Uncover the sustainable idea and historical past of the Grasp Spool 3D Printer Filament answer with the Professionals at MatterHackers.
Up to date on October 27, 2023
by
Alec Richter
Filament and not using a spool? Why are we making this?
The quick reply: as a result of the group desires it. We had sufficient questions, feedback and loads of tweets asking if we had plans to select up the Grasp Spool idea. Seeing the response and curiosity inside the group made it clear to us: we would have liked to carry this concept to the States. With a joint effort between MatterHackers and Village Plastics, now you can buy Grasp Spool refills from inside the US.
What’s the Grasp Spool?
Earlier in January, Richard Horne, who goes by RichRap inside the 3D printing group, launched Model 1 of his spool idea. Whereas this wasn’t the primary printable spool that you could possibly discover on-line and obtain, it was the primary that was designed with a selected intent in thoughts: to scale back plastic waste from the leftover spools after printing. “Cut back, Reuse, Recycle” not solely refers to how one can scale back the influence of plastic utilization, but in addition the order that helps scale back it probably the most. By eliminating the plastic spool, we scale back how a lot plastic is being created and the vitality that’s put into its creation, creating an answer that’s higher for the atmosphere than most conventional strategies.
What are the advantages of the Grasp Spool?
Not solely is there the good thing about decreasing plastic waste, utilizing a Grasp Spool will additionally reduces delivery prices for brand new spools, and limits the litter from amassing of an enormous assortment of used or empty spools. Slightly than throwing away, making an attempt to recycle dozens of spools, or making an attempt to provide you with a technique to reuse them in some (just like the Spool Device), utilizing the Grasp Spool means you should utilize all these filament scraps you’ve got laying round on one thing helpful and have one spool for your whole filament.
How do I take advantage of it?
If you obtain your filament coil, DO NOT REMOVE THE TIES. There’s a mixture of zip ties and twist ties that maintain collectively the filament coil, and if these are eliminated earlier than the coil is correctly secured on the spool, you’ll have a tangled mess worse than Christmas lights in your fingers.
The very first thing you could do is print out a Grasp Spool. Whether or not you might be utilizing the Richrap, MatterHackers, or Village Plastic spool, this refill will match on it, however the setup shall be barely totally different.
In case you are utilizing a Village Plastics Grasp Spool, you have to to print two of the 1kg spool halves. Every half is precisely the identical so you should utilize the identical Gcode twice. The spool design is 200mm in diameter, so your printer might want to have a construct plate no less than that giant. It doesn’t want helps and layer top, infill, and materials don’t actually matter. After we printed our first set, we used 0.3mm layers, 10% infill, and PLA and that one labored very well.
The 2 spool halves insert into one another in a single spot, after which twists clockwise to lock them collectively. Take a look at placing them collectively earlier than you strive placing the coil on.
MatterHackers 1kg Spools
The refill packs that we offer are 1kg as an alternative of the earlier 850 gram spools most customers are conversant in. Subsequently, we got here up with a extra sturdy design for the 1kg spools that may deal with the extra materials with out getting pinched within the 850g spools. You will discover the brand new, bigger, 1kg Grasp Spool design right here.
As soon as you’re feeling snug with the spool, take your coil and discover the top of the filament within the heart. It will thread by way of a gap within the channel within the heart of the spool, with a smaller gap for 1.75mm filament and the bigger gap for 3mm filament. Make sure that to string it right through, because the coil comes with the top pre-bent so you understand how far to insert it.
When you’ve finished that, slide the coil onto the one half, slide the opposite half by way of it, twist, and lock them collectively. Take the outer finish of the filament and stick it by way of on of the units of holes on the outer rim (one set is sized for 1.75mm filament and the opposite is sized for 3mm filament).
Solely when you’ve finished which are you able to take away the twist ties or zip ties. Fastidiously untwist the ties and use a set of flush cutters to take away the zip ties. When you’ve finished that, congratulations! You’re able to print utilizing your new, refillable Grasp Spool and filament coils.
When you ever wish to change filament, you should utilize reusable zip ties and slide them across the the coil utilizing the holes within the facet of the spool to make it simpler to information it round. As soon as it held again collectively, merely unscrew it, take away the coil, and insert the brand new filament and preserve printing!
When you’ve received the approach down, it’s very easy to swap out totally different filaments or totally different colours.
Get began utilizing the Grasp Spool and print yours at the moment!
Glad printing!
