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

54244 Comments

Anonymous

ThelmaKic (not verified)

on

Fri, 09/26/2025 - 15:13

[url=https://fastloansup.com/]loans company[/url] is a fast and hassle-free way to secure the funds you need. With a simple application process, you can get loans online from the comfort of your home, avoiding lengthy paperwork. Online lenders offer competitive rates and quick approvals, ensuring you receive the money promptly. Experience the convenience and efficiency of getting loans online and meet your financial needs with ease.

Anonymous

Melindafrits (not verified)

on

Fri, 09/26/2025 - 15:15

[url=https://fastloansup.com/]get cash loan[/url] is a fast and hassle-free way to secure the funds you need. With a simple application process, you can get loans online from the comfort of your home, avoiding lengthy paperwork. Online lenders offer competitive rates and quick approvals, ensuring you receive the money promptly. Experience the convenience and efficiency of getting loans online and meet your financial needs with ease.

Anonymous

JuliusSmoke (not verified)

on

Fri, 09/26/2025 - 15:37

Входи на Kraken marketplace innovative resource обеспечивающая highest privacy пользователей proven partner для wide комплекса options для private operations простота access к services и flexibility в настройках confidentiality инновационные технологии обеспечивают эффективную security data special опции для guarantee приватности позволяют безопасно делать operations центр сотрудничества for users дает tools чтобы improvement horizons interaction tools направлены with the aim повышение privacy каждого operation вне зависимости regardless of потребностей пользователь will provide modern solutions для protection вашей приватности служит доверенным проводником по world privacy кто дает возможность develop без issues
<a href=https://fundacionrafanadal.org/>kraken darknet</a>

Anonymous

RobertFag (not verified)

on

Fri, 09/26/2025 - 15:48

Салон оставил самые приятные впечатления. Все чисто, удобно, круто, девушки настоящие красавицы. Получил море эмоций и полное расслабление. Крайне советую, проститутка цена Новосибирск - <a href=https://sibirki3.vip/>https://sibirki3.vip/</a>. Получил море удовольствия, спасибо большое.

Anonymous

glimmerfizzytoa... (not verified)

on

Fri, 09/26/2025 - 16:51

Acho simplesmente estelar BetorSpin Casino, parece uma explosao cosmica de adrenalina. Tem uma chuva de meteoros de jogos de cassino irados, com caca-niqueis de cassino modernos e hipnotizantes. Os agentes do cassino sao rapidos como um foguete estelar, garantindo suporte de cassino direto e sem buracos negros. O processo do cassino e limpo e sem turbulencia cosmica, as vezes mais recompensas no cassino seriam um diferencial astronomico. No fim das contas, BetorSpin Casino e o point perfeito pros fas de cassino para os amantes de cassinos online! De bonus o site do cassino e uma obra-prima de estilo estelar, torna a experiencia de cassino uma viagem espacial.
<a href=https://www.pelhamsolicitors.com/descobrindo-as-probabilidades-no-betors... app baixar</a>|

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.