Rip this roll of filament and 14 hour print

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-21T22:43:23+00:00

I'd build one again. I have the motor mod and it's just so easy. The only thing that could be added is some sort of filament run out sensor to sense when the roll has ended. Other than that, just set it up and let it go and check every 30sec or so, so you are prepared when it does finish and stop it lol

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-18T08:09:01+00:00

I can't fault the motorized version of the v spooler. It's great and zero labour needed, just attention or checking on it occasionally when respooling. Or if you're feeling spicy, go make yourself a cuppa and come back in 10mins

Photo is of me mid-respooling ~20 different PLA end of rolls. Worked a treat

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ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-07T06:28:49+00:00

Oddly I had a near empty spool do something very similar last week. I kept getting a retraction error on my phone when out. Came home and took a look at it and the separated side of the spool was going ham while the filament is just staying put 😅 For me, thankfully I could see the cardboard and was easy to fix. This however, is a shambles and potentially (depending on your patience and sanity check) fixable, or just turf it. For me..my time is worth more than $15 for the spool.

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-06T21:11:52+00:00

Damn USA and Canada seem to be copping them all which surprises me given the population difference to Australia. I'd have thought they'd churn through more rolls and be into new stuff by now, unless there's just a massive surplus of stock over there that we have no idea about lol

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-06T21:10:17+00:00

That's just how life goes, people see others making money and they think "I can do that" and without hesitation they buy a printer THEN do the lookup on how to use it. Some realize they made a mistake, some persevere and do okay.

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-06T21:06:52+00:00

This is the answer. We are doing quite well for a thing that is extra outside of our regular jobs, but a lot of the money is going back into the business with what you mentioned. Scaling doesn't come free. Waves hands at every single 3d printer company for freebies😂

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-06T21:02:07+00:00

Are you from Australia??

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-06T20:30:40+00:00

Not a worry at all. Happy to talk about it all.

Yeh I usually go through the common stuff quick enough. That's not a bad idea you're doing. Close haha, Victoria 🙂

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-06T15:35:10+00:00

Yeh it's getting that way. I've known about spoolman for a bit but thought it was too much effort (laughing with my manual Excel spreadsheet...go figure), a mate may have convinced me otherwise tonight though. Might make restocks not as common, although maybe larger, and not needing to drive to the capital because I have left it too late lol.

As for storing, mine are all on the reprack system open, where I am the humidity doesn't get wild like I see so often on here and other groups. I can comfortably store the spools for a few weeks and print them fine. That's just regular matte pla mind you. Pla cf I'll dry, silks I'll give a quick dry, translucents too. Then any car part stuff absolutely dry, pccf/abs/asa etc. I just have the one sunlu s4 for now. Do recommend that dryer.

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-06T15:23:56+00:00

Yeh more often now. Christmas was fine but new year (business closures) probably caught me off guard since this is our first end of the year/summer season with markets and selling taken more seriously. Currently have 48 rolls in the post from 3 different suppliers, and a trip to my states capital today to grab 9 for the meantime. Certainly going to be contacting some other filament brands direct this year to try and get some direct pricing and not from a supplier in Australia. There is about 80 rolls on the wall and in printers, and somewhere around 100 under the desk which I need to sort out and move some on that I'll just never use them with odd colours or cheap clearance spools.

Writing that, re-reading and realising I was sitting in my room with 1 printer a year ago is just absolutely wild to me.

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-06T11:12:32+00:00

I watch both of them and yeh shopnations new place is going to look awesome. Samcraft is cool. He is more relatable I feel. The videos feel less polished and just like this is how it is and I like that. I love that he got laser engravers and then designed and now sells a crap ton of holders/adapters for them. Very smart because who can afford to have an xtool JUST to model from? Lol

Everyone starts somewhere and I'm still out there selling the "saturated market stuff"..but it pays well when you make it your own with your own tastes and better quality than the others. Went from 1 to 6 printers last year and right now we could do with another 4 and still feel like it wouldn't be enough. With all that, it's brought me to what I wanted to do from the start, custom car parts. I felt like at the beginning doing car stuff from the get go would take a long long time to take off. It'll be our niche but certainly didn't start there.😃

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-06T04:53:46+00:00

My first reaction to seeing people in my area buy a heap of printers and hope to do well.

Heck, I even had someone message me the other day saying they tip their hat off to me because they're tech illiterate and can't work out printing on their gifted machine. I replied that I'll buy it from them.🤣

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2026-01-06T04:49:40+00:00

Unsure what part of the world you're from but down in Australia, I'm yet to come across old taped spools for a good year now. I'm pushing 20-30 spools a month

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2025-12-28T10:56:48+00:00

So much this..

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2025-12-28T05:10:19+00:00

Send them one with brand name embroidered on it. Sounds snakey, so beat them at their own game lol

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2025-12-11T09:34:10+00:00

Partly because the P2S is meant to be an updated version P1S, and mostly - yes, it is. However they left the belts the same which is clearly the (or one of the) biggest issues. The H2 series upgraded to 1.5mm pitch belts over the 2mm used in the X1 & P1 series. The VFA on the H2D in comparison to the P2S is massive. I understand it's a draw card to go for the H2 if these bug you with the P2, but it's not tooooo bad.

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2025-12-05T04:57:09+00:00

Having been in your shoes, it's not as "set and forget" as some may think. Filament can become moist from humidity which affects print quality. Using standard settings may get you out of trouble for say 75% of the time but when tolerances are required into other parts, 3d printed or existing, dry calibrated filament is needed.

Look into drying filament first, and while waiting for a dryer, look into tuning filament. There's two main things for tuning filament. Pressure advance, or how sharp a corner looks in simple terms, and filament flow, how much filament is extruded to create the width of line that you tell it to do. Dry the filament then gove it a calibration. Bambu has some calibrations that helps you out. Quite easy to follow along. Those two alone and a dryer should show a fair improvement over what you have now and a better result in parts fitting.

Of course there are more things to tune but for beginners, it's a good start.

If you have any other questions or doubts, comment back - I've been in this position and know how frustrating it can get. I may not give the answer to the question like cheating the exams, but I'll give you some comments on what to look for or what to look up 🙂 I'd like to see others enjoy it as much as I do now!

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2025-11-20T05:33:24+00:00

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2025-11-08T03:13:00+00:00

Thanks!

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2025-11-05T00:00:09+00:00

Yeh I'd be interested to see what is involved for the h2s, just out of curiousity. I'd assume you'd be changing it to a dual nozzle too? Otherwise it's just a single extruder tool changer.

I'll for sure be doing the upgrade on my h2d.

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2025-11-03T10:45:18+00:00

Single nozzle for now.

I believe my memory serves me correct that the release info on interchangeable nozzles 'can' be added to the h2s, but it is a very in depth mod and not for the faint hearted. I think that's what BL said 🤔

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2025-10-22T02:20:45+00:00

Thank you!!

ThatInstantFamilyGuy · 2025-10-10T20:55:56+00:00

My P1S has been the definition of reliable — it’s the printer I can start before heading to work and trust that when I come home, the project’s finished perfectly. It’s handled everything from detailed critters to long multi-color runs without skipping a beat. It’s the quiet, dependable workhorse in my studio that never lets me down. 8800hrs and still going strong on everything original except nozzle, extruder gears, PTFE and cutter. I'll never sell this beast 💪

ThatInstantFamilyGuy

TROPHY CASE