1 Topic by Stoney

  • Stoney
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  • From: Gold Coast, Australa
  • Registered: 2012-08-08
  • Posts: 181

Topic: Swapping filament

Apologys if posted elsewhere, I searched with no luck.

I think I have made my first noob mistake.
I loaded purple filament, changed to grey, then printed the rear hole guide bushing and had to remove filament again.

Now .. removed the filament from the extruder by reversing it, I was sure I have seen that posted somewhere.
It would not load the filament again and close look shows 2 piece of filament, one grey and one purple sticking out of the top of the extruder, I can grab one a little with tweezers but it aint moving.

So .. I figure in future I will change colours by snipping off the filament above the extruder and feeding it through, but of course it is also going to leave a loose bit below the drive.

So 2 questions ..

whats the best way to remove and replace filament.

how the heck do I get these 2 bits of filament out from below the extruder drive .. is that a dismantle job ?

2 Reply by Stoney

  • Stoney
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  • From: Gold Coast, Australa
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Re: Swapping filament

I think I likely reversed too fast so the filament did not allow enough time to cool.
I am guessing its fairly safe to do if you don't rush the process ?

3 Reply by cmetzel

  • cmetzel
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  • From: Solidoodle2 #0091
  • Registered: 2012-08-22
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Re: Swapping filament

Yeah it can be tricky.  When that happened to me the other day I took a really small allen wrench and pushed down on the previous color filament until I couldn't see it any more, then used the new filament to push it the rest of the way.  Probably dangerous and dumb but it prevented me from having to take the jigsaw apart.

4 Reply by jooshs (edited by jooshs 2012-10-25 18:18:53)

  • jooshs
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Re: Swapping filament

Don't snip to remove. smile just back it out slowly and pull gently when changing filament while the extruder is hot. To get out these two pieces, undo the idler bearing the puts pressure on the filament. You should be able to heat up the nozzle and pull out the two pieces with tweezers.

5 Reply by Stoney (edited by Stoney 2012-10-25 18:52:43)

  • Stoney
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Re: Swapping filament

tried that jooshs smile
all I had was a thin taper of purple just in tweezer reach and I could see a larger blob of grey. Try as I might it was not going to come out..
So i pulled the motor, dropped off the extruder section and 90% dismantled the jigsaw .. only had one ohoh moment when piece 'E' decided to fall out unexpectedly.
The crappy filament jam came out very easily with no force, the problem was that I think it was larger than the hole between drive and hotend, so it was not going to come out any other way smile

All good, 30 minutes work that I reckon I could do in 10 minutes next time, having had that bit apart on day 1 I feel like I earnt another belt in reprap world.

Even put the case back on now I have a rear bush.

ah .. just realised I will almost certainly need to recalibrate the Z .. lets see what happens..