Loading the filament

Vertex 3D Printer Vertex - Issues while printing
1

I don’t know which forum part I was suppose to put this in, so I put it here.

I have issues loading the filament, the part where I’m suppose to push it in by hand for a fem centimeters, I’ve done it a total of 2 times both taking 30-60 minutes. One of the times I had to disassemble the part where the filament goes in to even get it in there… I can’t imagine it’s suppose to be THIS hard changing filament. I’ve heard that I could change that angle of the plastic and that would help, but it hasn’t for me. Any other tips you guys have? I haven’t found alot on this subject if I google.

2

Well, as I just had to recover from yet another blocked nozzle, I’ll tell you how I feed in the filament.

  • I get a glue clamp & clamp that on the manual lever & the thumb rest above it.

  • Next, I cut a clean angle on the filament, so that it will help to find the entry to the filement guide tube

  • I then take a small thin pen to help me find the entry

That tends to work well for me.

As far as the instruction in the Velleman guide goes, to do with your hands only - I don’t know … but I don’t really think that is possible. :slight_smile:

Hope this helps.

Harry D.

3

[quote=“Harry_D”] to do with your hands only - I don’t know … but I don’t really think that is possible. :slight_smile:
[/quote]I’m always doing it that way… Press the lever, push the filament just past the hobbed bolt, then release a bit the lever and keep pushing the filament and it will easily find the hole and climb into the tube. If you can’t achieve this then perhaps your hobbed bold isn’t well positioned on the motor shaft.

4

I would suggest you find a new one to print at Thingiverse.
The original is really not very good.

5

Sorry this is completely off-topic but…

In this super old thread that I didn’t want to necro you solved my problem. I’ve been trying everything, going completely nuts, but I changed the cable and now everything looks ok (y-axis shift)
Just wanted to say thank you and couldn’t find a way to PM.

6

[quote=“Martorias”]Just wanted to say thank you and couldn’t find a way to PM.[/quote]There’s no way to PM.
Glad it could help and you’re welcome :).

7

Raby, that sounds quite good, actually. I’ll give that a go, next time.

I can gather, that by gradually releasing, you’d be bending the tip of the filament back to the entry point. Never thought of trying that. Worth a shot!

8

As I was mounting my second extruder I noticed I had a much easier time fitting the filament, so I went back to the old extruder that has been giving me some problems and I noticed that the buttomleft screw wasn’t screwed in fully and that was most likely causing problems.

It didn’t want to screw in either but I put a washer on it and pushed it as tight as I could and after that I just did what Raby told, pushed it in past the hobbed bolt and after that i released the lever. Before I hold the lever in the entire time, with this I was able to load the filament in just a few tries! Hopefully this won’t give me problems again next time I want to switch filament.

9

Most people assume you need to press the lever all the time you feed in the filament.

You don’t. You press it initially to get past the hobbed wheel, then release the lever and keep pushing (yes, it’s stiff). If you assembled it correctly, it should find the hole first time, every time.