I was getting rid of some spool ends the other day by manually feeding them in while printing. That way I was able to push all these ends past any sensors and into the extruder for uninterrupted printing. It came out fine but was quite tedious.

So this got me thinking: Do any of you guys splice filaments? Not only would this allow for more efficient material use, but I suspect a print made from a bunch of small segments of different colors could look kinda cool.

I’m primarily printing with PETG, so my question is specifically about that, but I’m sure the concept should work for other filaments too.

  • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
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    6 hours ago

    Not completely unnecessary. I have several 95% used tricolor filaments that aren’t wound with the colors in the same orientation so I can’t just feed a replacement in. I’ve tried splicing but it’s been insanely difficult to get them to line up properly while the plastic is still heated.

    • tty5@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      I meant in the context of the post where primary focus seemed to be using up the leftover bits of filament