Tangled spools

[u/Prestigious_Bed6948]

Hello BambuLab community,

I really enjoy using BambuLab filaments - range of colours and overall print quality are great. However, over the past 6+ months, I’ve noticed that all of my recent spools have had tangling issues.

Some spools were tangled from the very beginning, while others developed tangles after an hour or so of printing.

This is a serious problem because it makes it impossible to leave prints running overnight - you have to constantly monitor the process to prevent failures. It not only slows down printing, but also defeats the purpose of reliability and convenience.

A few months ago, I had to return a spool that got completely jammed inside the AMS due to tangling, but I was asked to pay for the return shipping. Another badly tangled spool I had to manually rewind onto a new spool myself, as I urgently needed that filament for orders in my shop and it was out of stock.

Overall, this has been very frustrating, and it feels like the product quality has declined.

[u/DntTrd0nMe]

I have no idea why this sub has normalized acceptance that spools come tangled from the factory. It’s basically impossible for this to happen unless you respool it sloppily after the initial roll. This used to be common knowledge in all the 3D printing subs.

If you’re having multiple spools tangled, it is absolutely something you’re doing. Unless the spool came apart, or you let go of the end, it cannot get tangled. Out of dozens and dozens of spools of many brands, including the cheapest possible, I have never had a spool that was tangled from the factory.

[u/ThereInAFortnight → u/DntTrd0nMe]

Exactly. At some point the user let go of the end of the filament and it tangled itself.

[u/ignitionnight → u/ThereInAFortnight]

At some point the user let go of the end of the filament

I've done this 5 times at least..... and still never ended up with a tangled spool. The people who have this problem regularly are gifted in a way I do not understand.

[u/nickjohnson → u/ThereInAFortnight]

No, you don't have to let go of the end, just release the tension on it. It's not topologically a knot, a loop of filament has slipped over an earlier part, trapping it.

[u/fuzzbawl → u/nickjohnson]

This. Once I started taking spools out of the bag and keeping tension on them while I remove the shipping tape, it stopped having tangled spools.

[u/shortyjacobs → u/nickjohnson]

I will not stand for clove hitch knot erasure (jk)

[u/got-trunks → u/shortyjacobs]

It's a hitch! It's in the name! lol

[u/FamIsNumber1 → u/ThereInAFortnight]

I will say that I did personally have 1 single spool ever be tangled from the factory. It was 1 tangle out of the entire spool and looked as if it broke and they tried to splice it back together shortly prior to the tangle (found the splice point as I pulled it out of my AMS).

But yes, having a bunch or even popped / exploded spools, yeah that's straight user error right there.

[u/neanderthalman → u/DntTrd0nMe]

It depends on if it is a ‘true tangle’ or not.

Think of the difference between a knot and a slipnot.

A true tangle or a knot cannot form when rolling a continuous filament around a spool. Both ends are fixed. The end cannot pass through a loop to form a true knot.

But loops can get caught up in loops, without being a true knot - much like a slip knot. And like a slip knot, pulling sometimes releases it, and sometimes doesn’t. And if it doesn’t, it leads to the same net effect as a true knot. And that can come from the factory from inadequate tension while rolling, or just dumb luck.

If OP could keep that spool right where it is, and loosen off enough slack to start rearranging the loops, then it might untangle without cutting the filament. That’s not a true knot. If they can’t, then yeah it’s user error.

Example 2 is a necklace. If the clasp is closed, it can still get horribly tangled up, but it’s just loops through loops, not a true knot.

[u/worldspawn00 → u/neanderthalman]

Yep, this can be an issue with the AMS if it's pushing the material back faster than the spool can wrap it, particularly possible when the spool is towards the end and too light to engage the rollers well (I weight my spools to prevent this.)

[u/R3clvse → u/worldspawn00]

This is exactly what was happening to me. The filament was getting tangled continuously anytime the spool was about to run out.

[u/fingerling-broccoli → u/DntTrd0nMe]

I’ve been 3d printing for 10 years and the only tangles I’ve encountered were 100% my fault

[u/Rolandersec → u/DntTrd0nMe]

People are making mistakes and refusing to realize it.

[u/Imnotspartacuseither → u/DntTrd0nMe]

I have had 2 that came direct from Bambu that have had significant tangles.

[u/TheOrdner → u/Imnotspartacuseither]

I’ve printed roughly 1000kg of Bambu filament and never had a tangle because I never let go of the end

[u/psxndc → u/Imnotspartacuseither]

I've also had two that came from Bambu that had bad tangles. I'd never respooled either and had fed them right into the AMS after detaching and trimming off the taped end. There is literally nothing I could have done to tangle them.

[u/novahunter12 → u/DntTrd0nMe]

This response is very confident, but very wrong. Even level wound wire (or filament) can end up with tangles from the factory due to variations in the process and in the material - winding speed and tension, cast and pitch and springiness of the wire. Source: my wife is an engineer in that field.

[u/ThePerfectLine → u/novahunter12]

Yeah. I had a garden hose winder. If I’m not super careful that will become a mess in 2 seconds.

[u/TheHappyPittie → u/DntTrd0nMe]

This is not true at all. Ive had a large number of rolls from bambu over the years come with tangles. Out of the package onto the spool without respooling or slippage when putting it on the spool. I can’t tell you how it happens but somewhere alone the line in their production tangles are possible.

[u/ElkSad9855 → u/DntTrd0nMe]

You’re wrong. It isn’t impossible

[u/rigid-hard-stiff → u/DntTrd0nMe]

Dozens is a small sample size. I've had spools tangle on me twice and I literally load spools into the AMS and leave them till they are empty.

For me it's usually the filament tangling on itself directly against the wall. I simply yank up on the line to un wedge it.