Filament Splicer

Project cancelled, click here to read why
The idea for Filament Splicer was born about a month after our Ultimaker 3D Printer was build. As cool as 3D Printing is, printing in one color is boring.

Users of normal, single head FFF/FDM printers are stuck with single color unless they join filament pieces together to produce one multi-colored string. It is not very complicated but process is quite awkward and you will get fed up very quickly.

If you want to have proper, stable filament join you need to have right temperature on the tip of plastic when you connect pieces together. This is hard to achieve when you use some arbitrary heat source. You either underheat or overheat and burn the plastic. Using print head of your printer is best 'ad-hoc' solution but it leaves quite a mess on it, you cannot print when you splice and plastic which is in the head slowly gets burned while you take time to splice your string.

Then, of course there is issue with forming of the joint, carpet knife and fingers where our favorite tools for that job but it took quite a long time to form each joint.

We have had our share of failed prints due to broken joints / stuck filament and finally decided to create a device which will help to splice filament. Initial idea was to create fully automated unit: you place filament ends on copper block, close it, push the button and viola - you have your joint. That was the theory.... In practice this is impossible because PLA and ABS expand during heat-up and contract during cool down, this results in either no joint at all or bubble-filled mess.

Many headache filled days [Even best PLA is really nasty stuff when you breath it in for a while] later we dropped the idea and went for 'open' model with precisely manufactured grooves which help to quickly heat up, connect and form joints.

Thermal insulation was another challenge, we wanted to allow up to 260c temperature but nothing could properly insulate enclosure from hot copper block for prolonged period of time. Ceramic fiber thermal tape can take that heat but one needs a lot of it and then there is itching... Chinese tape is horrible and even best branded, made in USA [ThermoTec] tape is not flawless. We eventually gave up on ceramic fibre and went with PFTA [Teflon] plates. Since PFTA can be outright poisonous at high temperatures, we decided to use high quality - made in Europe material - this way we are sure that maximum temperature of 235c is well within safety limit.

Availability

Filament splicer can be pre-ordered via our campaign on Indiegogo, it is available as a DIY kit or fully assembled unit.

 

Assembled
Assembled
Kit
Kit

 

Open Source

Filament splicer blueprints are released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License and can be downloaded from Thingiverse and Youmagine.

Tags: 
projects
filament splicer

50783 Comments

Anonymous

Jimmytip (not verified)

on

Mon, 09/15/2025 - 04:19

best canadian pharmacy online <a href=" https://clients1.google.sc/url?q=https://truenorthpharm.com ">pet meds without vet prescription canada</a> and canadian neighbor pharmacy <a href=" http://la-maison-des-amis.com/user/uxhqsbzyac/ ">safe reliable canadian pharmacy</a>
https://images.google.ml/url?sa=t&url=https://truenorthpharm.com canadian drugs or https://www.news-adhoc.com/author/jrfygnwmyl/ northwest pharmacy canada
[url=https://images.google.ro/url?q=https://truenorthpharm.com]best canadian online pharmacy[/url] best canadian pharmacy or [url=https://voicebyjosh.com/user/bbvqbebitz/]canadian pharmacy ltd[/url] pharmacies in canada that ship to the us

Anonymous

fizzylightningo... (not verified)

on

Mon, 09/15/2025 - 04:27

Adoro o swing de BacanaPlay Casino, oferece uma aventura de cassino que pulsa como um tamborim. A gama do cassino e simplesmente um sambodromo de prazeres, incluindo jogos de mesa de cassino com um toque de folia. O atendimento ao cliente do cassino e uma rainha de bateria, dando solucoes na hora e com precisao. As transacoes do cassino sao simples como um passo de samba, de vez em quando queria mais promocoes de cassino que botam pra quebrar. Resumindo, BacanaPlay Casino e um cassino online que e uma folia sem fim para os folioes do cassino! E mais a plataforma do cassino brilha com um visual que e puro samba, faz voce querer voltar ao cassino como num desfile sem fim.
<a href=https://vredu.fi/como-a-teoria-da-probabilidade-molda-o-bacanaplay-casin... safety</a>|

Anonymous

sparklyzanyigua... (not verified)

on

Mon, 09/15/2025 - 04:27

Acho simplesmente intergalactico Bet558 Casino, da uma energia de cassino que e puro pulsar estelar. A selecao de titulos do cassino e um buraco negro de diversao, oferecendo sessoes de cassino ao vivo que reluzem como supernovas. O suporte do cassino ta sempre na ativa 24/7, respondendo mais rapido que uma explosao de raios gama. As transacoes do cassino sao simples como uma orbita, porem mais giros gratis no cassino seria uma loucura cosmica. Em resumo, Bet558 Casino e um cassino online que e uma galaxia de diversao para os astronautas do cassino! De bonus o site do cassino e uma obra-prima de estilo estelar, adiciona um toque de brilho estelar ao cassino.
<a href=https://plenita.ro/jogue-no-bet558-casino-a-plataforma-que-une-diversao-... reclame aqui</a>|

Anonymous

RichardBaide (not verified)

on

Mon, 09/15/2025 - 04:40

<a href=https://www.colabinc.com>блэкспрут не работает</a> blacksprut блэкспрут black sprut блэк спрут blacksprut вход блэкспрут ссылка blacksprut ссылка blacksprut onion блэкспрут сайт блэкспрут вход блэкспрут онион блэкспрут дакрнет blacksprut darknet blacksprut сайт блэкспрут зеркало blacksprut зеркало black sprout blacksprut com зеркало блэкспрут не работает blacksprut зеркала как зайти на blacksprut

Anonymous

RichardBaide (not verified)

on

Mon, 09/15/2025 - 06:06

Мега даркнет Мега сайт Мега онион Мега ссылка Mega даркнет Mega сайт Mega онион Mega ссылка Mega darknet Mega onion

Pages

Add your comment

More information about text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.