Letting filament go ... can lead to locked coils on the spool .......... its recc'd to hold the filament and wind back ...

If you ever had filament stuck under 2 or 3 coils on the spool - that's the reason.

Originally Posted by solentlife

Letting filament go ... can lead to locked coils on the spool .......... its recc'd to hold the filament and wind back ...

If you ever had filament stuck under 2 or 3 coils on the spool - that's the reason.

After reading your reply I feel you completely missed what I was saying. My entire point is that I can let it go and don't have to worry about that, I actually explained why too. Try reading it again more slowly? Perhaps try holding both hands up over your head.

You're telling me what's recommended for a problem I don't have. Which means you must have misunderstood something.

Well I just realized I shot this in vertical... but you get the idea.

The coiling of the filament against the underside causes tension. The tension keeps the spool from loosening up and tangling.

no-snarl filament release (0 min 34 sec)

Originally Posted by ViciousPenguin

After reading your reply I feel you completely missed what I was saying. My entire point is that I can let it go and don't have to worry about that, I actually explained why too. Try reading it again more slowly? Perhaps try holding both hands up over your head.

You're telling me what's recommended for a problem I don't have. Which means you must have misunderstood something.

WOW !! Sorry I trod on your toes !

I DID read your post ... and MY Post was not only in response to yours - but as a general to others.

You have then shown a video illustrating how your setup can prevent the dreaded coil lock ... great. But your first just showed the spool sitting on rollers.

My point was that if you let filament go without some form of restraint - you risk the dreaded 'coil locks' - which I am sure in the distant past you and many others have had.

If my post offends you - sorry but I prefer to pass on info that may save others the hassle of the 'coil locks' ......

For those who wish to know ... here's a Video that shows exactly what I am talking about AND how to solve .....

How To: Untangle Filament // Filament Guide (4 min 37 sec)

Originally Posted by grnd flyr

fwiw... so smooooze:

Bearing Spool Holder for 2020 2040 3030 Extrusion
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2537713

608 zz skateboard bearings

Thanks for that. After hours and hours of printing, this is the first time this has happened. Just a fluke. I converted my spool to one with skate bearings a year or so ago and that pretty much put an end to any clogged heads I had. I also had s secondary filament guide with a skate bearing, but it popped off one day and when flying in my garage and I have not found it. So today I printed out a new one that should prevent this from happening again. The new one is held together with a bolt unlike the other one that snapped into place. I do like the design of the the one you showed me.

Originally Posted by solentlife

WOW !! Sorry I trod on your toes !

That would be easier to accept if I thought you actually went back and read my post... I'll help you out and repost it here for you.

The other nice thing about feeding it down into the enclosure... I can set up a couple colors up top and after feeding them down through the table top, I pull about 2ft through then just...let go. It springs in a coil up against the top of the underside of the table-enclosure, keeping tension on the spool, but not requiring me to hold anything. Makes it verrrry easy to swap colors mid-print.
When I pull the filament from the extruder, I can just... let it go. And I never have to worry about it fouling the spool. It's become very convenient. Didn't plan that, just noticed it worked out that way.

I'm not offended in the least, there's no malice in my post; I'm just very direct.
So, to be direct... you're still trying to act like I never explained the part that I kindly underlined for you above, where I clearly explain what the video then shows. Since I know I said that, and you still don't seem to have read it, it seems like you skimmed my post, read what you wanted, then ran with it.
In the picture you can clearly see the filament disappearing down through the table. Even if you don't know what it is, you can see it's a surface the spool holder sits atop, and the filament goes down into a small hole.

Part of the reason I use pictures and explanations is to clearly describe and show something. If you're going to miss BOTH of those and just go with what you think I put... yeah... I'm going to correct you. Either until you get it figured out, and climb down off your high-horse, or until I get bored and realize that you can only ever lead a high-horse to water but you can't force them to let go of their ego.
(it goes something like that, I forget)

Hey so I have a question about the skate bearings... the ones I got 2 tubes of don't seem to be very free spinning. They roll, but they won't spin freely.
Are they supposed to? I never skateboarded either. So I don't have any idea what they're supposed to be like. One of them seems to spin pretty nicely, the rest of them seem to have a lot of internal friction.

Did I just get cheap ones?

Solentlife,

Here this should fix your problems. You need to get your bed level. It's a common problem that people all tend to have; but once you get it figured out you should be on your way. When the bed isn't level, your prints won't come out accurately, and you may have endless bed adhesion and extruder clicking issues. Levelling your bed properly is an essential skill for everyone to learn.

Bed levelling for beginners to achieve a perfect first layer (14 min 34 sec)

Originally Posted by Jhonb

Thanks for that. After hours and hours of printing, this is the first time this has happened. Just a fluke. I converted my spool to one with skate bearings a year or so ago and that pretty much put an end to any clogged heads I had. I also had s secondary filament guide with a skate bearing, but it popped off one day and when flying in my garage and I have not found it. So today I printed out a new one that should prevent this from happening again. The new one is held together with a bolt unlike the other one that snapped into place. I do like the design of the the one you showed me.

Glad it helped, ya got er done...

Originally Posted by ViciousPenguin

Hey so I have a question about the skate bearings... the ones I got 2 tubes of don't seem to be very free spinning. They roll, but they won't spin freely.
Are they supposed to? I never skateboarded either. So I don't have any idea what they're supposed to be like. One of them seems to spin pretty nicely, the rest of them seem to have a lot of internal friction.

Did I just get cheap ones?

Prolly thickened cheap oil or worse: grease! Mine came in old thickish oil so I popped the shields off with an exacto and small screwdriver, then soaked them a little while in alcohol. Dried them off then lightly applied some Liberty bearing oil (what I use for quadcopter motor bearing lubrication). Don't need the shields since the bearings are mostly housed in the 3d printed holder.

If you don't feel like peeling them open, these will work fine:

10 (Ten) Fidget Spinner Bearing, 608 Open, Chrome Steel Bearing Balls, 8x22x7, Ball Center Replacement Part Kit
https://www.amazon.com/Fidget-Spinne.../dp/B07B8VZJGD

...same thing just has the shields removed from the get go...

Originally Posted by grnd flyr

Prolly thickened cheap oil or worse: grease! Mine came in old thickish oil so I popped the shields off with an exacto and small screwdriver, then soaked them a little while in alcohol. Dried them off then lightly applied some Liberty bearing oil (what I use for quadcopter motor bearing lubrication). Don't need the shields since the bearings are mostly housed in the 3d printed holder.

If you don't feel like peeling them open, these will work fine:

10 (Ten) Fidget Spinner Bearing, 608 Open, Chrome Steel Bearing Balls, 8x22x7, Ball Center Replacement Part Kit
https://www.amazon.com/Fidget-Spinne.../dp/B07B8VZJGD

...same thing just has the shields removed from the get go...

Oh ok that makes sense, thanks for explaining that. I'll try cleaning and re-lubing them first and see what happens.


Just printed a capo for a guitar, but it's printed with an internal spring shape. Apparently when i was melting down the heat shrink with the heat gun (so the strings won't rattle against it), I killed the springiness of the spring part.... must have let it get a bit too warm. Oops. This is the kind of thing where a TPU insert will do nicely.

Originally Posted by ViciousPenguin

Solentlife,

Here this should fix your problems. You need to get your bed level. It's a common problem that people all tend to have; but once you get it figured out you should be on your way. When the bed isn't level, your prints won't come out accurately, and you may have endless bed adhesion and extruder clicking issues. Levelling your bed properly is an essential skill for everyone to learn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze36SX1xzOE

What the hell are you on now ???

You really have a chip on the proverbial !

Vicious penguins + Solentlife , you guys should just stop posting to each other as it's just turning into a public argument , this is a friendly forum , I'm not alloting blame or taking sides but it should stop now .

Originally Posted by dadio

Vicious penguins + Solentlife , you guys should just stop posting to each other as it's just turning into a public argument , this is a friendly forum , I'm not alloting blame or taking sides but it should stop now .

Agreed.

Originally Posted by ViciousPenguin

Hey so I have a question about the skate bearings... the ones I got 2 tubes of don't seem to be very free spinning. They roll, but they won't spin freely.
Are they supposed to? I never skateboarded either. So I don't have any idea what they're supposed to be like. One of them seems to spin pretty nicely, the rest of them seem to have a lot of internal friction.

Did I just get cheap ones?

I got these... A life time supply. They were cheap and worked great for me. But like anything else, who knows what the next batch will be like.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1