Filament without a spool

Hi

Have just built my first 3D printer (from Nop Head's excellent Mendel90 kit), and have 20m of filament, but no spool.

I've seen various solutions on Thingiverse, but they all involve printing something, which leaves me in a catch-22 situation.

Any ideas how I could print a spool, without a spool.

Marcos

look on thingiverse.com . there are cardboard cut spools. also a cord spool used to wind up power cord, can be used as a spool as well.

You can print without a spool - just untangle a few meters (your slicer will tell you how many you need) and watch it during the printing of your spool parts.

Or you could go for one of the cardboard based spools out there

This was my first spool from years ago:
[www.thingiverse.com]

It is easy to make. I just printed out the dxf at 100% scale onto several sheets of paper, taped them onto some scrap cardboard, and cut it out by hand. I used the eDrawings package by SolidWorks ( [www.edrawingsviewer.com] ) to print out the dxf.

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I don't use this, but I remember Nophead made this basket type device.

thing 85

I built a Mendel90 myself. A very stable printer.

Thanks for the suggestions guys - in the end simply placing the filament on the (relatively clean) floor next to the machine worked fine, as it was coiled in such a way as to simply lift away easily.

Now that I can print though, I'll look into a Thingiverse solution.

You'll want to wipe the dust off the filament before it goes into the extruder. Some people stick it through a piece of foam. I tend to wrap a tissue paper around it and tie it with a twist tie or tie wrap like this.

You can also use an electrical cord reel made of plastic that are sold in the hardware store as a spool.

brnrd Wrote:
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> You'll want to wipe the dust off the filament
> before it goes into the extruder. Some people
> stick it through a piece of foam. I tend to wrap a
> tissue paper around it and tie it with a twist tie
> or tie wrap like this.
>
> You can also use an electrical cord reel made of
> plastic that are sold in the hardware store as a
> spool.

Thanks for suggestion - fortunately the foam dust remover is in Nop Head's Mendel90 kits design.

Incidentally, what actually happens if dust gets in there? Does it build up? Or go straight through, causing some kind of print defect?

I have never wiped dust off of my filament and it sits out in the open for months right next to my dust covered PC.

billyzelsnack Wrote:
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> I have never wiped dust off of my filament and it
> sits out in the open for months right next to my
> dust covered PC.

Yep me too

It's easy to do, so why not do it? I pick up a lot of dust and lint with my tissue paper wipe. Since the nozzle is only 0.35 mm, I'd prefer to keep them out of there.

Sometimes my filament comes with chips of another colour on it. If that gets into the extruder it creates a blemish on the part being made. I have also had bits of fluff embedded in parts.

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