If you don't have a fancy-schmancy printer that tracks filament usage and warns you if you don't have enough filament left on the currently-loaded spool to complete the print, this is how you know. You can even double-check while it's printing, like I do in this video.
This is why you should always keep a kitchen scale and one empty spool of all the filament brands you use.
Low tech but useful. I figured I'd share.
10 Comments
dhork@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y
But if you know how much filament you have, it takes all the fun out of playing Filament Chicken....
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 1y
You can also use the scale to see when a roll of filament is done drying.
ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 1y
How much weight difference do you see? Do you simply wait for the weight to stop changing?
Good thinking. I didn't think about that.
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 1y
I just check it every hour or two and stop drying when it stops getting lighter. I usually see an 8-10g drop after drying a new 1kg spool of PETG.
ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org · 4 pts · 1y
Interesting. I'll have to try the reverse experiment: I have a roll of TPE that's been drying in the dryer for at least 3 weeks. I'll take it out and see how fast it'll reabsorbs water.
CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Very cool idea! Please share your results once you have done it :)
technomad@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 1y
That's a great tip, thanks for sharing!
p1mrx@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y
It would be useful to have an "empty spool database" where people post a photo+weight of their empty spool, plus some fancy way to search by image.
Edit: https://github.com/jtrmal/spoolz looks like a partial solution.
Thavron@lemmy.ca · -4 pts · 1y
I'm sorry but is this really a tip? To find out how much filament you have, you weigh it? Who'd have thought.
ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org · 5 pts · 1y
Yes, it's obvious. But maybe it's useful to those who didn't think about it? Sometimes the most obvious things are the easiest to miss.
I'm sorry you feel so negative about it.