Bad filament spool winding

Have received 2 spools  that are badly winded, needs monitoring otherwise print wil stop because the filament got stuck on spool.

I already printed out another filament filament guide which is more in center of spool but still having problems.

I guess there is only one way to fix it and that is to unwind and rewind it yourself?

Any tips are welcome

I had that also but only with Z-ULTRAT (ivory). Two out of 3 spools had bad windings and ruined 30+ hours prints.

Did not have any issues with other Z-Filaments.

I learned the hard way the importance of making sure the spool will unwind appropriately as well. Now I pay better attention and if the spool looks messed up I will unwind it by hand until I'm passed the issue, straighten out any kinks or loops and respool it by hand before I start a job.

Usually there is only one knot and if you don't get that out it will just push back until later in the print process. 

Happened once or twice to me but if you unwind the filament spool just enough to get the knot out it will stay out, but you also have to make sure you keep the filament from unwinding itself. There are clips on Thingeverse to hold the filament end in place.

Glad to see this was not just happening to me. The filament that came with my Zortrax intertwined and jammed causing a failed print. Had to keep checking on it till  it finished. I think that once the spool was down to around 75% or less, the problem appeared to go away. Anyone have the file for the filament guide mod?

Thanks

It is a waste of time for us to look for something that you can search for your self. There are posts on this forum about the same thing you just asked with answers and other posts with links to popular STL file hosting sites. 

Glad to see this was not just happening to me. The filament that came with my Zortrax intertwined and jammed causing a failed print. Had to keep checking on it till  it finished. I think that once the spool was down to around 75% or less, the problem appeared to go away. Anyone have the file for the filament guide mod?

Thanks

If you are talking about the filament clip that is used to prevent a spool from unwinding while it is in storage, you can find those on Thingiverse - just search for Zortrax and at least one example should turn up.

It is a waste of time for us to look for something that you can search for your self. There are posts on this forum about the same thing you just asked with answers and other posts with links to popular STL file hosting sites. 

Okay pal, just asking because I'm new to Zortrax community, and wondering if there was a specific file to address it because i couldn't find one that seemed to work great. Its a waste of time to be salty on forum. Lets not add negativity to this small community.

Glad to see this was not just happening to me. The filament that came with my Zortrax intertwined and jammed causing a failed print. Had to keep checking on it till  it finished. I think that once the spool was down to around 75% or less, the problem appeared to go away. Anyone have the file for the filament guide mod?

Thanks

Here is the clip file.

Never let the lament spring back and unwind itself or you may get a knot.

I had that also but only with Z-ULTRAT (ivory). Two out of 3 spools had bad windings and ruined 30+ hours prints.

Did not have any issues with other Z-Filaments.

Have to add my current spool of grey Z-ABS, but it's not the winding it was just a loss of material on production of this spool.

The extruder gear wasn't able to forward the filament beyond that and another long running print was ruined.

Cant tell if that is strip-out or diameter issue, only once have I ever had a diameter issue with Zortrax filament. I would pay to have a filament diameter reader off on the side of the printer, something with a switch to tell me if the filament was not moving or changed size out of the normal parameters. Something with a nice annoying beep that could be heard across the house.

-NS

Cant tell if that is strip-outI

I cannot tell also. That's just because I don't know what strip-out is (cannot translate). 7.gif

Have to add my current spool of grey Z-ABS, but it's not the winding it was just a loss of material on production of this spool.

The extruder gear wasn't able to forward the filament beyond that and another long running print was ruined.

You can tell by looking at that filament, it has been cut/shaved somewhere, somehow.

You can tell by looking at that filament, it has been cut/shaved somewhere, somehow.

My englisch must be totally gone (both translation directions) !?

I told that I cannot tell what 'strip out' means and that's why I don't understand Michaels statement.

I am shure I could gaze hours after hours at that filament and still not understand what 'strip out' is.

BTW, to be clear with that: That filament part with reduced diameter (about half) came exactly like that from the spool.

I saw it happen but was in an urgent phone conference and ignored it, 5 minutes later I was at the printer and it just stopped extrusion with that piece of filament staying at the gear without moving forward.

Ok. Not for nuthin but if you saw it and did nothing about it (like pause and cut out bad part) then you are partly to blame for it stopping to print.

But like I said, it looks like it somehow got sliced, which I wouldn't think it has happened to more than just this roll.

Strip out- I am guessing means that the feed stepper motor ground the filament down from not being extruded due to other issues and the filament gets stripped where the stepper can't get a grip on it.

Strip out- I am guessing means that the feed stepper motor ground the filament down from not being extruded due to other issues and the filament gets stripped where the stepper can't get a grip on it.

O.k. (think) I got it. No the filament was not bend or nagged or cut or something else in anyway, it just did not move any further because it was too thin at that location to be touched and moved by the extruder gear.

But like I said, it looks like it somehow got sliced, which I wouldn't think it has happened to more than just this roll.

No it doesn't look like that. If it was sliced, cut or nagged one would see the white marks of that actions (we know that all when removing the raft and healing that white spots with heat).

There is only one little spot on it like that and that's the point of the last contact with the gear, after that the contact was simply lost.

Finally my point was, this low diameter was part of the production process and not caused by some thread on the filament. Just because I am a dreamer I was thinking about some kind of QA tool that measures the diameter in an ongoing process while the spool is wound and causes a spool to be rejected if such things happen.

That's why I added it to this thread because it is about production issues (of filament). And yes, I think this is a quite rare issue, happened to me the first time.

Ok. Not for nuthin but if you saw it and did nothing about it (like pause and cut out bad part) then you are partly to blame for it stopping to print.

I told I was in an urgent phone call. Of course I was able to tell my partners in the conference that I have seen something happening to my important 3D printout while walking by and now have to stop the conference for not loosing some plastic and press a button for 10 seconds or more and probably work on the printer for a minute or more.

Well Steven, I just have other priorities and business. And no, I am not to blame for it, it was a quality issue for something I have paid for!

Hi!

I am having lots of problems like this with the last two z-ABS spools I used. The extruder isn't able to feed itself because the spool has some knots, an the print job is interrupted. 

Since print jobs last several hours, I can not keep an eye on it all the time, so it means that the print job will probably be useless and an important amout of material is spoiled if the spool has this defect.  In fact, I have had this problem with 3 of the last 5 print jobs and I have spoiled about 300gr of this material. 

I wonder if there is a spool winding machine to purchase affordably.  I have two red Zabs batches that are badly wound.  Need to unwind and rewind.  It's a pain!  Anyways commercial winders have machines that as a spool is wound the feeder moves back and fourth oscillating to properly wind the spool.  Anyone here build something like this or know of a pre-built winder they would recommennd?

http://www.perceptioneng.com/supplies/spooler-miniThere is this thing... might be of use.

Not sure if this may be related but set a print running last night and when I came back to it several hours later it looked completed.  However, when I went to remove from the bed the part simply came apart at the lower layers.  Clearly something happened in the early stages of the print causing what looks like under extrusion.  I heard some 'twanging' noises coming from the filament tube during the laying down of the raft and, being fairly new to the Zortrax but not 3D printers generally, assumed, wrongly now I guess, that it was restricting the amount of extrusion intentionally to enable easier break away from the raft.  Of course I now realise there was an issue which obviously corrected itself further through the print as the upper 3/4 of the print is just fine.

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