I have a Snapmaker A350T with a dual extruder. I’m using it with the enclosure, so I have tubes from the enclosure to the top of the extruder.
Ever since I got this thing, I’ve run into one annoying problem. It isn’t possible to load filament without climbing inside the enclosure, removing the tubes, and feeding the filament in, because it snags on something inside the unit before it gets to the feed gears.
Does anybody know a fix for this? Obviously there’s something about the shape of the inside of the cold part of the extruder that prevents filament loading unless the filament is exactly lined up in the center, which it never is coming out of the tube.
I recently did the rebuild (mine was the first-generation that had all sorts of cooling issues and other design problems), and I didn’t see anything obviously wrong when I was in there, but the problem persists after the rebuild.
Any ideas? It makes filament swaps kind of a pain.
I my self have the tubes not really pushed into the tube clips - they loosely lie on the top of them. It makes handling filament much easier, and never caused issues for me.
The Original doesn’t have filament autoloading, and is a bit of a pain. It has a similar problem, in that I have to get the filament to line up with the hot end’s opening.
I’ve found that if I snip off the end of the filament at an angle, so there is a sharp point, pointing away from the filament spool that it loads much easier. Even after straightening the filament to remove the curl, it wants to curl a bit once it’s inside the print head. The point means I don’t have to perfectly align the entire flat end of filament with the opening that’s only slightly larger.
Cutting the filament end at a sharp angle has worked for me as well. I do sometimes have to pull the filament back a little and push it back in as it reaches just inside of the print head but it will eventually pop all the way into the drive mechanism and begin loading.
I have the tubes loose and feed the filament through to grasp the end. I then cut the end on an angle and feed into the extruder. There is no need for the tubes to be attached to the extruder.
Where did you locate the opening on the top? Left side of my enclosure is against a wall. I’m considering swapping the left side and top panels to relocate the entry hole.
I know my reply is a bit late, and perhaps you’ve already solved the issue, but here is my procedure in case it helps anyone in the future: As mentioned, cut the filament end with an angle (so there’s a bit of a point), then push it through until it encounters resistance. Then what I do is gently nudge (in my case, pull toward front) the tube about an inch from the top of the Dual Extruder Toolhead while continuing to add gentle forward pressure from the other end of the tube, which helps to adjust the entry angle and guides the filament into the extruder.
That kind of precludes what I was thinking about doing, which involves external hardware to send G-code to the printer, RS485 commands to a filament changer, an external sensor for filament tension to detect extrusion failures caused by filament snags before they happen, a camera to detect various failures, etc.
I’m thinking fixing this might be something as simple as needing to reinforce the tube to make sure it is exactly vertical with some kind of external clip, or it might involve shaving something inside the extruder to remove some sharp lip that the filament tip snags on or something. Just thinking out loud, though.
I put mine together with the door on the left end and the front, and the filament coming in at the back right, because the back is against a wall and the right end is against other stuff, but the back right is at a window.
