Help for tangle issue

I have been using 3d printers for about a year. Most of the time, the spool runs smoothly while printing. But sometimes, the filament just gets tangled on the spool (crossed with other coils) and the printing cannot continue. It's a big headache as I have to withdraw the coil, loosen several coils and rewind, and start to print all over again. When this happens, it'll take much time to deal with it, which is so annoying. Can anyone offer some tips? Thanks a lot.

I think this happens if the filament gets a bit loose on the spool during printing. What's needed is a "brake" of some sort - nothing heavy but just light enough to stop it over-rotating as the extruder pulls on it. Imagine you were just gently laying a finger on the spool's drum as it was being pulled and that's what you need.

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Waitaki 3D Printer

Two possible causes for this that I know of.

1. Pourly would filament from supplier (pre tangled and crossed over on reel). Fix = Get new supplier

2. Spool turns too easy, people use to think the spool would work better on bearings, turns out this is a bad thing, there should be a bit of friction between the spool and spool holder so it takes a little bit of effort to pull the filament off. If you are using any kind of bearing system spool holder get rid of it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2014 11:37PM by tmorris9.

Two reasons for this issue. First is improper use of filament during 3d printing. The filament should not be loose during printing, so we need to tighten the coils after using. Second is that knots emerge without manufacturer’s notice during winding process. Regarding this issue, our company has found a solution. See more at [www.reprappertech.com]