Splicing filament?

I was making a print and went to check on it. I saw that it was not finished, but I only had about a foot of filament left on the spool. My first thought was I was going to have to throw it away and start all over. Then I thought that I might as well stand there and try to feed the next spool in as the first ran out and see if it worked. It did. Here is the photo: http://s1369.photobucket.com/user/dgtaylor45/library/3d%20prints

So, this brings up my question. Does anyone have a favorite filament splicer? I have a few spools with only a couple of feet each. I could splice them all together for a long piece and end up with some different looking parts.

I was making a print and went to check on it. I saw that it was not finished, but I only had about a foot of filament left on the spool. My first thought was I was going to have to throw it away and start all over. Then I thought that I might as well stand there and try to feed the next spool in as the first ran out and see if it worked. It did. Here is the photo: http://s1369.photobucket.com/user/dgtaylor45/library/3d%20prints

So, this brings up my question. Does anyone have a favorite filament splicer? I have a few spools with only a couple of feet each. I could splice them all together for a long piece and end up with some different looking parts.

I was wondering if that would work… I have a few with not much left on them…

I was wondering if that would work… I have a few with not much left on them…

Cool! I wanted to try that out too so I could change colors during a print and I’m glad to hear it works! :slight_smile:

Cool! I wanted to try that out too so I could change colors during a print and I’m glad to hear it works! :slight_smile:

You can cut the filament on a steep angle with the blue sniper and glue with acetone hold for 2 minutes works good

You can cut the filament on a steep angle with the blue sniper and glue with acetone hold for 2 minutes works good

Almost all printers (except Zortrax) have a “pause” feature. You hit pause, the platform lowers a few cm, and the extruder stays hot. You can then manually retract the current filament, extrude new filament, and “resume” the print exactly where it left off. This is important not only for when you run out of filament, but for doing color changes. The Up software even has a feature where you can enter a number of pause points (in mm from bottom of print) where it will pause and wait automatically. Handy for doing stuff like this:

The Zortrax team have stated that the Zortrax software will include a pause feature someday.

julia

Almost all printers (except Zortrax) have a “pause” feature. You hit pause, the platform lowers a few cm, and the extruder stays hot. You can then manually retract the current filament, extrude new filament, and “resume” the print exactly where it left off. This is important not only for when you run out of filament, but for doing color changes. The Up software even has a feature where you can enter a number of pause points (in mm from bottom of print) where it will pause and wait automatically. Handy for doing stuff like this:

The Zortrax team have stated that the Zortrax software will include a pause feature someday.

julia

I think I may have found what I am looking for about three quarters of the way down this page: http://richrap.blogspot.com/2013/04/rostock-delta-3d-printer-build.html . Since I would only be splicing short pieces together I should just be able to slide the tubing off the end of the piece of filament after it is spliced. Now I need to locate some 3mm PTFE tubing.

I did not see if he was using PLA or ABS. Hopefully it would work for both. According to DuPont, PTFE melts at 327 degrees C. So it should be able to take the temps to splice ABS.

I think I may have found what I am looking for about three quarters of the way down this page: http://richrap.blogspot.com/2013/04/rostock-delta-3d-printer-build.html . Since I would only be splicing short pieces together I should just be able to slide the tubing off the end of the piece of filament after it is spliced. Now I need to locate some 3mm PTFE tubing.

I did not see if he was using PLA or ABS. Hopefully it would work for both. According to DuPont, PTFE melts at 327 degrees C. So it should be able to take the temps to splice ABS.