3d printing

Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

1744242012698.png
All the horsies are done..

My old printers have a 256mm^3 build volume. The new printer's build volume is 360mm^3
That doesn't seem like a huge difference instinctively, but it is. It's nearly 3 times the cubic MM in build volume.
On the old printers, I could fit 6 dragons at once.
Because I'm vending at a ren faire next weekend, and I realized I'm out of a decent seller, I loaded up the plate with 12. And i could likely do 20, because the old printers have an "exclusion zone" that you can't print in. So the volume is actually slightly less than 256^3.

 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Tinwhistler... how reliable do you find the Bambulabs AMS unit? I just picked up the AMS pro 2 myself but it's been a massive pain in the buns with failures to feed into the tool head constantly.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Azurephoenix said:
Tinwhistler... how reliable do you find the Bambulabs AMS unit? I just picked up the AMS pro 2 myself but it's been a massive pain in the buns with failures to feed into the tool head constantly.
Click to expand...
I don't have the newer AMS, but my older models have been fairly reliable.

For a while, I was having a consistent failure to feed error with slot 3 of one of my units. That was a known issue, and was alleviated by moving the AMS off the top of the printer to sit on the table to the right. Evidently the bend in the tube was enough friction so that that one particular slot complained enough that feeding would fail. I've since replaced all the ptfe tubes inside all of my AMS units more than once (due to wear and tear) and haven't had the problem since, even though I've moved all the units back on top of the printer.

On Makerworld, there are lots of mods to print and install to solve that particular issue, but none of them worked for me. Someone suggested using ptfe tubes with a larger ID (while retaining the same OD for compatibility) but since moving my AMS fixed the issue, I just never bothered researching that further.

It's hard for me to help further without knowing your specific setup...and since my stuff is an older model, I can't know for sure if my knowledge will be current enough to help at all :/
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

I'll have to look into whether I can alleviate tension on those tubes but I feel like I have pretty generous loops with big radii. I had to unload the filament and snip off all of it that had been fed through the gears. That solved it (albeit temporarily) for about 100 more layers. Now it's acting up again. Brand new. Frustrating lol.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Azurephoenix said:
I'll have to look into whether I can alleviate tension on those tubes but I feel like I have pretty generous loops with big radii. I had to unload the filament and snip off all of it that had been fed through the gears. That solved it (albeit temporarily) for about 100 more layers. Now it's acting up again. Brand new. Frustrating lol.
Click to expand...
Also, feeding issues can be caused by things such as:
Using cardboard spools in the AMS (big no no)
3rd party filaments on plastic spools that are too small (such as Jayo at 195mm diameter instead of 200), too narrow in total, or the individual wheels of the spool being too thin to provide good friction on the rollers.
Having a spool be about 80% empty can cause issues, and I use a printed spool insert with added weight to help that.
Badly wound filament (or loosely wound refills) pulling inside the spool.
1745874767099.png
etc

Lots of potential trouble sources with the AMS. Pictures of your setup and the filament you're using would help :D

There are many things that the BL printers do easier than my new Prusa XL, but man, I love that I can just feed any spool onto the thing. No futzing with spool adapters, respooling, maintaining the AMS and all that mess.
 
Last edited:
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

I'll get a picture soon but basically the AMS just sits on top of the printer. Spools are cycling just fine and they wind and unwind with no tangles or jams. It's the same error over and over and over. The A3 spool will extend all the way through the tubes to the print head and then it will wind it back up. It will do this like 5 times and then say it can't get the filament into the toolhead.

I'll have to keep the cardboard spool in mind. I do have one in there now and it did cause a problem once but it seems to be okay for the moment. The other spools should be good (except for the stupid number three one). You know how I usually fix the error? Just clear the code and tell it to resume and it almost always works lol.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Azurephoenix said:
I'll get a picture soon but basically the AMS just sits on top of the printer. Spools are cycling just fine and they wind and unwind with no tangles or jams. It's the same error over and over and over. The A3 spool will extend all the way through the tubes to the print head and then it will wind it back up. It will do this like 5 times and then say it can't get the filament into the toolhead.

I'll have to keep the cardboard spool in mind. I do have one in there now and it did cause a problem once but it seems to be okay for the moment. The other spools should be good (except for the stupid number three one). You know how I usually fix the error? Just clear the code and tell it to resume and it almost always works lol.
Click to expand...
Yeah, if it's the #3 slot, and it's on top of the printer, try moving the AMS beside the printer to the right, if you have room. For some reason putting the AMS on top causes lots of people (myself included, at one time) to have a #3 slot failure.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Azurephoenix said:
I moved it off to the left and it seemed to print just fine. Such a dumb thing... I want it to sit on top dang it! lol
Click to expand...
Honestly, I can't say what fixed mine. But I have replaced the ptfe tubes in it a couple times due to normal wear and tear. It could be that the guy in the factory in china responsible for tube #3 is just making them a hair too short or too long. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

one cannot use a 3d printer without inevitably modding it.
My Prusa XL came with these standard spool holding rods.
20250506_104348.jpg

The problem? They're made for most 1kg and 2kg spools. The knob in the center is too big for many 250g spools, and some of my 1kg spools have a hole just slightly too small, also. I've been respooling those filaments onto other spools, but what a PITA.

The mod: Cradle-style spool holders. These will fit every brand of filament I commonly use.
20250506_104354.jpg

The problem? They take 4 608 bearings each. I need 20 of them, and only have 8. And tariffs have made the things a lot pricier on AliExpress.
The additional solution: Print my own bearings.
20250506_104400.jpg

Printed in PetG for additional durability, these things still wouldn't be good for skateboarding or the like. And will wear out much faster. And they're not remotely smooth enough for something like a fidget spinner. But for these low-load, low total revolutions applications, they work just fine, and cost pennies.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Haven't posted a dragon in a while. On my Bambu printers, this thing woulda taken 3 days to print and more waste than in the actual model due to filament flushing between layers, and the 90 seconds per color change. On my Prusa, it took 22 hours and 1/3 the filament usage, making it viable for me to print and put on my vending table :D

Last pic has my hand for scale

20250514_002837.jpg 20250514_002816.jpg 20250514_002850.jpg
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

PatrThom said:

"They're going to do it anyway. Let's make it official."

--Patrick
Click to expand...
Oh, that's nice. I spent a fair amount of time modeling a trimmer guard for my Wahl. If I could just download the files I need, it really pushes me towards Philips as my next trimmer when I do need to replace this one.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Far said:
If you do them as a gacha style thing I bet people will go WILD.
Click to expand...
You mean like a random loot box? The thought occurred to me. It also occurred to me how much I bitch about those very things when I see them in the store. I guess I don't love money enough to compromise on my values lol

But I guess if someone were to send me money and specifically request a random selection, I would not have as much of an issue with it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top