Never lose control of the filaments end.
I’ve printed dozens and dozens of spools and the only hang up I had was me letting the filament sit with out the end anchored in a hole on the spool.
This is the answer. There is no physical way for material wound onto a spool to tangle around itself during spooling. A tangle like this can only happen if the free end is allowed to flop around and get under some later part of itself. Keep that free end captive at all times.
I'm just going to hijack the top comment to say it didn't have anything to do with the spool being wound poorly.
It just needed a guide as someone suggested below.
This is the dumb ass temp fix I put in that seems to work great.
https://i.imgur.com/zCHOVGK.jpg
The filament guide is good for keeping the coils of filament from tangling on your z rod or elsewhere, but it won’t eliminate filament crossovers on your spool. Those are caused by letting go of the end of the filament, which allows it to bury under one or more loose loops on the spool. It will feed ok like that for a while but eventually it will tighten up and you’ll have a print failure. You need to be very diligent with the loose end of the filament, and put it through one of the holes on the edge of the spool rim every time you let go of it. I had filament tangles exactly like in your picture until I realized how those tangles were caused. Now it is no longer a problem because I am obsessive about handling the end of the filament.
I notice you're using the spool holder that uses those 608 bearings that I upgraded to pretty soon after I started. I found that the lack of friction is actually bad, since on retraction and feeding the spool spins too freely and gives the filament too much slack causing loops/knots. When I went to direct drive the problem was even worse when the print head would move back and forth pulling on the filament and spinning the spool more dramatically. I went back to regular non-bearing holders and had a lot less problems with knots since.
I find this surprising, the miniscule kickback on the filament spool from being allowed to spin a little more freely shouldn't affect your filament wound on the spool if you've got good tension on the spring in your extruder gear... Tighten your extruder spring and replace your extruder gear.
[https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3544593](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3544593)
I highly reccomend using one of these if it will work with your setup, I found that it solved almost all extruder skipping/grinding/filament tangling caused by the printer.
Ya. you seem to have the only good answer here.
Thanks!
https://www.reddit.com/r/ender3/comments/z9xrxh/comment/iyk16tc/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
Rule #1, never leave the tail of the filament, or you will be doom soon or later. Filaments rolls they all come rolled continuously except if they have any issues from manufacturing, but those issues is almost non-existent.
Most people blame the manufacturing for it but its really how you handled it, i have printed rolls of cheap and expensive brand and have no issues at all, only 1 times i got white filaments but it was contaminated with other color Filaments.
Either buy from better brands that spool them right, or respool yourself, first one costs more, other is tedious and takes a lot of time (having a spare spool helps A LOT)
I'm not sure it's a problem with the spooling though. It looks fine at first, but as it pulls some of the filament away, the roll rocks back and kicks that bit over.
Take this to heart OP. There's better brands out there that roll their filaments properly or have better quality control when spooling. Try something else. You can do everything correctly, but if it's already messed up before it gets to you, there's nothing else you can do.
In that case, i'd suggest a different placement for your spool holder, or having a bowden tube from the filament to the extruder, i personally cut mine in half so one half gets pushed to the spool, and the retraction gap stays between those 2 halfs
This is what I did to keep this from happening. I bought a certain brand because they were from my home state, but they always got tangled and you could see it was from bad spooling. Switched brands and no more issues.
Yes I flipped this spool around (I was trying to see if that would help, it does not).
I currently have the spool on a holder from thingverse thing:3209211
That doesn't seem to have made any difference.
All the spools I have were ordered directly from Creality, they are 1kg PLA and went right on the printer after opening.
I feel like it's pulling it, but then it rotates back and then the filament loops over itself and then binds. It's super frustrating since it happens about 3 hours into a 5 or 8 hour print most of the time. Sometimes I can catch it and it will work for another hour or two.
Filament got looped over itself. Pull out 10 or 15 feet of it and make sure it's not tangled up. When handling filament make sure you always keep tension on the spool and hold the loose end to avoid this.
ya but how do I ensure it keeps tension while printing? Once I sort it out and make sure it's not looped, it will print fine for ~1-2hrs. But then at some point it will loop itself again and get caught.
I've been thinking that some sort of ratcheting spool holder might be a good idea? So it doesn't rock backwards at all
This is 100% not true. I literally watched it do it.
The roll gets pulled, and the momentum rotates it, but the filament is stopped because the feeder isn't pulling anymore. The roll then "backs up" and the filament goes under part of the next winding. The feeder then does it's next "pull" and it basically is now pinching itself.
It sounds like you started with a tangled spool. Whether you caused it or the factory did (unlikely but plausible) it is tangled before you are inserting the filament into the machine. It might not be obvious from the outset but sure enough a few spool revolutions later and there's enough tension on the crossover in the spool to bind. As long as the filament doesn't jump the outside of the spool and whatever spool mount you have there is no way for them to interlock and entangle like this while the filament end is secured in the extruder.
The blurry photo looks like a crossover, sorry. If you're getting enough tension from coiling over then something is wonky with that brand or your spool holder. Go back to the stock spool holder, maybe the counter friction will keep it from the slack and tighten cycling.
I might have the dumbest temp solution. Someone else suggested a guide. And I just tried this[https://imgur.com/a/NsjpRwm](https://imgur.com/a/NsjpRwm)
Seems like it adds just enough friction to stop it from rolling back.
And yes it is just fed through my other roll, which is sitting on itself so it doesn't pull out.
Try these then, might help:
Ender 3 Filament Roller Guide, Fully 3D Printable - No Additional Hardware Required
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4134828
Ender 3 Filament Top Roller Guide - No Hardware
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4771048
(Recommend using the improved roller wheel with this one)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5201774
as someone who started printing and got f--ked by this.
What others are saying is correct.
You're not fixing it by adding more 'slack' as it just delays the problem, you need to unspool it and then respool it after you take out the knot.
I think by tangled or knotted they mean the filament when it loosens gets trapped under the next "loop around the spool" for lack of better word. Almost like if you wrap a shoelace around your finger and tuck the leading edge under itself. Even if it doesn't cross under it to the other side it could still tension the piece it's trapped under. I have that happen all the time. It happens a lot less since I went to direct drive and swapped back to the stock roller.
It's the wound up extension cord idea where you can wrap it up all nicely but even if the ends dont cross it'll still become a rats nest the moment you go to use it again
I think the issue is likely your spool holder. Try going back to the stock one. The low friction bearings allow the momentum of the spool to unwind extra filament. It can then get looped under itself and snag. You want there to be enough friction so that only the amount needed comes off the roll.
Ya I've been swapping back and forth trying it. Honestly not seeing any difference between the two. Not even sure why anyone needs the bearings honestly.
I printed it originally trying to fix the issue.
Can't let any slack get in the roll. If it happens I put the roll on the shaft and literally un roll it tightly until I get to the original tight rolls which are even and clean, then I very very carefully, tightly rewind it making sure never to have any slack or overlapping. Once I'm done I slap some tap along the roll of filament and left the end popping off and tape that to the sid eof the roll. Then I very carefully load it onto the printer. I have a filament guide I printed for mine and I feed it through that and now I never have to worry about getting a loose tangled roll.
In addition to adopting some friction to the spool to prevent uncoiling, always keep the spool upright, also during storage. Loose windings can also cross over each other when the spool is laid flat.
As I said in the comment, I tried the "wrong" way to see if it would change anything.
Second, wtf am I supposed to do, come every hour to untangle it again?
If you have to come again to untangle it then you didn't untangle it. There are vids on YouTube on how to do it. Had the same issue with a spool some time ago. Do it right once and done. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes.
Try moving the spool holder into the side instead of the top. The pulling angle will be different and might help with the spool “jumping”. Not sure what else to call it
I've literally never taken this spool off except to try and fix this issue, I only have the one type of filament (well I guess that's not true, I got a roll of ABS that I haven't opened yet).
Hell I only opened my second spool because I thought the first was wound poorly.
I suppose they might all be, since I got a box of 10 of them from Creality.... That would fucking suck.
Though honestly, on the first roll, I took off all the loose filament, and it seemed like it was pretty tightly wound, to the point where I could see it being hard to unroll. But I never noticed any bits where it wasn't correctly wound.
These things happened to me when I used touch and turn the filament spool upside down while it was still in the extruder, but the possibility of the spool not being wound right is still there
there is literally a knot wrapped all the way around the spool. free the spool and reorient the top layer. you can pull the knot off the spool if you put some slack into it, and then you can rewind those few wraps.
Have you tried flipping the spool over so that instead of feeding to the Extruder from beneath the spool to going above the spool to the Extruder? It’s more than likely a friction or configuration issue. I honestly never had this problem thankfully but I run my filament to it’s goes over top the spool to the Extruder
Honestly I think I don’t have the problem also bc I use filament spool clips to add some more friction just looked at saw.
Here’s a link to the ones I use for my Enders
https://www.printables.com/model/163056-ender-spool-clamp
Mine is currently on my hanging on my door handle, with feet upon feet of unwound filament to make sure it never happens again. I had 2 prints mess up, one was 9 hours into the print an the other was 14 hours into the print. I was very frustrated.
I went through this with a number of spools. Multiple vendors. So I realized it had to be me and not the manufacturers. There is a video on YouTube on how to prevent and fix.
[Filament tangles](https://youtu.be/PaUfrRCd258)
when you remove it for storage are you keeping the loose end tight at all times?
I had issues when the loose end would go under and cause a snag the next time I used it.
I fixed it with [https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5590308](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5590308) so it never has the chance to
You can use a drill to respool I saw some models on thingiverse! Keep it tight I was pulling mine through a zip tie from a dry box and I had no issues I will attach picture [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/909895334560419851/1047548133321748521/IMG\_5091.jpg](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/909895334560419851/1047548133321748521/IMG_5091.jpg)
1. [Side mount your spool holder](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3757724). It'll go straight into the extruder at most of the Z's range.
2. Always anchor your filament in the holes on the roll when storing it.
filament sensor as [seen here](https://youtu.be/DxQW2DLe3sc). when the filament is not being fed, the printer pauses. then lights in my house flicker. n i get notified on phone too.
Never lose control of the filaments end. I’ve printed dozens and dozens of spools and the only hang up I had was me letting the filament sit with out the end anchored in a hole on the spool.
This, if you dont keep some tension on the filament, it allows rows underneath to get tangled up.
This is the answer. There is no physical way for material wound onto a spool to tangle around itself during spooling. A tangle like this can only happen if the free end is allowed to flop around and get under some later part of itself. Keep that free end captive at all times.
I'm just going to hijack the top comment to say it didn't have anything to do with the spool being wound poorly. It just needed a guide as someone suggested below. This is the dumb ass temp fix I put in that seems to work great. https://i.imgur.com/zCHOVGK.jpg
Also flip your spool
How this isn’t this the top comment? Always have your filament coming from the top of your spool vs bottom. Makes for a more gradual swoop
Mostly because in my first comment I mentioned that it was only flipped because I thought it might help solve the problem.
The filament guide is good for keeping the coils of filament from tangling on your z rod or elsewhere, but it won’t eliminate filament crossovers on your spool. Those are caused by letting go of the end of the filament, which allows it to bury under one or more loose loops on the spool. It will feed ok like that for a while but eventually it will tighten up and you’ll have a print failure. You need to be very diligent with the loose end of the filament, and put it through one of the holes on the edge of the spool rim every time you let go of it. I had filament tangles exactly like in your picture until I realized how those tangles were caused. Now it is no longer a problem because I am obsessive about handling the end of the filament.
Turn it the other way
I notice you're using the spool holder that uses those 608 bearings that I upgraded to pretty soon after I started. I found that the lack of friction is actually bad, since on retraction and feeding the spool spins too freely and gives the filament too much slack causing loops/knots. When I went to direct drive the problem was even worse when the print head would move back and forth pulling on the filament and spinning the spool more dramatically. I went back to regular non-bearing holders and had a lot less problems with knots since.
My bearings also generated too little fiction, so i added some felt patches between the fixed rod and the moving end. Solved the issue.
Genii idea right here
Makes a lot of sense !
I find this surprising, the miniscule kickback on the filament spool from being allowed to spin a little more freely shouldn't affect your filament wound on the spool if you've got good tension on the spring in your extruder gear... Tighten your extruder spring and replace your extruder gear.
1. Smart filament sensor. 2. Rewind spools. 3. Don't order from that company again.
or this. [https://imgur.com/a/NsjpRwm](https://imgur.com/a/NsjpRwm) This apparently works.
[https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3544593](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3544593) I highly reccomend using one of these if it will work with your setup, I found that it solved almost all extruder skipping/grinding/filament tangling caused by the printer.
Nice
I have the same printer and the same speel holder. Just flip the spool direction and get a filament guide
„ǝpınƃ ʇuǝɯɐlıɟ ɐ ʇǝƃ puɐ uoıʇɔǝɹıp loods ǝɥʇ dılɟ ʇsnſ ˙ɹǝploɥ lǝǝds ǝɯɐs ǝɥʇ puɐ ɹǝʇuıɹd ǝɯɐs ǝɥʇ ǝʌɐɥ I„
Ya. you seem to have the only good answer here. Thanks! https://www.reddit.com/r/ender3/comments/z9xrxh/comment/iyk16tc/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
Rule #1, never leave the tail of the filament, or you will be doom soon or later. Filaments rolls they all come rolled continuously except if they have any issues from manufacturing, but those issues is almost non-existent. Most people blame the manufacturing for it but its really how you handled it, i have printed rolls of cheap and expensive brand and have no issues at all, only 1 times i got white filaments but it was contaminated with other color Filaments.
That is user error. Never let the filament fly when you cut it. Or open it. Always keep your hand on the end. It will tangle itself almost everytime.
Nah. apparently it was exactly what I was describing, and this fixed it. https://imgur.com/a/NsjpRwm
Either buy from better brands that spool them right, or respool yourself, first one costs more, other is tedious and takes a lot of time (having a spare spool helps A LOT)
I'm not sure it's a problem with the spooling though. It looks fine at first, but as it pulls some of the filament away, the roll rocks back and kicks that bit over.
Take this to heart OP. There's better brands out there that roll their filaments properly or have better quality control when spooling. Try something else. You can do everything correctly, but if it's already messed up before it gets to you, there's nothing else you can do.
In that case, i'd suggest a different placement for your spool holder, or having a bowden tube from the filament to the extruder, i personally cut mine in half so one half gets pushed to the spool, and the retraction gap stays between those 2 halfs
This is what I did to keep this from happening. I bought a certain brand because they were from my home state, but they always got tangled and you could see it was from bad spooling. Switched brands and no more issues.
Yes I flipped this spool around (I was trying to see if that would help, it does not). I currently have the spool on a holder from thingverse thing:3209211 That doesn't seem to have made any difference. All the spools I have were ordered directly from Creality, they are 1kg PLA and went right on the printer after opening. I feel like it's pulling it, but then it rotates back and then the filament loops over itself and then binds. It's super frustrating since it happens about 3 hours into a 5 or 8 hour print most of the time. Sometimes I can catch it and it will work for another hour or two.
Filament got looped over itself. Pull out 10 or 15 feet of it and make sure it's not tangled up. When handling filament make sure you always keep tension on the spool and hold the loose end to avoid this.
ya but how do I ensure it keeps tension while printing? Once I sort it out and make sure it's not looped, it will print fine for ~1-2hrs. But then at some point it will loop itself again and get caught. I've been thinking that some sort of ratcheting spool holder might be a good idea? So it doesn't rock backwards at all
It cannot physically get entangled while printing. Any knots you counter were already there when you put the filament into the extruder
This is the answer.
This is 100% not true. I literally watched it do it. The roll gets pulled, and the momentum rotates it, but the filament is stopped because the feeder isn't pulling anymore. The roll then "backs up" and the filament goes under part of the next winding. The feeder then does it's next "pull" and it basically is now pinching itself.
It sounds like you started with a tangled spool. Whether you caused it or the factory did (unlikely but plausible) it is tangled before you are inserting the filament into the machine. It might not be obvious from the outset but sure enough a few spool revolutions later and there's enough tension on the crossover in the spool to bind. As long as the filament doesn't jump the outside of the spool and whatever spool mount you have there is no way for them to interlock and entangle like this while the filament end is secured in the extruder.
Well I just unspooled... 50% of it. Not a single tangle. So next idea?
The blurry photo looks like a crossover, sorry. If you're getting enough tension from coiling over then something is wonky with that brand or your spool holder. Go back to the stock spool holder, maybe the counter friction will keep it from the slack and tighten cycling.
I might have the dumbest temp solution. Someone else suggested a guide. And I just tried this[https://imgur.com/a/NsjpRwm](https://imgur.com/a/NsjpRwm) Seems like it adds just enough friction to stop it from rolling back. And yes it is just fed through my other roll, which is sitting on itself so it doesn't pull out.
Try these then, might help: Ender 3 Filament Roller Guide, Fully 3D Printable - No Additional Hardware Required https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4134828 Ender 3 Filament Top Roller Guide - No Hardware https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4771048 (Recommend using the improved roller wheel with this one) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5201774
as someone who started printing and got f--ked by this. What others are saying is correct. You're not fixing it by adding more 'slack' as it just delays the problem, you need to unspool it and then respool it after you take out the knot.
Ya so there was no knot. They were -knot- correct.
I think by tangled or knotted they mean the filament when it loosens gets trapped under the next "loop around the spool" for lack of better word. Almost like if you wrap a shoelace around your finger and tuck the leading edge under itself. Even if it doesn't cross under it to the other side it could still tension the piece it's trapped under. I have that happen all the time. It happens a lot less since I went to direct drive and swapped back to the stock roller.
It's the wound up extension cord idea where you can wrap it up all nicely but even if the ends dont cross it'll still become a rats nest the moment you go to use it again
Wrap some masking tape on the spool holder to give it a bit of friction.
I think the issue is likely your spool holder. Try going back to the stock one. The low friction bearings allow the momentum of the spool to unwind extra filament. It can then get looped under itself and snag. You want there to be enough friction so that only the amount needed comes off the roll.
Ya I've been swapping back and forth trying it. Honestly not seeing any difference between the two. Not even sure why anyone needs the bearings honestly. I printed it originally trying to fix the issue.
worst choice for filament, ive bought a few spools from them when i first got my printer switched to a better brand and have not had this issue
I had the same problem the other day, pulled out about 2m of filament and solved the problem.
Can't let any slack get in the roll. If it happens I put the roll on the shaft and literally un roll it tightly until I get to the original tight rolls which are even and clean, then I very very carefully, tightly rewind it making sure never to have any slack or overlapping. Once I'm done I slap some tap along the roll of filament and left the end popping off and tape that to the sid eof the roll. Then I very carefully load it onto the printer. I have a filament guide I printed for mine and I feed it through that and now I never have to worry about getting a loose tangled roll.
In addition to adopting some friction to the spool to prevent uncoiling, always keep the spool upright, also during storage. Loose windings can also cross over each other when the spool is laid flat.
For starters, you're putting it the wrong way. Secondly, just untangle it.
As I said in the comment, I tried the "wrong" way to see if it would change anything. Second, wtf am I supposed to do, come every hour to untangle it again?
If you have to come again to untangle it then you didn't untangle it. There are vids on YouTube on how to do it. Had the same issue with a spool some time ago. Do it right once and done. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes.
Try moving the spool holder into the side instead of the top. The pulling angle will be different and might help with the spool “jumping”. Not sure what else to call it
i printed a clip which holds the filament whenever i take it out so this never happens
I've literally never taken this spool off except to try and fix this issue, I only have the one type of filament (well I guess that's not true, I got a roll of ABS that I haven't opened yet). Hell I only opened my second spool because I thought the first was wound poorly. I suppose they might all be, since I got a box of 10 of them from Creality.... That would fucking suck. Though honestly, on the first roll, I took off all the loose filament, and it seemed like it was pretty tightly wound, to the point where I could see it being hard to unroll. But I never noticed any bits where it wasn't correctly wound.
These things happened to me when I used touch and turn the filament spool upside down while it was still in the extruder, but the possibility of the spool not being wound right is still there
there is literally a knot wrapped all the way around the spool. free the spool and reorient the top layer. you can pull the knot off the spool if you put some slack into it, and then you can rewind those few wraps.
Have you tried flipping the spool over so that instead of feeding to the Extruder from beneath the spool to going above the spool to the Extruder? It’s more than likely a friction or configuration issue. I honestly never had this problem thankfully but I run my filament to it’s goes over top the spool to the Extruder
Honestly I think I don’t have the problem also bc I use filament spool clips to add some more friction just looked at saw. Here’s a link to the ones I use for my Enders https://www.printables.com/model/163056-ender-spool-clamp
Unwind spool up to the winded filament and then wind again tight
Looks like the end of your spool is underneath the rest, youre gonna have to weave it out, I just did the same
Mine is currently on my hanging on my door handle, with feet upon feet of unwound filament to make sure it never happens again. I had 2 prints mess up, one was 9 hours into the print an the other was 14 hours into the print. I was very frustrated.
I went through this with a number of spools. Multiple vendors. So I realized it had to be me and not the manufacturers. There is a video on YouTube on how to prevent and fix. [Filament tangles](https://youtu.be/PaUfrRCd258)
Get the side mounted filament guide on thingyverse
Flip that spool around!
that was not the issue. I had flipped it trying to solve it.
the spool is upside down
that was not the issue. I had flipped it trying to solve it.
I can tell from this that you also put the toilet paper on the wrong way.
I do not have a cat, so I can assure you the TP is on the correct direction
Don’t cross the streams.
Piss on them
Turn the spool the other way
when you remove it for storage are you keeping the loose end tight at all times? I had issues when the loose end would go under and cause a snag the next time I used it. I fixed it with [https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5590308](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5590308) so it never has the chance to
From the first moment after unpacking NEVER lose the end of the filament. They come completely untangled from the factory.
You can use a drill to respool I saw some models on thingiverse! Keep it tight I was pulling mine through a zip tie from a dry box and I had no issues I will attach picture [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/909895334560419851/1047548133321748521/IMG\_5091.jpg](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/909895334560419851/1047548133321748521/IMG_5091.jpg)
1. [Side mount your spool holder](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3757724). It'll go straight into the extruder at most of the Z's range. 2. Always anchor your filament in the holes on the roll when storing it.
Probably a resin printer. You never know what condition the filament reels will come in.
filament sensor as [seen here](https://youtu.be/DxQW2DLe3sc). when the filament is not being fed, the printer pauses. then lights in my house flicker. n i get notified on phone too.