So, I have a 10kg spool. Weighs in about 22 pounds of 1.75mm PLA. I’m attempting to have my printer pull the PLA right off the spool, but, I’ve only gotten one successful print so far (out of 30). Is a 22 lbs spool to heavy for a typical 3d printer to pull?
It seems to be for mine, but, just wondering if I got some more smooth ball bearings for the spool to sit on or more smooth pvc instead of a wooden dowel if that would make a difference? Or it’s just too have and I need to use an empty 1kg spool and wind it up on the 1kg spool?
Anyone use a 10kg spool with their printer and how’d they get it to work right off the 10kg spool? I was getting tired of changing spools. but, I’ve wasted almost a spool in failed prints, which makes buying bulk plastic a complete waste… I’ve contacted pushplastics to see what their recommendation is also. Very frustrated!
3 Likes
I stuck my “baby sized” kilo spool on 2 x 608z and a steel bolt… and it make a HUGE difference
Man and I DON"T know if this will help or not… I have been thinking about adding a another stepper…so you would have two driving it… but it sounds like you need some serious torque no matter what… Check out the “geared” all metal extruder motors < I have never ran a geared extruder yet, but that sounds like an awesome job for it lol good luck! That’s some serious PLA
Hi Travis,
print yourself some custom hubs for your 10kg spool and put ball bearings in the middle of them, this I expect will make the spool turn so easily that even the 10kg is not an issue anymore. The thing that is important is that you have a hub for your spool which centers the axis of rotation, perhaps you won’t need ball bearings after all. I don’t know if I am being clear so I will make an example: Say the inside diameter of your spool is 50mm and you have it suspended by a dowel of 10mm. The spool is not turning around its center but you have a lot of drag / friction of the inside of the spools hole going “uphill” against the 10mm dowel. Now you print yourself some pieces which center your 10mm dowl inside the spools inner hole, lets say 49.8mm outer diameter and 10.1mm inside diameter. Now put the hubs in your spool and the dowel through these hubs. Your spool will turn very easily.
Hope this helps you!
BR
Risto
This is the best spooling method I’ve ever tried. Although I haven’t tried it with for than 5 kilogram coils, I am confident my extruder could handle that on this system.
cobnut
5
Hi @Travis_K I’d definitely recommend going down the bearing route; I use this on both my printers. I printed bespoke spindles and holders, using large bearings inside the spindle so my reels spin smooth as silk. The only weird downside is that sometimes they spin too freely, even with the bearings sometimes a bit of tension builds up then the reel suddenly releases and spins further than it needs to resulting in a few loops of “loose” filament. This could be a bigger problem for a 10kg roll because of the larger rotational inertia. This isn’t a massive problem (for me) when the reel is less than full as these loose loops tend to stay inside the reel edges, but with a new reel I’ve occasionally found these loops go outside and then become a risk of jamming/getting tangled. I solved that problem by printing a guide hole closer to the surface of the reel which greatly reduced the risk.
Whichever way you go, it’s a good idea to try and get the filament feed coming as straight as possible into the hot end (or the end of the Bowden tube, if you’re using one).
1 Like
Well, I used a metal rod, it definitely has some resistance, which keeps tension on the PLA. However, it seems able to pool the spool and rotate it. I printed 4 objects overnight, and they were completed successfully this morning. 
It used a total of around 25 meters of PLA to print the 4 objects. And there’s no signs of stopped feeding. It appears to have worked.
I started another 4 this morning and this is slated for around 35 meters. If this turns out this evening, then, I’m scared to say it using a metal rod vs. wood may have been the simplest cure. I agree, with having a center access spinner would be most ideal. I’m not a good designer, and am not sure what type of object I’d need to print for the center access. So, we’ll see if this continues working. The cool thing, is that the more I print, the more reliable the spool is going to get due to continuously getting lighter and less resistance.
The center hole is 38 mm (just under 1.5 ")
@cobnut if you could provide a linke to the spindle holders that you printed, I’d be interested in trying this out. My method is a little ghetto, would be interested in seeing something with bearings would work as a longer term solution!
Thanks!
