SilverTriple's printing stuff...

[GoMachV]

I made a ball bearing spool holder one time. I started the print and as the machine would tug the filament, it would start to unwind. Didn't think much of it until I watched half the roll unwind

[XLR8]

I made a ball bearing spool holder one time. I started the print and as the machine would tug the filament, it would start to unwind. Didn't think much of it until I watched half the roll unwind

OH NO!!

By chance, were the bearings open or metal shielded? If so then maybe rubber-sealed (grease packed) bearings might provide just enough resistance to prevent the spool free-wheeling?

[GoMachV]

I ended up removing my design where the bearings were centered and went to a premade design where the roll was sitting on the bearings and that solved my issue. With the Bambu my filament resides either in the ams or inside a filament dryer with rollers

[silvertriple]

This is planned for a TPU highly flexible and elastic and from the feedbacks I got from a friend used to print this type of material, it might be required... I'll try this way, if it doesn't work or unwind the filament, I'll change the design...
And for the ball bearing, I designed a printed one...

[XLR8]

This is planned for a TPU highly flexible and elastic and from the feedbacks I got from a friend used to print this type of material, it might be required... I'll try this way, if it doesn't work or unwind the filament, I'll change the design...
And for the ball bearing, I designed a printed one...

But, of course. Why buy when you can simply print what you need.
And, your printed bearing could provide a bit of resistance needed to prevent uncontrolled filament un-spooling.

[Dadio]

This is planned for a TPU highly flexible and elastic and from the feedbacks I got from a friend used to print this type of material, it might be required... I'll try this way, if it doesn't work or unwind the filament, I'll change the design...
And for the ball bearing, I designed a printed one...

But, of course. Why buy when you can simply print what you need.
And, your printed bearing could provide a bit of resistance needed to prevent uncontrolled filament un-spooling.

This sounds like a circular argument , maybe the simple answer is just don't use a bearing

[silvertriple]

This is planned for a TPU highly flexible and elastic and from the feedbacks I got from a friend used to print this type of material, it might be required... I'll try this way, if it doesn't work or unwind the filament, I'll change the design...
And for the ball bearing, I designed a printed one...

But, of course. Why buy when you can simply print what you need.
And, your printed bearing could provide a bit of resistance needed to prevent uncontrolled filament un-spooling.

This sounds like a circular argument , maybe the simple answer is just don't use a bearing

Well, time will tell... In the meantime, I might recognize I love overengineered things...

[silvertriple]

I've actually tried to print the bearing, but it did not work. In the first version, the rolls were not having enough surface to the bed to adhere well, and once one is gone, the print is going to be a nightmare. I stopped the print before it went nuts.

I modified it to increase the surface in contact, and it did print, but once out of the bed, it was no longer a bearing . It's still good to try as it gives you some indications of what you can do for an inplace print...

That being said, the A1 mini worked the whole day with the handle and the spool support extension while I observed if it worked as expected -no ball bearings at this stage...



I revised a few things : the handle to give more height to the support, and to give a small angle to the support, so the roll stay in place (currently while printing, there is a plastic colar on the support extension to avoid the roll to move downward the support (which induce some torsion on the filament, surprisingly, by the way). I also modified the support extension to allow printing without supports and added a lock to the cap.

Now, beside the work on those parts, I noticed something : for small parts, the A1 mini is quicker than the X1C, not because of the speed, but because of the calibration process and the first layer inspection. I suspect this printer will be used more often than I envisioned when I clicked buy. I'm really happy with it. And to be clear, both printers worked simultaneaously at more than one occasion during this week-end...

[silvertriple]

One of my followers contacted me with a small project. The kind of things that would take me just few minutes... Siccom Magnum wheels. The locking mechanism is intersting, but the flask of the rim is quite fragile and becoming very difficult to find.




Indeed, it was not very long to model... And I printed one flask just to check it was correct... It was printed on the A1 mini, in the red PLA I use for prototyping, with tree supports and nothing else on the slicer settings... And the result below is not that bad, by the way...

[silvertriple]

I put a lot of efforts to make this easy to use and print, with a few modifications in the parts to remove the supports requirement during the print. At the end, I had only one part where it was still required. I included some material to be removed post print to avoid supports. I also included small bridges around the holes which required to print in air to avoid the need for support (again).


I put some printed bearings in the print plate, just in case people do not want to use ball bearings (6807RS - 35x47x7) when they print anything else than TPU (those are specially for you, @GoMachV )


I also tried to be as clear as possible on the requirements of 2 M3 nuts (maker's supply don't have it at this stage) before starting the print as the print is paused when the 2 nuts are to be inserted.


I actually checked it worked like a charm, the 0.4mm thickness at that position is easy to cut with a hobby knife.



Everything is now in order. The slot to fix the holder is slightly tilted so even with a full spool, it is kept horizontal.



The position of the spool is very convenient now for a direct feed from the spool.


TPU prints may start, very soon, and those parts are on makerworld.
https://makerworld.com/en/models/800143

That was a fun project

[silvertriple]

There is a thing that bugs me : the filament rotate during he print in the extruder. I thought it could be linked with the deviation of the filament due to the 4-1 entry. I printed a 5-1 entry and put the filament in the center entry. And it is still rotating during the print. I did try with a longer PTFE tube and it is the same... I do not print multicolor filaments, but it is still an issue : during a long print a brittle filament would break at some point, I guess.I need to find the cause of this.

Any ideas?

[GoMachV]

I noticed this on my old Kingroon printers when the filament was mounted above, and I never found a solution. If you consider winding a garden hose you have to twist it to make the coil, and it will rotate when uncoiled- however this is just in my head, maybe its not the same when pulling straight.

[silvertriple]

Opened the tool head and found the extruder and the roller were not perfectly aligned. Once reassembled, the situation is better. I'm asking myself if there is not a washer missing in the assembly.

By the way, the change of nozzle would be even quicker than for the X1C. It's really practical. On the extruder side, it is a bit more work, but again, this is quick (similar to P1series and X1series).

I do now understand why there is some automation projects for this small but efficient machine.

[Dadio]

With my old enders I would mount the filament roll on a shelf above the printer , this gave a longer Bowden tube reducing tight angles that may break fragile filament , it was also thought that mounting a spool high up on the printer introduced more oscillation that caused poor quality prints , the later might not be an issue with modern machines that self calibrate for harmonics .

[silvertriple]

I initially thought about this and I since I had no possibility of installing another shelve there, I decided to try the high mounting point.
One thing that surprised me with this small printer, is that it moved a lot initially (moving laterally and turning). The roll on the side may not have helped at all when doing my first prints. But one thing for sure, is that the gravity center is not in the area where the head/bed moves (reason why the printer moved/turned a lot). Since I installed the spool over the Z axis, the printer moves less. I suspect it is because the gravity center is moved slightly where the parts are moving... And in anycase, I can still use the other mounting point, and limit the usage of the higher point to TPU that is by default printed slow... And for the harmonics calibration, I'm not sure how the spool weight and the transfer of weight between the spool and the bed where it is going to move with the bed are going to be taken into account : which means I should eventually stick with a spool holder somewhere else. Maybe some test to do... or not