However, I cannot see how much filament is left because most of the spools have solid sides. I decided that I wanted to mount the spool turned 90 degrees like the holder on my Prusa. I also decided that I wanted a dual spool holder. All the models I found had complicated and long filament paths, so I created my own. Now I am struggling with how to route the PTFE tube to keep it as short and straight as possible.
I know, this applies not to you, but yes. I’ve rerouted my PTFE guide tube too. I wanted to have easy access to the spool and an easy way to use an additional spool holder. But all the models I found did not work well or were not compatible with the P1P Vision enclosure. So I build a side spool holder by myself. This holder needs to reroute the PTFE guide tube.
From my experience it is important the guide tube not to bend too much because errors may occur during printing. So I’m using the flexible PTFE guide from the Bambu Lab X1 cable chain instead of a self-printed one and the small PTFE guide on the spool holder arm (the red piece) can rotate around the y axis.
That’s nice. I’m doing my first print with an external spool instead of AMS and I don’t like the position on the back. I will emulate your design if you don’t mind.
One comment: this bend right where the tube enters the back of the machine looks too tight to me.
Hey, you’re free to adapt the design. And… sorry, the picture of the back is an older one from my first version (black PTFE tube guide). It’s from the time before using the origin mount kit for the Bambu Lab X1 cable chain. Here is the current version with much lower bending:
High on my list. I resurrected some old filament I had lying around from when I bought a MakerBot Replicator back around 2010 (mostly ABS). It printed fine, much to my surprise and delight. So I can use it on this printer. But the spools are too wide for the AMS so I had to screw the external holder on to the back of the machine, and the AMS stuff kind of gets in the way so the spool doesn’t sit level. It worked, but it offends my sensibilities that it was clearly a design afterthought. Whoever did the layout for the AMS stuff didn’t talk with whoever did the external holder.
I think when I measured the cap screws for the external holder, they were 2.85mm, which is kind of a weird size. Was my measurement correct or are they really M3s? If they’re not M3s I need to source some longer screws someplace…
I just received my parts order yesterday so now I have a cable chain which allows me to move the tube without having to use it to support the cable. (Actually, I have two cable chains because I somehow clicked twice on my order. )
With my current setup there is just too much resistance with the cable running through the tubing,even if I keep the bends very loose. While ordering my parts I came across a detail that I never considered. It the PTFE tube description for tubing at the BBL store it shows the tubing as 4mm outer diameter and 2.5mm inner diameter. All of the extra tubing that I have is 4/2mm, which is what I thought was standard. I can understand why 2.5mm inner would be much better for a guide tube. Only a real bowden tube pushes and needs a tight fit in the tubing.
I suspect that if I were to change all my extra tubing to BBL sized it would be fine. However, I still think that Prusa has the cleanest path, just straight down from the spool to the top of the extruder with no guide tube at all.
Yes, the 2.5 inner diameter is very important. I had bought some third party tubes - with 2.5 inner diameter too - but I had some troble while printing. Now I habe bought the 4m PTFE tube from Bambu Lab and changed the tube. All problems are gone now.
Would you need tubing at all if you suspended your spool over the top of the printer with the filament going straight into the extruder? I’m not sure a swivel would be needed but that could help too.
As I understand it, the port on the back of the machine leading to the extruder is for when you have a lid on. Without use of a lid to contain the print chamber I don’t think it has much other purpose.
I am not sure if the filament would rub in a bad spot without a tube on the print-head. I am currently trying with a very short tube to be clear of the cover. (The P1P does not have the filament hole at the highest point on the print head assembly like the Prusa.)
OK. Done. Can’t take a picture of it on the printer at the moment, but this was my solution… I didn’t think a PTFE tube was necessary, and I was worried the amount of bend required for a PTFE tube would potentially bind the filament. After looking at it for a bit, I decided a guide tube wasn’t required. All that is needed is something to ensure the filament feeds straight off the roll before making the turn to reach the back of the machine. So I just did a big “sewing needle” thing. Filament goes through the eye of the “needle” and then curves around to enter the back of the printer. Appears to work great.
I suspect the OP’s design doesn’t need the PTFE tube, either.
After running without full tubing between the spool holder and the print head, I do think the tubing is important. The reason is the speed of the movements. On the Prusa the head only moves in the Y direction and it moves very slowly. With the P1P the print head moves extremely fast to get to another position when not extruding. With the tubing it just changes the bend of the tubing. When I ran without the tubing that fast move from the back of the plate to the front was a huge jerk on the filament. I did not look like a good idea at all.
The jerk was transmitted through the entire system
from extruder/print head
to filament
to filament guide on spool holder
to to spool
to spool holder.
to printer frame
I am now running with a full guide tube and experimenting with the best routing for my spool holder position.
I agree with @julie777 for the tubing. One of the reason to develop my own filament guide were problems using another side spool holder. With this spool holder sometimes the printer had problems while printing with almost empty spools of filament. The strong bending of the filament led to short interruptions and uneven filament feeding, which resulted in minor errors in the print.
I didn’t mean no tube at all. Just no tube from the spool to the filament entry point at the back of the machine. Not having a tube going to the extruder is a very bad idea that will almost certainly result in busted filament.
Hi, an out of topic question. How did you manage to mount the top back panel of the vision enclosure to fit with the rubber guide of the cable chain of Bambulab?
Mine sticks out and prevent the correct mounting of the back panel (and the hole in the panel is too narrow).
Thank you
The guiding of the PTFE on the inner and outer side is nearly identically. So I mounted it from the inside. On the back of the P1P the inside part of the PTFE guide is visible now.
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