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

64588 Comments

Anonymous

ChloeNeere (not verified)

on

Thu, 10/16/2025 - 15:48

Many legal bookmakers inhabit in Internet and are managed on the Internet from jurisdictions that are not related to the clients they serve, as usual, to circumvent various laws on gambling (like act on combating illegal gambling via the World Wide Web from 2006 year in USA) in selected markets, like Las Vegas, [url=https://pwadowicki.info.pl/trusted-online-casinos-with-fair-6-2/]https:/... or conducting gambling cruises on their own.- service kiosks.

Anonymous

Brainroter4apold (not verified)

on

Thu, 10/16/2025 - 15:49

Ich liebe die Atmosphare von NV Casino, es erzeugt eine Energie, die suchtig macht. Der Katalog ist reich und vielfaltig, inklusive aufregender Sportwetten. Der Service ist rund um die Uhr verfugbar, immer bereit zu helfen. Die Auszahlungen sind ultraschnell, obwohl regelma?igere Promos waren super. Kurz gesagt, NV Casino ist definitiv empfehlenswert fur Casino-Enthusiasten ! Au?erdem die Navigation ist kinderleicht, was jede Session noch spannender macht.
<a href=https://playnvcasino.de/>playnvcasino.de</a>|

Anonymous

VortexGoalW2apold (not verified)

on

Thu, 10/16/2025 - 17:21

Sou totalmente viciado em BETesporte Casino, oferece um prazer esportivo inigualavel. Ha uma explosao de jogos emocionantes, oferecendo jogos de mesa dinamicos. Eleva a experiencia de jogo. A assistencia e eficiente e amigavel, com suporte rapido e preciso. O processo e simples e direto, de vez em quando mais apostas gratis seriam incriveis. Para finalizar, BETesporte Casino garante diversao constante para jogadores em busca de emocao ! Tambem a plataforma e visualmente impactante, aumenta o prazer de apostar. Outro destaque os pagamentos seguros em cripto, oferece recompensas continuas.
<a href=https://betesporte365.app/>Ir para o site</a>|

Anonymous

JorgePub (not verified)

on

Thu, 10/16/2025 - 18:16

Я думаю, что Вы не правы. Я уверен. Давайте обсудим. Пишите мне в PM, поговорим.
how you noticed any signs of suspicious behavior, we advise visitors resort to the time restriction [url=https://spinrise-casino-canada.com/]spinrise casino[/url], during which you be excluded from promo offers, but simultaneously you can invent whatever remaining personal account.

Anonymous

BernardWed (not verified)

on

Thu, 10/16/2025 - 18:21

Создали официальный канал игрового автомата Sugar Rush 1000, на котором можно найти стратегии тактики и где поиграть в демо режиме и реальные деньги с выводом <a href="https://t.me/SugarRush_x1000/">sugar rush 1000 играть бесплатно</a>

Anonymous

BernardWed (not verified)

on

Thu, 10/16/2025 - 18:32

Создали официальный канал игрового автомата Sugar Rush 1000, на котором можно найти стратегии тактики и где поиграть в демо режиме и реальные деньги с выводом <a href="https://t.me/SugarRush_x1000/">Sugar Rush 1000 на рубли</a>

Anonymous

BernardWed (not verified)

on

Thu, 10/16/2025 - 18:33

Создали официальный канал игрового автомата Sugar Rush 1000, на котором можно найти стратегии тактики и где поиграть в демо режиме и реальные деньги с выводом <a href="https://t.me/SugarRush_x1000/">sugar rush играть демо</a>

Anonymous

JamesGus (not verified)

on

Thu, 10/16/2025 - 18:59

ОПЕРАТОР ОКАЗАЛСЯ ОЧЕНЬ ОТЗЫВЧИВЫЙ! расскажет все что касается его товара! говорит очень вежливо, не чего лишнего! даже когда я засыпал его кучей всяких вопросов он меня не игнорил а старался ответить на все что я его спрашивал!
https://telegra.ph/Starlink-kupit-v-rossii-cena-10-14
Заказываю 2c-I для начала 1 г!!

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.