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.

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filament splicer

53925 Comments

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Still, not everyone is convinced that Disney’s expansion into the Middle East is a sure bet.

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Saadiyat Cultural District in Abu Dhabi is set to become one of the world’s preeminent arts and culture hubs, with one of the highest concentrations of cultural institutions globally. But the area isn’t just for art connoisseurs. Explore what to do in the new district, from iconic museums to luxurious beach days to decadent dining options.
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From runways you can drive across to weird and wonderful airport locations, here are 12 of our favorite out-there runways.

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In Hong Kong, the islet of Chek Lap Kok was massively extended to create an island big enough to house a major international airport.
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From beaches to golf courses: The world’s most unusual airport runways
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When it comes to travel, wherever you are in the world, some things never change. McDonald’s is always McDonald’s. A hotel lobby is always a hotel lobby. An inflight safety demonstration is always a safety demonstration, and an airport runway is an airport runway: a long, clean-lined strip of asphalt free of all external interference; a sterile environment that could be anywhere on the planet.

Or maybe not. Because when it comes to airport runways, once the safety side is taken care of, in a few parts of the world, things get a little inventive. Maybe you’ll land on a manmade island in the middle of the sea. Maybe you’ll wave at golfers on the 18-hole course between the two runways. Or maybe you’ll hit the beach faster than expected — by stepping off the airplane onto the sand.
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From runways you can drive across to weird and wonderful airport locations, here are 12 of our favorite out-there runways.

Barra Airport, Scotland (BRR)
If nothing comes between you and your beach break, then Barra, in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, is your kind of airport. This is the only place in the world where the runway is on the beach itself.

Just one flight route operates here: Loganair’s 140-mile connection with Glasgow, using 19-seater de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft. Pilots heading to Barra — an island just eight miles long — must line up and touch down on Traigh Mhor, a wide bay in the north of the island (if Barra is shaped like a turtle, Traigh Mhor is its neck), landing straight onto the sand. Flights must be timed with the tides to allow as much space to land and take off as possible.

Passengers walk across the beach to the terminal on the other side of the dunes, then get a last bit of sand underfoot as they board the aircraft for the flight back to the mainland. With these conditions, it’s little wonder that flights are canceled with a fair amount of regularity — so you may want to build in extra time before planning onward connections.

But even a delayed return is worth it for avgeeks. On this tiny plane, passengers experience the flight in close proximity to the pilots — when CNN took a spin on the flight in 2019, they could even see the pilot’s GPS instruments from their seat.

Related article
A lead photo of various travel products that can help pass time in airports
CNN Underscored: Flight delayed? These 14 products will help you pass the time at the airport

Hong Kong International Airport (HKG)
In Hong Kong, the islet of Chek Lap Kok was massively extended to create an island big enough to house a major international airport.
In Hong Kong, the islet of Chek Lap Kok was massively extended to create an island big enough to house a major international airport. d3sign/Moment RF/Getty Images
For the busiest cargo airport in the world, you need space. Luckily, Hong Kong created an entire island for its airport which, when it opened, had the world’s largest passenger terminal, too. Built to replace its predecessor (a single runway in crowded Kowloon, which was notorious for its violent turns on take-off and landing), HKG sits over the original islet of Chek Lap Kok, which was quadrupled in size with reclaimed land to house the two-runway airport. President Bill Clinton was among the first foreigners to touch down after the airport opened in 1998.

Located next to Lantau Island, the airport has views for days — the sides of the terminals are largely glass, built to shatter (and therefore preserve the building) during potential typhoons. Even getting there is a treat — the 1.4-mile Tsing Ma bridge, which connects HKG to Ma Wan island, heading towards the city, debuted as the longest road-and-rail suspension bridge in the world.

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