Refillable cartridge spool idea on Thingiverse

#1

I’ve uploaded a design to thingiverse to help reduce cartridge jamming. I’m not sure how affective this thing is, but so far it has been working for me. The idea is that it allows the spools to be easily replaced without removing the cartridges, and also allows the filament to come off the spool without being forced down under the plastic skirt that seems to cause filament crossing and jamming. It requires disassembling a cartridge to use.

Only the bottom plate with the RFID tag, and the spool itself are utilized. There are two pieces. The larger piece snaps onto the back of the RFID plate and provides a secure lock on the cartridge slot snap in the base of the Zim. The second smaller piece friction fits (or zip ties) into the neck and guides filament coming off the spool into the slot just prior to the lower stepper. So far I’ve found that removing the skirt around the spool, and that evil little black o-ring, helps prevent jams in the cartridge. It also makes it much easier to pop different spools in, at the expense of having to reset the spool contents in the cartridge menu (something we will likely have to do whenever refilling a spool anyway). Also this compromises the effort Zeepro has made to keep moisture out of the cartridge. I was more concerned with getting my printer to work than I was worried about moisture, but I live in a desert :smile:

You can find the thing here…
Cartridge Spool Accessory

I recommend creating a new preset based upon “Fast” with supports turned off, and “autofan” turned on. Worked for me. It is especially interesting watching the zim span the small bridges to make the snap connectors on the larger piece with support turned off.

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#2

Hey great job! I was looking at doing this as well, but the filament didn’t seem to want to stay centered and the cartridge wouldn’t stay clicked down, both of which you appear to have solved with add-on pieces.

I still wonder if just a couple big 2.2lb (1kg) spools hanging off the back and feeding directly into the top would be a good way to go as well. The RFID reader is nice though, and having to do all of this stuff manually really spoils the printer. I guess we just need better designed cartridges! Hopefully Zeepro is following along and paying close attention to these issues. I know changing up injection molding is not fun, but then again so is 3D printing replacement cartridge accessories for a consumer machine.

#3

I think being able to hang various sized spools off the back, and feed from the top, is the way to go. It would be much more reliable, flexible, and easier to maintain. I think I might end up going down that route eventually.

#4

I’m working on making something that can hang off the back for the spools out of the zeepro cartridges now. If I ever get it working I will post a file. I’m using a modified version of the holder and reloader that Jpod made.

#5

Well, I can report that Hatchbox PLA rewound onto a Zeepro refillable spool is not the best choice. The Hatchbox PLA (bought from Amazon) is more brittle that the stock PLA, and appears to be breaking all of it’s own accord where it is most tightly wrapped on the smaller Zeepro spool. It took several days of the refilled spool sitting for this to appear. The filament works great for printing though, so I hate to abandon it simply due to the Zeepro spool design. I think for my next attempt, I will forgo refilling the Zeepro spool, and simply make a mount that can carry the full size Hatchbox spool (0.5Kg and 1Kg respectively) like BDub described. This will require some sort of bypass of the lower filament feed micro-switch to make the Zim think filament is in the tube. I might even rig up an entirely parallel micro-switch. The other issue is going to be the loading sequence, since I doubt it will need 3 feet of teflon tube. I’ll let you know how it goes.

#6

Jpod, bypassing the lower filament feed switch is very easy. Just unplug it. They are a normally closed switch that is pushed open by the filament so unplugging them makes the zim think there is filament there. I have been experimenting with just putting the bottom of a cartridge in the bottom of the printer with the switch unplugged and it works as far as making it print. I don’t have anything set up yet for a feed mechanism right now I just have hand fed a bit of plastic for a very small print to test if it could be done.

#7

Scientist, great bit of info. Thanks! That means it might be as easy as ordering some teflon tube, and printing up a spool holder. I thought about re-using the teflon tube in the Zim but I think I’ll leave that in place in case they ever get the cartridge situation sorted out. I’ll get some teflon tube on order and give it a shot.

#8

If you do make sure you ‘unload’ the spool instead of trying to let it just feed the last little bit through the head. I just had to tear my head apart because I tried to let it feed the end of a piece through it and it got jammed. I think its because I don’t have any teflon tube to help guide it the last little way into the extruder. If you find the size of teflon tube that fits can you post that here? I would like to order some as well.

#9

I measured it at 4mm OD x 2.4 mm ID. I ordered some 4mm OD x 2mm ID from amazon here… PTFE tubing. I’ll let you know if it fits the existing press fitting on the head when it arrives.

#10

Also a good place to buy this kind of stuff is McMaster Carr, click below.

#11

I got my spool working. I also ordered some teflon tube which I think will help. I worry that letting the filament run over the top is going have it catch on something and break without the tube. I’m going to print another one with a built in bracket so that I don’t need the clamp and see how that works. I will then upload the files to Thingiverse this evening.

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#12

I posted the files here.

These files are updated to include a bracket that clips onto the back of the zim.

Edit.

Here is a link to directions on reprogramming your cartridges if anyone needs it. (Took me a few minutes to find it so figured I would post it here for others to save them time looking)
https://zeeproks.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000499542-how-to-verify-and-possibly-correct-cartridge-information-

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#13

Looks great! Thanks for posting this!

#14

I can confirm that the 4mm OD x 2mm ID teflon tube previously mentioned works perfectly. I bought the Amazon stuff, but the McMaster-Carr stuff BDub linked is cheaper (how come I never remember to use that place, they have everything!). My rig is is now setup that mounts 1KG full sized spools to the back, and the spool seems to feed just fine.

Here’s the pics…
2x 1Kg spools - Only one tube for testing
2x 1Kg spools - Back view

Edit: After a full day of testing everything appears reliable, and the printer is working as well as I have seen it. Thanks Scientist for the tip on the filament microswitches, works great! I’m not sure what you are finding with your testing the backloader you put together, but my experience so far is loading and unloading is much, much nicer without having to feed the filament through 3’ of tubing with the feed stepper fighting me all the way. Simply push the filament to the extruder, hit prime, and let it grab when ready. Same is true to unload. Takes about half the time, and always works. Really nice. I removed the black plastic skirt (double stickied in) that forces that wiring harness and the original teflon tubes down the back, and the wiring harness now just floats freely without kinking or binding. Thingy-files posted on Thingiverse: Zim 1Kg Spool Holder

Some advantages I’ve found with a direct feed mod:

  1. Filament is 1/4 the cost. More selection to choose from.
  2. You can print 4-5 times more stuff from a single spool.
  3. The loading and unloading of filament is ultra easy and reliable compared to the stock system. No more fighting that feed stepper and 3’ of teflon tubing wound every which way.
  4. The 3rd party PLA appears to print better than the stock stuff. Nice and shiny, smooth finish, and sticks much better to the build platform.
  5. Print completion and reliability substantially improved. No more cartridge jams halfway through a long print!
  6. No fighting to pop open the fragile “refillable” cartridges. These were not designed to be refillable, they are clearly the same as the non-refillable ones, and the experience of trying to refill them substantiates this.

Downsides:

  1. No moisture protection (use a ziplock bag :slight_smile: )
  2. No automatic color or filament tracking (not a big deal, you can just set the values in the cartridge menu, but Zim software limits you to only 200m length).
#15

Hi there! Thanks for your work m8s. This had to be done!

#16

one question! You have two diferente spool holders designs. I assume they both work right? And the botton of the cartridge used does it have to be from a refilable one? Im not sure…

#17

Hi Pedro, there are actually 3 designs for filament management in this post. The first is around trying to use the stock spool sitting on the cartridge back plate. This was still prone to problems with the feed stepper mechanism not grabbing though. The second was a design Scientist put together to eliminate the feed stepper and use the refillable spools off the back. This looks like a great design to eliminate the lower feed stepper and long teflon tube path. The third design was to use non-zeepro spools off the back. They all work, but I think they all require the Zim to think there is a cartridge in there (i.e. they need at least the bottom plate installed in the cartridge area and the lower filament microswitch bypassed). I’m not sure if the current software requires this to be a refillable one. I think I was able to successfully set one of my non-refillables to “refillable” using the cartridge menu. It wouldn’t surprise me if this feature disappears at some point though, since Zeepro would like to sell cartridges. For now I’ve just been using a couple of refillable back plates along with the rear spool feed since that should work for the forseeable future.

#18

Im printing the parts for the rear spool (refilable spools of zeepro). Lets see how it goes. Im a bit afraid of placing 2 KG hanged on the back if the printer. It should hold the weight but i dont want to take unecessary chances. The down side of this config is the reliable will keep on being refiled…But it should be easy enough to refill them when we are only using the spool wide open…For this setup im also using print the base plates for the cartridges.
Ill let everyone know the result. It should take a while to print though… :slight_smile:

#19

Pedro, At this point you can go into the cartridge management and change any of the cartridges that came with the zim to be refillable. Just select refillable in the dropdown and then save. I have done this for several of my cartridges in case this feature disappears in future. I did buy one cartridge off of newegg.com that is a zim cartridge and I will try reprogramming it when its empty and see if its refillable as well or if its only the ones that we got as backers.

One note about buying your teflon tube from McMaster-Carr is that they charge you like $7 for shipping so it ends up more expensive if you have amazon prime (Free shipping) to start with.

#20

Thanks my friend.Im printing the last parts now. One question. Im yet to buy the teflon tube (i saw it on Amazon.co.uk) and is pricing is obscene (in in the EU). Any way, the question is on you setup (holding the original ZP spools in the back (or side it doesnt matter), how are you fixing the teflon tubing? In printer head is easy, what abou the spool? Di you found a creative way of doing so?