try to tell me its user error, when they can’t be bothered to wind their filaments correctly.
I really hope this changes but at least for now I am glad I am not alone in this.