It looks like a tight fit in the tube. My guess they went this route is to make sure both filaments are in perfect alignment with each other and stay in alignment throughout the fusion process. You can visually see it before putting in the clamp. With grooves cut out on both halves of the clamp, there could be more of a failure with that contact point slipping away as it’s closed and while it remains closed heating up. Thinking of the end user, not everyone has technical skills required to keep the filament steady in a tubeless workflow. This method is almost foolproof.
You'd need some way to fixate the filament while it's heated up and then preferably actively cooled down again, but that also doesn't seem like it'd be that hard. they could integrated a 45 degree cutting jig instead of the tube slicer to easily facilitate perfectly angled cuts.
@@Egg_663 I'm thinking that before the heated clamshell section, you have fixed PTFE tubes you slide the filament through, which are a tight fit and keep the ends aligned for the clamshell to close over. Then you can design the latch for the clamshell to only latch if it's near perfectly closed, that way the user can't accidentally close the clamshell over misaligned filament, and will just wiggle it into alignment. The shorter the clamshell the better in this design. Maybe just like 10% longer than the spliced section, so it heats up the filament just in the needed zone, and the user has less margin of error with alignment?
@@weeveferrelaine6973 That’s a sensible idea. I bet they thought of multiple ways and it probably came down to manufacturing cost. Plus, they keep getting money when new tubes have to be purchased.
My wife is a teacher. I print little fidgets for her to "sell" to her students with good behavior points. This is what I do with small filament leftovers.
@@Dogo.Rwell the children don't create any profit, so I don't think so. If you consider this proxy child employment, then any other form of education would also be that, just with worse "salaries"
@@prefixcactus5221I mean technically it does produce profit indirectly in the same way tons of jobs produce profits indirectly, just in this case the profits aren't going to the person doing the "employing".
@@Dogo.Rnope it’s not, as the teacher is rewarding students for their good behavior like doing things that they should normally be doing. Such as, cleaning their own work area after a project and turning in homework on time. Things that a student would and should do anyways. And don’t worry all students will get something regardless, some may get more in a non bias way.
I saw a video somewhere where they simply used a silicon coupler (rather than PTFE) and a lighter. This works because silicon can handle higher heats than PTFE before it starts to release nasties... no need for a "device" at all, just a roll of the correct sized silicon tube.
@@SamChaneyProductions might be a language thing, in Swedish silikon is silicone, silicon is kisel, i know other languages have use silicon instead of silicone, when i was a young teenager i thought Silicon valley was talking about all the fake (silicone) tits 🤣 😂
I just use normal PTFE and a lighter. If you do not overheat it, it does not smell or deform. But the problem persists, the connection point is soft and you have to pull apart slightly. I prefer just switch spools on the fly instead.
After watching "My Tech Fun" review I didn't get why the PTFE tubes were considered consumables since he was able to re-use them easily, but you just showed the workflow that makes them one-time only. I don't think it's responsible use forever chemicals as throwaway items, but fortunately this welder still has a good user experience without requiring that. I'm tempted.
To merge left overs manually, the best solution I found was not to directly heat the filament, but heat a box cutter blade for 6-8s and use the heat from that to melt the ends of the filament. Works particularly well with PETG. 1. Drive one end of a two sided box cutter blade into a scrap piece of wood to make it vertical and keep it steady 2. Cut the ends of both spools square, and position the spools well enough to be able to keep the strands aligned later on 3. Heat up the upper part of the blade for 6-8s with a jet lighter 4. Push the ends of the filaments on each side of the blade to melt it 5. Without leaving the blade, slide both filament strands up until the blade is not in-between,allowing both ends to touch and stick together 6. After pressing a bit to get a good joint initially, pull a bit instead to help getting a good straight alignment and a slightly smaller diameter around the melted part 7. Wait for the joint to cool down until everything is completely rigid again 8. Trim the excess with flush cutters + a blade. Shouldn't be able to feel rough asperities in both directions Recently used this method again and it worked flawlessly on 6 left overs of PETG the other day. I didn't get any jamming or breakage. Didn't try ASA or ABS, but PLA works ok too.
Exactly. You aren't going to leave the 2 spools connected, so just slide the PTFE off when respooling. One could even print an adapter for a drill to make the respooling process easier. :)
When I used this method, I used normal PTFE and just left it there. And collect it later on a printer head. = )) But mostly I just switch spools when they ends. Do not understand how one can collect so many leftovers = )
@@yru2501 the ptfe tube used to connect the filament is supposed to be tight to prevent filament expansion when welding them together. So the drag it puts on trying to respool is quiet significant and that's not a flaw
Waste PTFE is a much more harmful product than waste PLA though, its production creates a ton of harmful byproducts like PFAS (and I doubt a cheap product like this is using anything other than the absolutely cheapest possible option for the PTFE).
It could be that the PTFE included was manufactured responsibly and without PFOA, but that doesn’t mean it’s off the hook, in fact this use of the PTFE is WORSE for the environment than manufacturing with PFAS byproducts. Typically in even the worst PTFE manufacturing, the byproducts don’t literally outweigh the product. Making PTFE disposable is making the PTFE itself a byproduct. Think about it yourself as the manufacturer, for every 1000g of filament you use and splice, you add a direct byproduct of .1g PTFE. I had never seen PTFE sold as a disposable product, and there are good reasons for that.
@@fast-yi9js what's so bad about using telfon for Bowden tubes? I'm in no way advocating for single use plastics, but a Bowden tube with an all metal hotend has basically no wear. Is there something I'm missing about Telfon specifically being bad?
@@SanderMakes you might wanna google the phrase "the forever toxin in all of us" if you look to have your day ruined. But the long and short of it is, yes, Teflon is incredibly toxic in its production and disposal and that toxin pretty much never goes away.
Consumable PTFE tubes is a complete NONO. What should have been done is to have made it so you can remove the metal parts to clean them if you need too. Same procedure as you do with buildplates
It's ironic. Everything plastic that will ever be printed is going to end up as trash. The same people who print things that turn into plastic trash are complaining about tiny masses of plastic tubing going into the trash. If you don't like microplastics, you stop using plastics. I don't litter and I don't spill chemicals, I do my share for the environment as it is, but don't tell me I'm somehow some type of ecological monster for not living my life how you see fit.
I use a bit of PTFE tubing when I splice filament using a soldering iron, I run the tube back and forth while the join is still soft that way I know it won't clog the printer, I then just leave the bit of tube on there, the filament will just slip through so there's really no need to cut if off and waste it. Even if it's rolled onto the spool. My record is 8 splices in one print, which needless to say, saved me 8 spools worth of space. I really like the look of this product, though. Thanks for another great video. James
I was doing a similar method and discovered that ALL of my leftover filament material became brittle and would break in the AMS so I just started throwing the remaining filament away to save time and headaches.
I've used a hot knife before without needing to heat and throw out PTFE - my solution for the join is to push in on the strands until there's a bit of a thicker weld all around, then sand between two flat plates (in my case scrap wood with grip tape) to make the joint thin enough to print. Something i want to try is friction welding, but i need a drill that goes back and forth quickly instead of around.
Afer seeing a few tutorials, i started doing a similar method with a small piece of Silicon tube and a soldering iron. Within a few tries my results look like what you showed for the Sunlu system.
Couldn’t you just leave the thin PTFE tubes on the spool? In theory they would be too thick to be pulled in by the extruder or you could use a reverse bowden to stop them. Then you could collect and reuse hem once the spool is empty.
This is honestly my favorite thing about the AMS. I almost never print multi-color, but I often put a second roll of the same filament just to switch over automatically.
I did play around with an aluminum split mold that I machined a precise and smooth bore into and necked it down in the middle on the lathe. I just heat it up with a heatgun or a small torch. I basically just clamp it together, heat the necked down part until I can feel the filament softening, press it together and let it cool. It does work decently, but I bought a Bambulab P1S with an AMS a few weeks ago, so I kinda haven't really improved on the design since, because I'm just using the AMS now. Due to it being 2 halves I can just unclamp them and remove the filament without any PTFE tubing. I found that a bore that is machined decently smooth and precise enough in diameter (a diamond lapped 1.8mm carbide PCB drill works well enough with a slow feed), doesn't really cause the filament to stick, once it's cooled off. Just to make sure, I also heated the contraption up a few times and sprayed it with silicone spray, which creates a non-stick silicone coating (I used it on my self made full titanium heat break in the past too, since I had one specific brand of PLA that just didn't want to print even a single degree above 195°C). Obviously this requires having a half decent lathe and a milling machine to machine the parts necessary.
I use my Mosaic Palette 3 Pro to splice filament shorts together automatically. Once configured it works great and can just make filament for you with or without a printer connected. It is pricey but much faster, easier, and more reliable than manual splicing.
Hmmm I do feel the sunlu connector might be over hyped? I'm really worried about the need to manually control the pushing force. I can get the connection without much problem in most other cheap setups, just can't control the thickness of the joint diameter. I would expect it to handle the forming for me.
Teflon coated non stick frying pans have been around for decades. Teflon coated heating elements with a cooling period after the heating would eliminate the need for a PTFE tube.
I can't quite tell, but you do realize that Teflon is PTFE, right? I do agree that just PTFE coating the heating elements would have been considerably better.
I have the 3D Sway splicer and I find it works quite well, the built in fan is great because you can cool the filament before moving it. I haven't got the hang of the block it comes with to hold the joint while you cut it with a potato peeler, but so far I've managed to slide the tubes off to reuse. It's completely manual which I like, you turn on the heater, fuse the filament while watching the clock or running a timer, then flip the switch to cool, watch the time again and then you're done. No faffing with temperatures or relying on presets.
So these are almost one time use Teflon sleeves? Not nice. For leftovers I use either the runout sensor or I use my old mosaic palette 2s pro. It can even provide you with a random color filament.
Yeah, that is a definitive dealbreaker. I'm thinking it shouldn't be that hard to make a little cutter that closes around the filament and then yuo pull the fuse through and it cuts off excess.
@@spedi6721 If you are winding them back to a spool, you obviously have an open end. It doesn't matter the length. All filament join solutions have this issue, since they always use a PTFE tube to form the join.... this solution adds proper heating and will eliminate burning yourself with a butane torch. I have a unit on pre-order, but... October? Geesh.
I know of a way you could probably do it without having to use ptfe tubes and still get good results. Basically just make something like a two piece bullet mold (the kind reloaders use to make cast lead bullets). It would be easy enough to try. Take a couple of small blocks of aluminum, lap the faces to eachother, drill and pin them so they go back together in the same spot every time. Then (with the halves clamped together tightly) drill a hole all the way through right at the split line. Just a hair under the filament diameter so that the mold itself will clamp the filament in place. Might take a little trial and error since the hole will expand slightly as the aluminum heats up. Then run a butane lighter on the inside of the mold to soot it up (release agent), stick your filament ends into the mold halves, close it, clamp it or latch it, and heat it up with a torch or just set it on an electric hot plate or stovetop. I don't mind sharing the idea either. It seems obvious enough that surely someone else has thought of it or something like it.
sure the PTFE tubes weigh next to nothing but 3D printer waste is at least just PLA or PETG so normal Thermoplastics. Worst case they get incinerated and heat the homes in my birth town. PTFE on the other hand is a PFAS also often called the "forever chemicals". It's basically toxic waste that needs to be disposed of specially. It can't go into the "yellow bag" because it's not a recyclable thermoplastic and you shouldn't dispose of it in the normal trash either because it releases highly toxic compounds when it's incinerated so I don't think this is a good solution. It's also just so unnecessary. The temperatures you're dealing with here are well below the ignition point of paper so they could have just used paper straws.
You are correct that PTFE is a PFAS, but you are incorrect that it is a toxic waste needing special disposal, and the absolute most minor number of people have their trash incinerated versus hauled to a dump, so for nearly everyone worrying about what happens when it is burned is a non-issue, frankly sounds like a skill issue/personal problem. PTFE would be used in this instance for its non-stick properties, using a paper straw would result in the paper fibers being integrated into the melted plastic joint and being unable to remove the straw. To quote; PTFE has a unique chemical structure that happens to fall under the PFAS class of substances. However, the PTFE molecule is inert and thermally stable so that if it were put into water, nothing would happen to it; and if you put it into the body, it passes through unaltered because it does not biodegrade. It is not absorbed into the body as are some PFAS chemicals.
@@prefixcactus5221in the worst case scenario, water would break it down enough to remove any stuck paper, would just mean making sure to dry the filament well after. Could also use something like parchment paper which would be more heat resistant and less likely to adhere.
@@msytdc1577 I don't know if this is a minor issue. I think now most of (western) Europe is 'recycling' the waste into heat of the parts that cannot be directly re-used. Probably in the USA there are still dumps but they are thankfully been reduced quite a lot since the end of the 80's here in Europe. After splitting and then burning (sometimes even called green energy...), they try to filter out the nasties and they get dumped but the amount of that is far less. But still some things like the PFOA's are not always filtered out well, which is giving many issues here nowadays including having to advise not to eat eggs from hobby-chicken since the load of those are too big.
Personally I never saw this as a problem, with filament runout sensors I usually just start prints regardless of how much is on the spool. In addition I try to split my models into smaller prints to reduce the impact of a failed print and so I can select the best print orientation and settings. This way I almost always have a small print lined up to use up the scraps. Do you all only print big parts in one go?
I agree. And also when wielding two spools together, there is a chance it will stuck anyways, and you had to manually switch a spool = )) After I installed filament motion sensor, I just forgot about any trouble with filament runout or stuck. And I do not calculate if it will be enough, just set a spool and print. So I do not understand, how there could be collected so much leftovers. The only 'leftovers' I have are 5-6 inch pieces which my printer lefts, when runout event is triggered. I use them with my 3d pen.
The join spool feature had been present on Prusa MMU for quite some time. With open-source alternatives like ERCF, TradRack, or simple 2-extruder setup on Klipper, it is called Infinite or Endless spool and is one of the most desirable features of these multicolor systems.
I usually feed leftovers manually into the printer, but that means I need to supervise the print and be present at the moment the filament runs out. I use an inverse bowden setup, so it is quite easy to push the new filament behind the previous one in the PTFE tube.
They should also include a little clamp/mould with cooling fins to make sure it's the right diameter and cools down nicely. this should fix the finishing step and the problem of pushing too hard. It's exactly the same moves, but with a cooling block instead of a heating block.
Since I use a direct drive, I actually watch for when the last bit of filament disappears into the printer, then at the same time feed in gently a new roll, works quite well on my Ender 3 with the Biqu H2 V2S
"What are you usually do with your filament lefftovers?" Well, waiting for this video I guess. Been experimenting with all kind of ideas to join filament leftovers but never got a good result. This unit is what I was waiting for. Thanks Stefan!
I use nearly-empty spools to print small parts until there's only a few feet left, which I toss. Recently got an A1/AMS, which as you mentioned will auto-switch. The PTFE tube method works well - you can even just use a match as the heat source - but as you pointed out the tube must then be slid off the filament. The little Sunlu splicer with the cutter blade seems like a great solution!
The problem with PTFE is that it's one of the "forever chemicals" which basically doesn't decay. There's enough plastic waste in the world and I'd rather not use more of it than I need to. I'm happy to hear that you can also just slide off the tube after use though.
I have tried most of the products that have been made for splicing...I have not tried the new sunlu but i have tried the Hexagon and it was the first one i have used that worked well.
To cool the weld quickly you can use a can of condensed/compressed air turned upside-down. It cools the part instantly, works also great for quickly cooling hot glue.
I have a Bambu with AMS, and yes the filament runout and backup does work but it does seem to detect it pretty early, and when it detects the run out, it purges whatever remaining out, and it seems like it wastes quite a lot of filament. Anyway, I bought a pre-sale Sunlu joiner, so I hope it'll work well. When it eventually arrives...
You could probably slide off 90 % of the sleeves, because you want both sections on one roll. I've tried a splicing tool, which didn't work. Most of my ends are short, and I feed them first, which means less camping time waiting to feed the roll in. To date this works best for me, but I might look into the other tool you listed like the one you showed. Sounds like a good and interesting way to splice and forget the splice going through your printer. After all who needs to spend time watching a print, when the printing shouldn't be time consuming on your part.
I've got the Prusa XL, and I'm very tempted to buy this thing for the leftover filament the XL produces during spool join. They are over one meter long! I collect them, and with this thing I could join them. And you can simply slide the PTFE tube to the next end and re-use it endlessly. Almost no waste.
Knowing the correct weight of the empty spool is the key to calculate filament rest for one of the next prints. Small lengt will be used in PrintPen. I have no time to loose for melting filament together and using less PTFE is allways a good thing
Personally, I am just planning to pelletize leftovers and filament samples, and use those pelletz to add some uniformity (and fresh high quality material) to my regrind for rPLA.
Could you try pre-cutting a PTFE tube, i.e. slitting it before use, then once spliced allowing it to cool completely before opening the splicer and removing it ready for the next use?
Great video, very interesting. I do wonder though, couldnt they make the part where they heat up the filament kind of like a PTFE tube made out of metal as that would keep it the right size but get rid of the waste?
It Sunlu tool looks kinda similar to a mini fusion splicer, which is used when splicing together glass fiber optic strands. Seems like a solid design if they just integrated a cooling method
I use the small scraps to make trinkets or small items that I leaved at work. Small things like shopping cart keys are great and people tend to snatch them up fairly quickly.
I bought the 3dsway filament joiner a few months ago. It has a cooling fan but it's a lot more difficult to cut away the ptfe tube since they just give you a potato peeler.
I generally only print small things with samples, or components of larger items if the color differences either aren't important or actually add to the effect (such as the six Rolling Storage Boxes from 3D Printy that I made for storing nuts, bolts, washers, and magnets of various sizes). The leftovers sometimes get used for small prints, sometimes get reserved for use as hinges, or sometimes find use in a 3D pen for welding prints together, though anything shorter than 100-200 mm tends to go in the trash because they're hard to use for much of anything.
I've spliced filament with some 1.8mm silicone tubing (got 10 meters of it on Aliexpress), just hitting it for a couple seconds with a lighter. You could probably just hold it against the heater block of your printer for a while.
Wast of ptfe tubing, why they don't make a build in ptfe tubing thst is thicker and attached to the unit but in a upper and lower pieces, like some foil remelting tools Making for plastic food pouches. 🤔
For my E5+ with DD, I let the filament get to the runout sensor in the rear, then push a new roll through until it gets to the DD and just let it feed through. Except for a handful of times it's worked perfectly. The only pain is having to sit there and manually feed on the back of the previous roll.
Did you try reusing one of the cut PTFE pieces just to see what happened? I think the consumable PTFE is the biggest downside, but the tube looks like it might be held in place _enough_ by the heating housing when compressed. Even if there were some flashing I can't imagine it being very significant.
I feel a better design would be to use coated metal in the joiner (to remove the need for consumables) and switched to something like a peltier, then you could insert the filament have it heat then cool it all in one go without removing them.
G'day m8.....im currently economicly restricted (im on the poorer side of 3d printing) and i jumped on the kickstarter of the Sunlu S4 drier system and love it,... Its been running for 8 months straight, and just like the S1, it was drying for the mass's yrs ago. This filament Fuse device is just their first go. so i got one coming mid to late september....it will get better over time with feedback. Cheers From A M8 Downunder🙃
I just use my palette 3 pro and set it to the make filament option to splice all my leftovers together. Its really fast and because it splices and pushen the filament out quite quickly i can just put it direcly onto a spool. And with the Integration of p2pp for prusa slicer its very easy to use.
Protip for the AMS: If you have two spools of the same filament in the AMS and you want to print from the spool with the least filament first to use it up, you need to select the almost-empty spool in the print dialog after you click print in Bambu Studio. Selecting the almost-empty spool in the Filament section of the Prepare tab sets the type of filament, but the spool slot you select in the AMS is ignore. There's nothing more annoying than coming back at the end of a large print to find that you now have two almost-empty spools because it used your new full spool first.
I made up a jig that supports the 2 filament rolls, so the filament curves naturally into the area were the filament is joined I made up a jig for that, I am using silicon tube a 1.6mm ID that the two ends go into and are heated till fused then since the whole lot is supported and restrained so I don't need to hold it while it cools, then just slice the tube off.
What I do.... well, many times I try to print almost to the end, using filament-manager in Octoprint for example and some 'guesswork'. Sometimes I think about re-installing the filament-sensors on my printers but in the past they have given me multiple printfails because of stuck filament in the sensor or just not clicking off at the right moment (probably due to filament-dust in them after some spools). Especially with bent filament and some thicker parts of filament, they like to get caught or make just some extra resistance on the filament-path. Maybe get some with rollers and good guidance? With ABS I make ABS-slurry and with some others like PVA I make glue. Nice for bed-adhesion and also gluing parts together, smoothing spots or gluing other things. PETG, PLA, I safe together these small bits and use them in my 3D-pens. Nice to make connections/connectors between parts and for example fill letters. Yes, I print 'holes' in the top or sides of the prints when I want to incoperate letters and instead of contiously swapping filaments (I don't have automatic filament-swapping) in the printer, I just fill those holes with the pen afterwards. This is less work then swapping mid-print and no purging needed, no 'poops'. Of course, just loading and swapping filaments works well. Manually in the printers for example when filament-manager tells me the spool is almost at the end. It just pauses automatically and cools the hotend down untill I'm back to make the swap (keeping the bed heated!). Sometimes I enable messaging on my phone but mostly I notice the screens on my tablet that it has paused and I walk over to the printer when I have time to continue the print with the next spool. Then just press (in Octoprint) homeXY and move closer to the print again, press 5 times 10mm down and 'resume' in octoprint. But no, not doing this for less then 2 meters of filament and not for every project. Hard to get it right to put ends of TPU on top of ABS... And spools that have become bad quality, yes only thing to do with them is to throw away :-( 😞 Splicing with PTFE-tubes.... seems a real bad thing. A couple of cms of those is worse then meters of even ABS in the bin. Also for the health but sure for environment. If they were a bit thicker and with nylon for example or just simply PVA I think that would be a much better solution. Or other desolvable plastics? You could just use a sponse to take off the connectors.
I actually enjoy the momentary printer babysitting while feeding it new filament leftover when it is running out of the previous one 😀. I don't have that many leftovers though .😀
Also have the same problem at home and at work. There's a kickstarter for the "Infinity Flow S1" which looks like a simple option, thought only seems to work with 2 spools at the moment.
I use my filament run out sensor. If I don't watch it and don't swap right away, it lets the printer cool down. After I put in new filament, it warms up and purges the filament to make sure it's all of the way in. It is an Ender 3 running Marlin and a Creality run out sensor.
I keep an empty spool of each type handy to zero a scale so I can accurately measure how much filament is left on any spool I have. That way I can print without running out. If I end up with a tiny amount left, it goes to my 3D pen box to use for repairs or joins.
Hey Stefan! Tbh I happened to use the autorefill for the first time one month ago and it surprised me how the printer stopped when the end of the filament went into the AMS. Sure another roll of the same stuff was loaded in the next slot and the AMS had been updated with the actual filaments. It didn't worked since the AMS gave an error as the end of the filament ran into the funnel. It's been quite a pain to leave the print in pause, disconnect the AMS, tear out the leftover an then inserting the new roll in the slot and so trick the AMS into like the filament never ended. I didn't even actually got what happened there, so I learned nothin. :(
My Qidi Q1Pro consistently grabs the new (unspliced) roll of filament if I just make sure it's butted against the end of the previous roll as the end goes through the extruder gears. It takes between 30 and 60 seconds to be sure the transition was made (as you can't see inside the extruder) but I've done this plenty of times and it worked each time.
All you ready need is a short section of PTFE tube and a non-flammable heat source. If you want to remove the PTFE tube after the splice, just cut it before you use it and clamp it closed with a small fold back clip. Even when cut open the PTFE tubes still work fine for splicing filament. But on most 3d printers you don't need to remove the PTFE tube at all. It will just slide down the filament until you take the filament reel off or until need to use it again.🙂
So the Prusa MMU2/3 can also do filament run-out, along with the mentioned AMS and multi-tool systems like the XL. So don't forget that option too. The Palette works very well for filament run-out and I'm honest surprised nobody (including Mosaic) has made one just for it and/or splicing ends together. Pulls filament 1 through a 1.8mm inner diameter PTFE (they rate it for some 3000-5000 splices depending on filament and temps used. Also, they limit it to 230C to prevent off gassing). Filament 2 gets brought in, a slight pause while it heats up for a specified amount of time, push 2 filaments together for a specified amount of time, part of the way through start moving the filament through the PTFE (at different rates), then go past a cooling fan/blower. You look at the device and can probably produce a very similar system with some simple gcode. In fact, the first Palette literally ran off a RAMPS board... so not a complex task. Given how much an ECRF and similar cost, could probably do it for $200-$300 instead of the $800+ the device goes for. I have a literal box of scraps. My printer sits so close to me that for small-ish prints that color doesn't matter, I feed one 20-30cm scrap, then just grab the next and feed that in as I see it go past the end. Filament sensor saves me if I'm delayed/distracted (and every printer should have one. If you had a bad experience in the past, it's probably been a few years now... at least the like 2 people who like to tell me they always disable it say they last had the issue like 6 years ago and both have moved from Enders to Bambus. So come on now, stop repeating that they're not reliable to mislead people). Ahem, I get through things fine and slowly.
I just bought some ptfe tube and pre sliced it so I could reuse it after using it with a lighter, seems to work much better than this, I had none of these issues...
I do that same thing with a short piece of Bowden tube. I just heat the filament with a lighter and stick them in the tube. Then slide off the tube piece or leave it there as it doesn’t interfere with printing.
I have a "3D pen", I use the left over filament as material to fine tune and repair printed pieces in case under extrusion, failed print or just detailing in general
I mostly try to catch the point in printing where the printer sucks the end from the spool und push the next spool of filament into the pipe until it get's eaten by the motor that's pushing the filament to the nozzle. It's a mind game. :D
Whenever my filament runs low, I pay attention to my printer and usually manage to "catch it" when it has like 2 windings left, than replace spool in my filament dryer, lead out new filament and let the printer use up most of whats leftover in the meantime. Than I ask it to print 50% speed for a second while its running out and I push in new filament. Usually I see less print degradation than if it paused for a second (IDK, that allways seems to me like is visible on print)
11:43 I think you can leave the PTFE tubes on the filament at any length and load them into the extruder. As soon as the filament is empty, the PTFE piece simply falls off and can be reused.
I rely on my Prusa Mini's filament run out sensor which works well, but requires manual intervention. What I would love to see would be a device that has a FRS + the splice core from Mosaic. The idea would be that you always load 2 filaments A and B . If A runs out it would automatically load B. You can then load a new roll on A while B is printing. I think the trick would be getting the price down to a point where this machine would be affordable for hobbyists who might only own one or two printers.
Since I am tinkering trying out a lot still I just use them for calibration prints... they usually dont take a lot of filament... Just make sure they are the same brand / series of filament
I use one of those Hexagon/3DS Way ones, and it works even better than the sunlu shown in the video, albeit it's a tad more manual. As far as I know, that 3DS one came first, and it comes with a 3d printed tool to cut the PTFE tube, although it isn't necessary at all. So far I've joined countless bits of filament with the very same PTFE piece that came with the machine, and have a bag left of trims still. Sunlu's solution is just a semi automation of the process that otherwise requires a bit of babysitting to avoid overheating the material, and also has integrated cooling. In my opinion, the 3ds is superior in that regard, since automating such a device is pretty easy to do anyway.
I've never tried using the filament backup feature from the printer itself so maybe that functions differently, but on my Bambu Labs printer when you start a print from Bambu studio the filaments don't have to be set as the same color, just the same type.
I use mine up on random clips or mounts that aint visible, On the Bambu A1 I just feed one in behind the other on the go. Hasn't failed so far. Same on the Kingroon kp3s with the creality Efit extruder/E3D hotend fitted. I do have cameras watching the spools as well as the beds so i know when to get busy. Ive been joining using a 1.75mm bored centre split 10mmx10mmx10mm cube of brass. hold the block together in mole grips JUST hot enough to melt then feed the filament in each side push them together and wet sponge the block to cool fast. Undo the moles and and pull the block apart.
the tube is constraining the shape of the fused area to be a tube. A better option might be to get one of the thicker wall tubes they use with the Mosaic Palette (Mosaic sells replacements) and adapt filament joiners heating area to handle it. A thicker wall would mean it would take longer to heat and cool of course. I'm not sure how adjustable the filament joiner is.
I don't have many leftovers from printing. I just push the new filament manually through the feeding ptfe tube of my Voron. The path after the direct extruder is too short for the filament ends to tangle or clog the system.
For now any short leftover I give to my daughter and she is using them with her 3d printing pen. Any longer pieces I swap manually in my printer once it's nearly gone. Have printer in my home office room so can monitor progress when working from home
I've already pre-ordered one. My Ender 3 doesn't have a filament runout detector, and I'm not using Creality's firmware. My K1 Max has the potential, but it's a lot harder to load than the Ender 3 is.
Ok so i haven't seen the video yet, but what i do with leftover filament is i feed it to my reverse Bowden printer; since the bowden tube is coming back to the spool before the extruder it is fairly straightforward to just push the new filament up against the old through the bowden tube and just seamlessly transition from the end of one roll to the next
If you have a 1/3 roll and half roll yes cutting would be easy way? after looking at this the 1/3 roll will you would want to spool in the half roll right? so if some one came up with a winder where you could clamp the tube in the device to hold the tube in place then spool I would think you can use the same tube over and over??
From my research, the ptfe tubes was not first thought up from sunlu. A different product used the same idea. The Hexagon came out way before sunlu's solution and also uses the ptfe method. I debated on getting it but everyone seemed to hate it because you had to sand down the connection because it would be to thick to feed through the extruder. However instead of cutting the tube it used a peeler to take off a layer of the ptfe so you can take off the rest. It however was expensive at $60 just to connect filaments together. while other solutions that never worked good cost $15-$20. There was no middle ground. Sunlu's solution feels like that middle ground $30 for a solution that doesn't need a whole lot of engineering and thats not super cheap that doesn't work. However, now that I'm looking at the hexagon, I think they dropped there price probably because on Sunlu's solution.
![Twenty One Pilots - The Line (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XCz7WUotXs8/mqdefault.jpg)
I don't understand why the heat plates aren't simply PTFE coated to clamp around the filament. It's not as if the idea of Teflon coated things is new.
It looks like a tight fit in the tube. My guess they went this route is to make sure both filaments are in perfect alignment with each other and stay in alignment throughout the fusion process. You can visually see it before putting in the clamp. With grooves cut out on both halves of the clamp, there could be more of a failure with that contact point slipping away as it’s closed and while it remains closed heating up. Thinking of the end user, not everyone has technical skills required to keep the filament steady in a tubeless workflow. This method is almost foolproof.
You'd need some way to fixate the filament while it's heated up and then preferably actively cooled down again, but that also doesn't seem like it'd be that hard. they could integrated a 45 degree cutting jig instead of the tube slicer to easily facilitate perfectly angled cuts.
@@Egg_663 I'm thinking that before the heated clamshell section, you have fixed PTFE tubes you slide the filament through, which are a tight fit and keep the ends aligned for the clamshell to close over. Then you can design the latch for the clamshell to only latch if it's near perfectly closed, that way the user can't accidentally close the clamshell over misaligned filament, and will just wiggle it into alignment.
The shorter the clamshell the better in this design. Maybe just like 10% longer than the spliced section, so it heats up the filament just in the needed zone, and the user has less margin of error with alignment?
@@weeveferrelaine6973 That’s a sensible idea. I bet they thought of multiple ways and it probably came down to manufacturing cost. Plus, they keep getting money when new tubes have to be purchased.
There would be a join horizontally which could lead to 'flashing'.
My wife is a teacher. I print little fidgets for her to "sell" to her students with good behavior points. This is what I do with small filament leftovers.
Isnt that just proxy child employment?
@@Dogo.Rwell the children don't create any profit, so I don't think so. If you consider this proxy child employment, then any other form of education would also be that, just with worse "salaries"
I print little fidgets too. intended for a garage sale but that hasn't happened yet. 😛
@@prefixcactus5221I mean technically it does produce profit indirectly in the same way tons of jobs produce profits indirectly, just in this case the profits aren't going to the person doing the "employing".
@@Dogo.Rnope it’s not, as the teacher is rewarding students for their good behavior like doing things that they should normally be doing. Such as, cleaning their own work area after a project and turning in homework on time. Things that a student would and should do anyways. And don’t worry all students will get something regardless, some may get more in a non bias way.
I got a cheap 3d printing pen that I use these leftovers with. It's great for welding pieces of a larger project together.
I'm doing the same thing
Me tow
same here :)
wow, that's an awesome advice.
journey of finding the best cheap no compromises pen has begun.
Yeah, i do that too. Why glue when you can weld? I also add welding chamfers and flow channels in the joints. Stupid easy to use.
I saw a video somewhere where they simply used a silicon coupler (rather than PTFE) and a lighter. This works because silicon can handle higher heats than PTFE before it starts to release nasties... no need for a "device" at all, just a roll of the correct sized silicon tube.
Silicone, silicon is what computer processors are made from
@@SamChaneyProductions Probably my biggest pet peeve
@@SamChaneyProductions might be a language thing, in Swedish silikon is silicone, silicon is kisel, i know other languages have use silicon instead of silicone, when i was a young teenager i thought Silicon valley was talking about all the fake (silicone) tits 🤣 😂
silicone is also a pretty bad thermal conductor and probably less dimensionally stable. But if it works, it works.
I just use normal PTFE and a lighter. If you do not overheat it, it does not smell or deform. But the problem persists, the connection point is soft and you have to pull apart slightly. I prefer just switch spools on the fly instead.
After watching "My Tech Fun" review I didn't get why the PTFE tubes were considered consumables since he was able to re-use them easily, but you just showed the workflow that makes them one-time only.
I don't think it's responsible use forever chemicals as throwaway items, but fortunately this welder still has a good user experience without requiring that.
I'm tempted.
To merge left overs manually, the best solution I found was not to directly heat the filament, but heat a box cutter blade for 6-8s and use the heat from that to melt the ends of the filament. Works particularly well with PETG.
1. Drive one end of a two sided box cutter blade into a scrap piece of wood to make it vertical and keep it steady
2. Cut the ends of both spools square, and position the spools well enough to be able to keep the strands aligned later on
3. Heat up the upper part of the blade for 6-8s with a jet lighter
4. Push the ends of the filaments on each side of the blade to melt it
5. Without leaving the blade, slide both filament strands up until the blade is not in-between,allowing both ends to touch and stick together
6. After pressing a bit to get a good joint initially, pull a bit instead to help getting a good straight alignment and a slightly smaller diameter around the melted part
7. Wait for the joint to cool down until everything is completely rigid again
8. Trim the excess with flush cutters + a blade. Shouldn't be able to feel rough asperities in both directions
Recently used this method again and it worked flawlessly on 6 left overs of PETG the other day. I didn't get any jamming or breakage. Didn't try ASA or ABS, but PLA works ok too.
I don't see a problem with dragging the filament through the PTFE all the way. You still have to re-spool it anyway.
Exactly. You aren't going to leave the 2 spools connected, so just slide the PTFE off when respooling. One could even print an adapter for a drill to make the respooling process easier. :)
When I used this method, I used normal PTFE and just left it there. And collect it later on a printer head. = ))
But mostly I just switch spools when they ends. Do not understand how one can collect so many leftovers = )
I tried that, it's hard and creates alot of tension.
@@jebronekitty maybe you had a wrong diameter PTFE or fluctuating filament.
@@yru2501 the ptfe tube used to connect the filament is supposed to be tight to prevent filament expansion when welding them together. So the drag it puts on trying to respool is quiet significant and that's not a flaw
Waste PTFE is a much more harmful product than waste PLA though, its production creates a ton of harmful byproducts like PFAS (and I doubt a cheap product like this is using anything other than the absolutely cheapest possible option for the PTFE).
Lol, I don't think you fully understand how and who the pollution is from
It could be that the PTFE included was manufactured responsibly and without PFOA, but that doesn’t mean it’s off the hook, in fact this use of the PTFE is WORSE for the environment than manufacturing with PFAS byproducts.
Typically in even the worst PTFE manufacturing, the byproducts don’t literally outweigh the product. Making PTFE disposable is making the PTFE itself a byproduct.
Think about it yourself as the manufacturer, for every 1000g of filament you use and splice, you add a direct byproduct of .1g PTFE.
I had never seen PTFE sold as a disposable product, and there are good reasons for that.
same concern here. single use PTFE is horrible. It's bad enough in the normal printer, but where there are not many alternatives
I wonder if it's possible to reuse the PTFE sleeves. The might be flexible enough that they can be reused multiple times even when cut.
Yeah that part kinda killed it for me, waste is waste
Another use for those near empty spools is to make a youtube video about what to do with near empty filament spools!
single use teflon?"? wow this is just about the worst thing you could do
Meh, you really think that matters?
@@JohnWilliams-vy2gw .... yes?! Its TEFLON. its bad enough we need to uae it for bowden tubes
@@JohnWilliams-vy2gw Yes, SUNLU rep.
@@fast-yi9js what's so bad about using telfon for Bowden tubes? I'm in no way advocating for single use plastics, but a Bowden tube with an all metal hotend has basically no wear. Is there something I'm missing about Telfon specifically being bad?
@@SanderMakes you might wanna google the phrase "the forever toxin in all of us" if you look to have your day ruined. But the long and short of it is, yes, Teflon is incredibly toxic in its production and disposal and that toxin pretty much never goes away.
Consumable PTFE tubes is a complete NONO.
What should have been done is to have made it so you can remove the metal parts to clean them if you need too. Same procedure as you do with buildplates
It's ironic. Everything plastic that will ever be printed is going to end up as trash. The same people who print things that turn into plastic trash are complaining about tiny masses of plastic tubing going into the trash. If you don't like microplastics, you stop using plastics. I don't litter and I don't spill chemicals, I do my share for the environment as it is, but don't tell me I'm somehow some type of ecological monster for not living my life how you see fit.
I use a bit of PTFE tubing when I splice filament using a soldering iron, I run the tube back and forth while the join is still soft that way I know it won't clog the printer, I then just leave the bit of tube on there, the filament will just slip through so there's really no need to cut if off and waste it. Even if it's rolled onto the spool.
My record is 8 splices in one print, which needless to say, saved me 8 spools worth of space.
I really like the look of this product, though.
Thanks for another great video.
James
I was doing a similar method and discovered that ALL of my leftover filament material became brittle and would break in the AMS so I just started throwing the remaining filament away to save time and headaches.
I've used a hot knife before without needing to heat and throw out PTFE - my solution for the join is to push in on the strands until there's a bit of a thicker weld all around, then sand between two flat plates (in my case scrap wood with grip tape) to make the joint thin enough to print.
Something i want to try is friction welding, but i need a drill that goes back and forth quickly instead of around.
Teflon tube and a mini butane soldering iron/heat gun combo takes less than a minute and is reliable. Being that there's usually
Afer seeing a few tutorials, i started doing a similar method with a small piece of Silicon tube and a soldering iron. Within a few tries my results look like what you showed for the Sunlu system.
Couldn’t you just leave the thin PTFE tubes on the spool? In theory they would be too thick to be pulled in by the extruder or you could use a reverse bowden to stop them. Then you could collect and reuse hem once the spool is empty.
This is honestly my favorite thing about the AMS. I almost never print multi-color, but I often put a second roll of the same filament just to switch over automatically.
I did play around with an aluminum split mold that I machined a precise and smooth bore into and necked it down in the middle on the lathe. I just heat it up with a heatgun or a small torch. I basically just clamp it together, heat the necked down part until I can feel the filament softening, press it together and let it cool. It does work decently, but I bought a Bambulab P1S with an AMS a few weeks ago, so I kinda haven't really improved on the design since, because I'm just using the AMS now.
Due to it being 2 halves I can just unclamp them and remove the filament without any PTFE tubing. I found that a bore that is machined decently smooth and precise enough in diameter (a diamond lapped 1.8mm carbide PCB drill works well enough with a slow feed), doesn't really cause the filament to stick, once it's cooled off. Just to make sure, I also heated the contraption up a few times and sprayed it with silicone spray, which creates a non-stick silicone coating (I used it on my self made full titanium heat break in the past too, since I had one specific brand of PLA that just didn't want to print even a single degree above 195°C). Obviously this requires having a half decent lathe and a milling machine to machine the parts necessary.
An integrated filament cutter would also be a good improvement. Insert the filament and get a perfectly angled cut before the join every time.
I use my Mosaic Palette 3 Pro to splice filament shorts together automatically. Once configured it works great and can just make filament for you with or without a printer connected. It is pricey but much faster, easier, and more reliable than manual splicing.
except the fact that its 800$......
@@BamsyTheSergal If you read the comment you are replying to carefully you might notice it mentioning the price as a caveat.
@@somdudewillson good for you
Hmmm I do feel the sunlu connector might be over hyped? I'm really worried about the need to manually control the pushing force. I can get the connection without much problem in most other cheap setups, just can't control the thickness of the joint diameter. I would expect it to handle the forming for me.
Teflon coated non stick frying pans have been around for decades.
Teflon coated heating elements with a cooling period after the heating would eliminate the need for a PTFE tube.
I can't quite tell, but you do realize that Teflon is PTFE, right?
I do agree that just PTFE coating the heating elements would have been considerably better.
I have the 3D Sway splicer and I find it works quite well, the built in fan is great because you can cool the filament before moving it. I haven't got the hang of the block it comes with to hold the joint while you cut it with a potato peeler, but so far I've managed to slide the tubes off to reuse. It's completely manual which I like, you turn on the heater, fuse the filament while watching the clock or running a timer, then flip the switch to cool, watch the time again and then you're done. No faffing with temperatures or relying on presets.
So these are almost one time use Teflon sleeves? Not nice.
For leftovers I use either the runout sensor or I use my old mosaic palette 2s pro. It can even provide you with a random color filament.
u can pull them off and use again if u have an open end on the filament.
Yeah, that is a definitive dealbreaker.
I'm thinking it shouldn't be that hard to make a little cutter that closes around the filament and then yuo pull the fuse through and it cuts off excess.
@@Andyah that's why I said "almost". I don't have leftovers with less than 3m.
So it would be no option for me.
@@spedi6721 If you are winding them back to a spool, you obviously have an open end. It doesn't matter the length. All filament join solutions have this issue, since they always use a PTFE tube to form the join.... this solution adds proper heating and will eliminate burning yourself with a butane torch. I have a unit on pre-order, but... October? Geesh.
I know of a way you could probably do it without having to use ptfe tubes and still get good results. Basically just make something like a two piece bullet mold (the kind reloaders use to make cast lead bullets). It would be easy enough to try.
Take a couple of small blocks of aluminum, lap the faces to eachother, drill and pin them so they go back together in the same spot every time. Then (with the halves clamped together tightly) drill a hole all the way through right at the split line. Just a hair under the filament diameter so that the mold itself will clamp the filament in place. Might take a little trial and error since the hole will expand slightly as the aluminum heats up.
Then run a butane lighter on the inside of the mold to soot it up (release agent), stick your filament ends into the mold halves, close it, clamp it or latch it, and heat it up with a torch or just set it on an electric hot plate or stovetop.
I don't mind sharing the idea either. It seems obvious enough that surely someone else has thought of it or something like it.
sure the PTFE tubes weigh next to nothing but 3D printer waste is at least just PLA or PETG so normal Thermoplastics. Worst case they get incinerated and heat the homes in my birth town. PTFE on the other hand is a PFAS also often called the "forever chemicals". It's basically toxic waste that needs to be disposed of specially. It can't go into the "yellow bag" because it's not a recyclable thermoplastic and you shouldn't dispose of it in the normal trash either because it releases highly toxic compounds when it's incinerated so I don't think this is a good solution.
It's also just so unnecessary. The temperatures you're dealing with here are well below the ignition point of paper so they could have just used paper straws.
Paper would just get stuck to the filament though and be super hard to remove, wouldn't it?
My husband asked me to like your comment because that was the exact point he kept making as I watched this video...
You are correct that PTFE is a PFAS, but you are incorrect that it is a toxic waste needing special disposal, and the absolute most minor number of people have their trash incinerated versus hauled to a dump, so for nearly everyone worrying about what happens when it is burned is a non-issue, frankly sounds like a skill issue/personal problem.
PTFE would be used in this instance for its non-stick properties, using a paper straw would result in the paper fibers being integrated into the melted plastic joint and being unable to remove the straw.
To quote; PTFE has a unique chemical structure that happens to fall under the PFAS class of substances. However, the PTFE molecule is inert and thermally stable so that if it were put into water, nothing would happen to it; and if you put it into the body, it passes through unaltered because it does not biodegrade. It is not absorbed into the body as are some PFAS chemicals.
@@prefixcactus5221in the worst case scenario, water would break it down enough to remove any stuck paper, would just mean making sure to dry the filament well after. Could also use something like parchment paper which would be more heat resistant and less likely to adhere.
@@msytdc1577 I don't know if this is a minor issue. I think now most of (western) Europe is 'recycling' the waste into heat of the parts that cannot be directly re-used. Probably in the USA there are still dumps but they are thankfully been reduced quite a lot since the end of the 80's here in Europe.
After splitting and then burning (sometimes even called green energy...), they try to filter out the nasties and they get dumped but the amount of that is far less. But still some things like the PFOA's are not always filtered out well, which is giving many issues here nowadays including having to advise not to eat eggs from hobby-chicken since the load of those are too big.
Personally I never saw this as a problem, with filament runout sensors I usually just start prints regardless of how much is on the spool. In addition I try to split my models into smaller prints to reduce the impact of a failed print and so I can select the best print orientation and settings. This way I almost always have a small print lined up to use up the scraps. Do you all only print big parts in one go?
I agree. And also when wielding two spools together, there is a chance it will stuck anyways, and you had to manually switch a spool = ))
After I installed filament motion sensor, I just forgot about any trouble with filament runout or stuck. And I do not calculate if it will be enough, just set a spool and print. So I do not understand, how there could be collected so much leftovers.
The only 'leftovers' I have are 5-6 inch pieces which my printer lefts, when runout event is triggered. I use them with my 3d pen.
The join spool feature had been present on Prusa MMU for quite some time. With open-source alternatives like ERCF, TradRack, or simple 2-extruder setup on Klipper, it is called Infinite or Endless spool and is one of the most desirable features of these multicolor systems.
I was about to say this. I saw it on the mmu2 and I assume it's there on the mmu3 too.
I usually feed leftovers manually into the printer, but that means I need to supervise the print and be present at the moment the filament runs out. I use an inverse bowden setup, so it is quite easy to push the new filament behind the previous one in the PTFE tube.
They should also include a little clamp/mould with cooling fins to make sure it's the right diameter and cools down nicely. this should fix the finishing step and the problem of pushing too hard.
It's exactly the same moves, but with a cooling block instead of a heating block.
Since I use a direct drive, I actually watch for when the last bit of filament disappears into the printer, then at the same time feed in gently a new roll, works quite well on my Ender 3 with the Biqu H2 V2S
Not an issue with Bambu AMS, with the auto refill as mentioned. No more left over filament since using these printers.
"What are you usually do with your filament lefftovers?" Well, waiting for this video I guess. Been experimenting with all kind of ideas to join filament leftovers but never got a good result. This unit is what I was waiting for. Thanks Stefan!
Appreciate it! Happy to help.
I use nearly-empty spools to print small parts until there's only a few feet left, which I toss. Recently got an A1/AMS, which as you mentioned will auto-switch. The PTFE tube method works well - you can even just use a match as the heat source - but as you pointed out the tube must then be slid off the filament. The little Sunlu splicer with the cutter blade seems like a great solution!
The problem with PTFE is that it's one of the "forever chemicals" which basically doesn't decay. There's enough plastic waste in the world and I'd rather not use more of it than I need to. I'm happy to hear that you can also just slide off the tube after use though.
I have tried most of the products that have been made for splicing...I have not tried the new sunlu but i have tried the Hexagon and it was the first one i have used that worked well.
Can sliced PTFE tube be reused?
With right tolerances this might work, I think
To cool the weld quickly you can use a can of condensed/compressed air turned upside-down. It cools the part instantly, works also great for quickly cooling hot glue.
I have a Bambu with AMS, and yes the filament runout and backup does work but it does seem to detect it pretty early, and when it detects the run out, it purges whatever remaining out, and it seems like it wastes quite a lot of filament. Anyway, I bought a pre-sale Sunlu joiner, so I hope it'll work well. When it eventually arrives...
Let’s hope someone like MicroSwiss makes an all metal version of this with no need for PTFE
You could probably slide off 90 % of the sleeves, because you want both sections on one roll.
I've tried a splicing tool, which didn't work. Most of my ends are short, and I feed them first, which means less camping time waiting to feed the roll in. To date this works best for me, but I might look into the other tool you listed like the one you showed. Sounds like a good and interesting way to splice and forget the splice going through your printer. After all who needs to spend time watching a print, when the printing shouldn't be time consuming on your part.
I've got the Prusa XL, and I'm very tempted to buy this thing for the leftover filament the XL produces during spool join. They are over one meter long!
I collect them, and with this thing I could join them. And you can simply slide the PTFE tube to the next end and re-use it endlessly. Almost no waste.
Knowing the correct weight of the empty spool is the key to calculate filament rest for one of the next prints. Small lengt will be used in PrintPen. I have no time to loose for melting filament together and using less PTFE is allways a good thing
Personally, I am just planning to pelletize leftovers and filament samples, and use those pelletz to add some uniformity (and fresh high quality material) to my regrind for rPLA.
Could you try pre-cutting a PTFE tube, i.e. slitting it before use, then once spliced allowing it to cool completely before opening the splicer and removing it ready for the next use?
I just got one for my lab, which is the first on the shown Amazoon list, It worked well.
Great video, very interesting.
I do wonder though, couldnt they make the part where they heat up the filament kind of like a PTFE tube made out of metal as that would keep it the right size but get rid of the waste?
It Sunlu tool looks kinda similar to a mini fusion splicer, which is used when splicing together glass fiber optic strands. Seems like a solid design if they just integrated a cooling method
I use the small scraps to make trinkets or small items that I leaved at work. Small things like shopping cart keys are great and people tend to snatch them up fairly quickly.
I bought the 3dsway filament joiner a few months ago. It has a cooling fan but it's a lot more difficult to cut away the ptfe tube since they just give you a potato peeler.
Thanks! Yeah, that's a weird decision 😁
I generally only print small things with samples, or components of larger items if the color differences either aren't important or actually add to the effect (such as the six Rolling Storage Boxes from 3D Printy that I made for storing nuts, bolts, washers, and magnets of various sizes). The leftovers sometimes get used for small prints, sometimes get reserved for use as hinges, or sometimes find use in a 3D pen for welding prints together, though anything shorter than 100-200 mm tends to go in the trash because they're hard to use for much of anything.
I use the PETWelder, from Igor Tylman. Works perfectly. And it has a Winder too. Recommended.
I've spliced filament with some 1.8mm silicone tubing (got 10 meters of it on Aliexpress), just hitting it for a couple seconds with a lighter. You could probably just hold it against the heater block of your printer for a while.
Wast of ptfe tubing, why they don't make a build in ptfe tubing thst is thicker and attached to the unit but in a upper and lower pieces, like some foil remelting tools Making for plastic food pouches. 🤔
Must be a Teflon or some other material that can be a split and reused, but most filament will not stick
For my E5+ with DD, I let the filament get to the runout sensor in the rear, then push a new roll through until it gets to the DD and just let it feed through.
Except for a handful of times it's worked perfectly. The only pain is having to sit there and manually feed on the back of the previous roll.
Did you try reusing one of the cut PTFE pieces just to see what happened?
I think the consumable PTFE is the biggest downside, but the tube looks like it might be held in place _enough_ by the heating housing when compressed. Even if there were some flashing I can't imagine it being very significant.
What I used to do, was waiting until the filament was empty and push a new one as the manual process. Now I use the ams
Would the multiple color Stefan count as a Harlekin? Like VW Polo?
I think that if you use Teflon-coated aluminum rollers with a built-in heating element, it is possible to do without pieces of the tube.
I feel a better design would be to use coated metal in the joiner (to remove the need for consumables) and switched to something like a peltier, then you could insert the filament have it heat then cool it all in one go without removing them.
The MMU2 and MMU3 on prusa also have spool join. I've used it before. It's pretty cool.
G'day m8.....im currently economicly restricted (im on the poorer side of 3d printing) and i jumped on the kickstarter of the Sunlu S4 drier system and love it,... Its been running for 8 months straight, and just like the S1, it was drying for the mass's yrs ago. This filament Fuse device is just their first go. so i got one coming mid to late september....it will get better over time with feedback. Cheers From A M8 Downunder🙃
I just use my palette 3 pro and set it to the make filament option to splice all my leftovers together.
Its really fast and because it splices and pushen the filament out quite quickly i can just put it direcly onto a spool.
And with the Integration of p2pp for prusa slicer its very easy to use.
Usually just use the AMS or AMS Lite. Sample filament usually goes into LARGER prints that are going to be painted.
Protip for the AMS: If you have two spools of the same filament in the AMS and you want to print from the spool with the least filament first to use it up, you need to select the almost-empty spool in the print dialog after you click print in Bambu Studio. Selecting the almost-empty spool in the Filament section of the Prepare tab sets the type of filament, but the spool slot you select in the AMS is ignore. There's nothing more annoying than coming back at the end of a large print to find that you now have two almost-empty spools because it used your new full spool first.
I made up a jig that supports the 2 filament rolls, so the filament curves naturally into the area were the filament is joined I made up a jig for that, I am using silicon tube a 1.6mm ID that the two ends go into and are heated till fused then since the whole lot is supported and restrained so I don't need to hold it while it cools, then just slice the tube off.
The spool join also works with Prusa MMU
What I do.... well, many times I try to print almost to the end, using filament-manager in Octoprint for example and some 'guesswork'. Sometimes I think about re-installing the filament-sensors on my printers but in the past they have given me multiple printfails because of stuck filament in the sensor or just not clicking off at the right moment (probably due to filament-dust in them after some spools).
Especially with bent filament and some thicker parts of filament, they like to get caught or make just some extra resistance on the filament-path.
Maybe get some with rollers and good guidance?
With ABS I make ABS-slurry and with some others like PVA I make glue. Nice for bed-adhesion and also gluing parts together, smoothing spots or gluing other things.
PETG, PLA, I safe together these small bits and use them in my 3D-pens. Nice to make connections/connectors between parts and for example fill letters. Yes, I print 'holes' in the top or sides of the prints when I want to incoperate letters and instead of contiously swapping filaments (I don't have automatic filament-swapping) in the printer, I just fill those holes with the pen afterwards. This is less work then swapping mid-print and no purging needed, no 'poops'.
Of course, just loading and swapping filaments works well. Manually in the printers for example when filament-manager tells me the spool is almost at the end. It just pauses automatically and cools the hotend down untill I'm back to make the swap (keeping the bed heated!). Sometimes I enable messaging on my phone but mostly I notice the screens on my tablet that it has paused and I walk over to the printer when I have time to continue the print with the next spool. Then just press (in Octoprint) homeXY and move closer to the print again, press 5 times 10mm down and 'resume' in octoprint. But no, not doing this for less then 2 meters of filament and not for every project. Hard to get it right to put ends of TPU on top of ABS...
And spools that have become bad quality, yes only thing to do with them is to throw away :-( 😞
Splicing with PTFE-tubes.... seems a real bad thing. A couple of cms of those is worse then meters of even ABS in the bin. Also for the health but sure for environment. If they were a bit thicker and with nylon for example or just simply PVA I think that would be a much better solution.
Or other desolvable plastics? You could just use a sponse to take off the connectors.
I actually enjoy the momentary printer babysitting while feeding it new filament leftover when it is running out of the previous one 😀. I don't have that many leftovers though .😀
Also have the same problem at home and at work. There's a kickstarter for the "Infinity Flow S1" which looks like a simple option, thought only seems to work with 2 spools at the moment.
I use my filament run out sensor. If I don't watch it and don't swap right away, it lets the printer cool down. After I put in new filament, it warms up and purges the filament to make sure it's all of the way in. It is an Ender 3 running Marlin and a Creality run out sensor.
I keep an empty spool of each type handy to zero a scale so I can accurately measure how much filament is left on any spool I have. That way I can print without running out. If I end up with a tiny amount left, it goes to my 3D pen box to use for repairs or joins.
Hey Stefan! Tbh I happened to use the autorefill for the first time one month ago and it surprised me how the printer stopped when the end of the filament went into the AMS. Sure another roll of the same stuff was loaded in the next slot and the AMS had been updated with the actual filaments. It didn't worked since the AMS gave an error as the end of the filament ran into the funnel. It's been quite a pain to leave the print in pause, disconnect the AMS, tear out the leftover an then inserting the new roll in the slot and so trick the AMS into like the filament never ended.
I didn't even actually got what happened there, so I learned nothin. :(
Prusa MMU also has a spool join function. Great way to use all the filament on a spool.
My Qidi Q1Pro consistently grabs the new (unspliced) roll of filament if I just make sure it's butted against the end of the previous roll as the end goes through the extruder gears. It takes between 30 and 60 seconds to be sure the transition was made (as you can't see inside the extruder) but I've done this plenty of times and it worked each time.
All you ready need is a short section of PTFE tube and a non-flammable heat source. If you want to remove the PTFE tube after the splice, just cut it before you use it and clamp it closed with a small fold back clip. Even when cut open the PTFE tubes still work fine for splicing filament. But on most 3d printers you don't need to remove the PTFE tube at all. It will just slide down the filament until you take the filament reel off or until need to use it again.🙂
So the Prusa MMU2/3 can also do filament run-out, along with the mentioned AMS and multi-tool systems like the XL. So don't forget that option too.
The Palette works very well for filament run-out and I'm honest surprised nobody (including Mosaic) has made one just for it and/or splicing ends together. Pulls filament 1 through a 1.8mm inner diameter PTFE (they rate it for some 3000-5000 splices depending on filament and temps used. Also, they limit it to 230C to prevent off gassing). Filament 2 gets brought in, a slight pause while it heats up for a specified amount of time, push 2 filaments together for a specified amount of time, part of the way through start moving the filament through the PTFE (at different rates), then go past a cooling fan/blower. You look at the device and can probably produce a very similar system with some simple gcode. In fact, the first Palette literally ran off a RAMPS board... so not a complex task. Given how much an ECRF and similar cost, could probably do it for $200-$300 instead of the $800+ the device goes for.
I have a literal box of scraps. My printer sits so close to me that for small-ish prints that color doesn't matter, I feed one 20-30cm scrap, then just grab the next and feed that in as I see it go past the end. Filament sensor saves me if I'm delayed/distracted (and every printer should have one. If you had a bad experience in the past, it's probably been a few years now... at least the like 2 people who like to tell me they always disable it say they last had the issue like 6 years ago and both have moved from Enders to Bambus. So come on now, stop repeating that they're not reliable to mislead people). Ahem, I get through things fine and slowly.
I just bought some ptfe tube and pre sliced it so I could reuse it after using it with a lighter, seems to work much better than this, I had none of these issues...
I do that same thing with a short piece of Bowden tube. I just heat the filament with a lighter and stick them in the tube. Then slide off the tube piece or leave it there as it doesn’t interfere with printing.
I have a "3D pen", I use the left over filament as material to fine tune and repair printed pieces in case under extrusion, failed print or just detailing in general
I mostly try to catch the point in printing where the printer sucks the end from the spool und push the next spool of filament into the pipe until it get's eaten by the motor that's pushing the filament to the nozzle. It's a mind game. :D
Whenever my filament runs low, I pay attention to my printer and usually manage to "catch it" when it has like 2 windings left, than replace spool in my filament dryer, lead out new filament and let the printer use up most of whats leftover in the meantime. Than I ask it to print 50% speed for a second while its running out and I push in new filament. Usually I see less print degradation than if it paused for a second (IDK, that allways seems to me like is visible on print)
11:43 I think you can leave the PTFE tubes on the filament at any length and load them into the extruder. As soon as the filament is empty, the PTFE piece simply falls off and can be reused.
I rely on my Prusa Mini's filament run out sensor which works well, but requires manual intervention. What I would love to see would be a device that has a FRS + the splice core from Mosaic. The idea would be that you always load 2 filaments A and B . If A runs out it would automatically load B. You can then load a new roll on A while B is printing. I think the trick would be getting the price down to a point where this machine would be affordable for hobbyists who might only own one or two printers.
Since I am tinkering trying out a lot still I just use them for calibration prints... they usually dont take a lot of filament...
Just make sure they are the same brand / series of filament
i generally use leftover spools and samples for text on displays/stands or use in my 3d pen
I use one of those Hexagon/3DS Way ones, and it works even better than the sunlu shown in the video, albeit it's a tad more manual. As far as I know, that 3DS one came first, and it comes with a 3d printed tool to cut the PTFE tube, although it isn't necessary at all. So far I've joined countless bits of filament with the very same PTFE piece that came with the machine, and have a bag left of trims still. Sunlu's solution is just a semi automation of the process that otherwise requires a bit of babysitting to avoid overheating the material, and also has integrated cooling. In my opinion, the 3ds is superior in that regard, since automating such a device is pretty easy to do anyway.
I usually have only a couple of meters left, wich I use for soldering printed pieces together, clean the nozzle and for the 3D pen ^^
I've never tried using the filament backup feature from the printer itself so maybe that functions differently, but on my Bambu Labs printer when you start a print from Bambu studio the filaments don't have to be set as the same color, just the same type.
I use mine up on random clips or mounts that aint visible, On the Bambu A1 I just feed one in behind the other on the go. Hasn't failed so far. Same on the Kingroon kp3s with the creality Efit extruder/E3D hotend fitted. I do have cameras watching the spools as well as the beds so i know when to get busy. Ive been joining using a 1.75mm bored centre split 10mmx10mmx10mm cube of brass. hold the block together in mole grips JUST hot enough to melt then feed the filament in each side push them together and wet sponge the block to cool fast. Undo the moles and and pull the block apart.
I wonder if you could use PTFE tape (like for plumbing?) instead of PTFE tube with the sunlu, would it work and would it be reusable?
No way
the tube is constraining the shape of the fused area to be a tube.
A better option might be to get one of the thicker wall tubes they use with the Mosaic Palette (Mosaic sells replacements) and adapt filament joiners heating area to handle it. A thicker wall would mean it would take longer to heat and cool of course. I'm not sure how adjustable the filament joiner is.
I don't have many leftovers from printing. I just push the new filament manually through the feeding ptfe tube of my Voron. The path after the direct extruder is too short for the filament ends to tangle or clog the system.
Hey @CNC Kitchen Have You ever thought about running those filament spools through your shredder and making filament with them?
For now any short leftover I give to my daughter and she is using them with her 3d printing pen. Any longer pieces I swap manually in my printer once it's nearly gone. Have printer in my home office room so can monitor progress when working from home
I've already pre-ordered one. My Ender 3 doesn't have a filament runout detector, and I'm not using Creality's firmware. My K1 Max has the potential, but it's a lot harder to load than the Ender 3 is.
Ok so i haven't seen the video yet, but what i do with leftover filament is i feed it to my reverse Bowden printer; since the bowden tube is coming back to the spool before the extruder it is fairly straightforward to just push the new filament up against the old through the bowden tube and just seamlessly transition from the end of one roll to the next
If you have a 1/3 roll and half roll yes cutting would be easy way? after looking at this the 1/3 roll will you would want to spool in the half roll right? so if some one came up with a winder where you could clamp the tube in the device to hold the tube in place then spool I would think you can use the same tube over and over??
I use the leftovers and supports to weld parts together or use as filler if I have to fill a print with resin.
I ordered one on presale a month or so ago...cant wait till it finally ships
From my research, the ptfe tubes was not first thought up from sunlu. A different product used the same idea. The Hexagon came out way before sunlu's solution and also uses the ptfe method. I debated on getting it but everyone seemed to hate it because you had to sand down the connection because it would be to thick to feed through the extruder. However instead of cutting the tube it used a peeler to take off a layer of the ptfe so you can take off the rest. It however was expensive at $60 just to connect filaments together. while other solutions that never worked good cost $15-$20. There was no middle ground. Sunlu's solution feels like that middle ground $30 for a solution that doesn't need a whole lot of engineering and thats not super cheap that doesn't work. However, now that I'm looking at the hexagon, I think they dropped there price probably because on Sunlu's solution.