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Hi, I print a lot of long prints. Most are about 18 hours or longer. The prints use about 2/5 of a spool. So after two prints, I have 1/5 of a spool remaining. I can’t print with a 1/5 full spool since I am not collocated with my printer (I monitor the print remotely with a webcam).

How can I combine the last 1/5 of my spool with the new spool easily?

Thanks

Anthony

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Hi Anthony,

We all have the same problem. I do it the easy way: when the old filament disappears in the extruder, I insert the new filament right away. It usually works perfect with my ultimaker 2.

The tricky part is to be there at the right moment.

I tried to weld the old and the new filament together in the past but it would break at times so it’s not optimal. I’m still searching for the perfect solution.

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Hey Anthony,

Did you try a spool size that would be a better fit?

Are you talking about 2/5 of a 1 Kg spool? If so, how about a 2 Kg spool (2000g / 400g = 5 prints) or an even larger spool?

Such spool filament sizes will soon be available over at ColoriLAB.

What do you think?

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my suggestion would be: get bigger spools
colorfabb has 2200 gram spools.
that is 3X as much as a regular spool so you should be able to print 7runs without having to be there

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Guys, take a look at this!

http://fuseclamp.com/en/

cheers

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I think it depends on which type of feeder you have. I’ve tried the same as N1CO, but it doesn’t always work, because if there’s just 1-2mm distance it means underextrusion, an.d maybe the parts you’re printing won’t have enough quality.

I’d try the Fuseclamp. I read some time ago in a spanish forum about a guy that created some sort of Fuseclamp using really cheap materials (it’s just making a hole and heating it). Maybe you can try to make something like that yourself, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

If you’re not convinced you can try the bigger spools, but it depends on which material you use, they may not be available.

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Yes, that’s right, it is important to push hard when inserting the new filament because if there is a little gap between the old and the new filament, it will under extrude and screw the print. One failed layer sometime leads to the whole print to fail.