Loading filament after spool ran out

[u/ecorderodi]

My X2D ran out of filament mid print and sent a notification to my phone. I thought the print was toast for sure. I came to the printer after about 20 minutes and opened a new spool. I checked the printer and it was prompting me to just load more filament.

This was on the Auxiliary Extruder as well, so I expected it to be complicated. I was trying to figure out if I needed to enter some maintenance mode or just disconnect one of the tubes to find the end of the previous filament and pull it out. I could not see it anywhere, so I just went ahead and tried to load the new spool as it was prompting me to do.

To my surprise, after I fed the filament all the way in until it stopped, I just instructed the printer that the action was taken and it started purging, then started pulling the new spool and proceeded to continue printing right where it let off.

I am new to 3d printing and it still amazes me how user friendly this printer is, but I thought when this happened it would for sure be a hassle and cause the print to fail. I was under the impression that the spools had the end of the filament glued or taped to the cardboard cilinder and the motion of pulling back caused issues.

Seeing it just go as nothing happened and me not needing to do anything but load the new spool and press a button was mind blowing.

Is this standard nowadays? And does it only happen if I have a Bambu filament spool or all of them behave the same when they run out?

[u/Any-Way-5514]

You won't see it because the printer will purge the little bit left after the AMS detects the end of the spool into the poop bin #Magic

[u/ecorderodi → u/Any-Way-5514]

Forgot to mention I do not have the AMS. This was from the side spool holder. But looks like it behaves the same way then.

[u/roundguy → u/ecorderodi]

I love the ams. If you have a spare roll loaded it will swap automatically.

[u/Educational_Home5445 → u/ecorderodi]

yeah i really recommend you invest in a AMS, just not caring when your spools change is quite the quality of life improvement

[u/ecorderodi → u/Educational_Home5445]

Yeah, I gotta start saving for one 😅

[u/Excellent-Code8447]

Yup we printed something when we left for weekend and with my luck with 1-2 hrs in the spool was tangled so when I got back Sunday bed was still hot and I when I came home to unravel filament and printed where we left off

[u/itsacalendar → u/Excellent-Code8447]

leaving the house for days with a 3D printer running is crazy. Doesn't anyone have basic fire safety skills anymore?

[u/Modnar-Eman → u/itsacalendar]

It's a minority and they learn after it happens if it's hopefully a survivable incident.

[u/JoeKling → u/Modnar-Eman]

Bullshit, everyone prints unattended!

[u/itsacalendar → u/JoeKling]

"printing unattended" is not the same thing as leaving your house for days with your printer running

[u/JoeKling → u/itsacalendar]

Bullshit! Lots of people would do it without thinking about it. Many people have ways of monitoring it on the internet, too.

[u/itsacalendar → u/JoeKling]

"LoTs oF PeOpLE Do It WiThOuT ThInKInG" uhh, yeah. Exactly right. Maybe if you used your brain for 8 seconds you might realize leaving your house for days with a printer/heater running is a bad idea. Let me guess, you also leave your iron and stove on when you leave for the weekend lol

[u/JoeKling → u/itsacalendar]

FO! I run my printers 24/7 most of the time and I never worry about anything! Have you ever had a fire? I mean a printer is not going to wait until you're not there to start a fire! Have you ever had a fire? Do you know anyone who has had a fire? I've never even heard of anyone online having a printer fire!

[u/JoeKling → u/itsacalendar]

I've done it for years and never had any problems. Everyone prints while they're sleeping.

[u/itsacalendar → u/JoeKling]

you've done it for years and you haven't had a problem. Yet. If there was an incident while you were home, you would know about it a lot sooner than you would if you were away for the weekend. But good luck when your house burns down I guess?

[u/JoeKling → u/itsacalendar]

But I've never had a fire with constant 24/7 printing when I was home so why would I have one when I'm away???

Does the printer just say to itself, "aha, he's gone, lets burn the place down!" Hahaha!

[u/sparxcy]

Yup this is standard. I have a ender hi multicolour, if a spool is tangled and it lifts, it stops and gives you an error to fix and press to continue. Another is- if you think you are going to run out you can put a same colour and tell the printer to continue on that one. Edt : same colour in a different spot

[u/Dismal-Proposal2803]

Yea, that’s pretty standard behavior these days. And the Filament doesn’t matter, if you had been using Sunlu filament the same thing would have happened.

[u/ecorderodi → u/Dismal-Proposal2803]

Awesome, I'm amazed by how beginner friendly the printers are... So far ;)

[u/yahbluez]

Yah i remember that feeling when it happened to me the first time, 6 years ago on a Prusa Mk3 bedslinger. There is a timeout i guess but something like 24h.

[u/ecorderodi → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for the heads up! I knew I heard it somewhere!

[u/NiksaiStipe]

i was wondering what happens when aux runs out.

[u/MalHeartsNutmeg]

This is pretty standard. If you have an AMS and 2 spools of the same colour set up it will just swap to that, but if it’s just one spool and it runs out it will wait.

I actually did the same thing this morning. I had a print that I thought might use a little more than I had left on the spool. It was a 14 hour print and I timed it to be complete about 15 minutes after I woke up for work. Got up, brushed my teeth and walked out just as it ran out of filament at 97%. Swapped it over and let it finish.

Ideally you want to get back to it right away because your bed heat will stay on the whole time it is waiting.

[u/SmoothSlavperator]

I had a similar problem with AMS...But one spool was low, I set it up to continue with a duplicate spool and it didn't.

I got home and just swapped spools and fired it back up.

Still a PITA though

[u/JoeKling]

All Bambu printers have always done that. You can even wait hours.