I currently have the problem with this refill that it does not fit on the Bambu spool. The spool cannot be closed because the refill is apparently wound too wide.
The cardboard core is fine (the refill and the previous coil are ~59.7mm wide), but the windings seem to be too wide and go way over.
I don’t have any other free reusable spools to try it with - nor do I have any way of winding spools myself. The refill is therefore useless for me if it doesn’t fit on a normal Bambu coil.
I have to say that this is the first time this has happened. All other refills so far have always been problem-free.
I am pretty sure that this is due to the way the coil was wound.
I also cut the notch in the cardboard core a little deeper, as it is not as deep as the previous reel - by about 1mm, which should be within tolerance. That wasn’t it either.
Is there anything I can do here? I already created a ticket with support.
I haven’t had that happen with Bambu refill, but with a 3rd party refill and an adapter for Bambu spool (my own fault - I cut the zip ties too early). I eventually got it to lock using brute force but was afraid the filament would bind. In the end it worked just fine.
Maybe not quite what you ask for, but a workaround is to close the spool as much as possible, then lock the halves using a threaded desiccant spool center.
What I did now as a quick fix (since I had a paused print due to this) is to press the halves together and just use a lot of tape to somehow keep them together.
The spool is a tangled mess anyways, but at least I am now able to continue the print.
Let’s see what support says. And let’s see whether any filament and reusable spools will be available for sale again in the EU. I have a little spool shortage here, since refills are only filaments you can buy most of the time.
If there is another spool that I can print myself with PETG (for bambu refills) - could you shoot me a link? I think I’ll print one just in case.
Thanks, I’ll take a look. And yea, I’d print them in PETG or ASA, because I’m not sure whether they’d survive a filament dryer (when drying PETG refills).
Thanks. And no worries. It’s a very valid question, since it is the most common pitfall ^^.
I’ve had this happen to me before once with a refill spool. My solution was to clamp the problem spool together with one of the threaded spool centers and respool it onto another empty spool.
Yep, I’m just finishing up a PLA Orange spool that was exactly the same. I tried doing what you did, and ended up with a number of filament retraction errors early on. The greater spool size also created greater friction in the AMS, which also caused problems. Eventually I got through it - once through the first 1/3rd or so of the spool it seemed to settled down and has been working fine since.
The spool winding was all over the place.
It has definitely got me wondering about the QA processes of the manufacturers, and has got me thinking about printing a Pasta-matic in the not too distant future.
Support came back to me. They told me to either apply more force or to just respool, lol. How? I don’t have an empty spool (they are never in stock), nor do I have a respooling setup.
I’ll just stop buying refills or switch brands if there there’s QA issues and I have to re-spool every time.
As if these options never occurred to you.
I would have gotten snarky with them and said something like, “How about you trade me for one that works as it’s supposed to and you can worry about re-spooling this mess?”
I loathe bad customer service.
