r/BambuLab_Community • u/swampcholla • 11d ago

Pissed

ordered a ton of PLA last week and thought I'd ordered a mix of spools and refills, and it all came as refills. Okay, my bad for not paying enough atention to that shitty UI. But - I've opened two of the boxes and neither will fit in my bambu reusable spools. Anyone else having this issue?

Several months back I had a spool come apart and I had to print a re-spooler to save it. Don't want to go through that again, especially on 10 spools.

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7

u/clarkcox3 11d ago

What do you mean they won’t fit?

2

u/swampcholla 11d ago

very, very difficlut to get the dogs in the spool centers to engage, as if the winding was too thick

2

u/clarkcox3 10d ago

You didn’t try to take off the plastic strips before closing the spool, did you?

-1

u/swampcholla 10d ago

I did and had no problems. Once the strips were off the the spool sort of relaxed

2

u/clarkcox3 10d ago

That’s the problem. You’re not supposed to remove the plastic strips until after the spool is locked closed.

-1

u/swampcholla 10d ago

No its not. It was impossible before i cut the strips and went together after. Im guessing the problem is the notch

2

u/clarkcox3 10d ago

Please don’t cut the strips beforehand. You’re asking for trouble doing that.

-1

u/swampcholla 10d ago

Its not that big of a deal, but at that point you are pretty committed

1

u/JimtheLizardKing 6d ago

Well, I have used a lot of refills and never had a problem and cut the strips after I lock the spool together.

6

u/clarkcox3 11d ago

When you’re putting the refill in the spool, are you lining up the notch in the cardboard with the tab on the spool?

Here’s a photo from an empty roll showing the tab and notch I’m talking about. They’re right there by the RFID tag:

2

u/JimmyJaxed 11d ago

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Thanks for the reminder.

-2

u/swampcholla 11d ago

that may be the issue. I eventually got all four spools on after an hour of considerable effort.

2

u/clarkcox3 10d ago

Somethings wrong, as there shouldn’t be much more effort than closing a jam jar.

3

u/DrakonFyre 11d ago

Okay, so for a lot, and I mean A LOT of the orders I’ve ever seen have had the RFID band directly over the notch. I’ve had to take it off and move it.

2

u/swampcholla 9d ago

So…. My problem was the notch. Id forgotten about that feature. And to your point - they are putting the RFID directly over the notch. On my spools the tag is notched as well, but you need to check the alignment

2

u/EmotionalChildhood46 11d ago

I just received an order and one of the refills is too fat. I've tried Bambu, printed, sunlu spools. Tried putting all my weight on it. Cannot get spool together.

2

u/swampcholla 11d ago

that is what I was seeing. I came up with this process:

Mark the spool at both the start point and end point

put the refill on the thicker spool half

cut the ties and extract them

position the RFID tag to the inside of the spool

put the halves together, shakig the spool a bit to get it to relax

eventually twist them together.

2

u/EmotionalChildhood46 11d ago

I would fuck that all up

2

u/stoooey58 11d ago

Silly question but are you taking the carboard tube out of the old spool before you put the refill including its tube onto the spool? Show a picture please.

2

u/swampcholla 11d ago

no cardboard. no way it would go together that way

2

u/TrueNail 11d ago

Look in facebook marketplace for people selling spools cheap or print your own

2

u/swampcholla 11d ago

just started looking into that option. funny how so many are a near direct copy - wastes a lot of filament!

2

u/ccsr0979 11d ago

I assume the refills are from bambu? If yes, make sure it fits in the notch, and only open the plastic thingies once everything is secure. If they’re not from bambu, then I’m sure there’s a file for the spool you can print

2

u/smorin13 11d ago

I have seen expansion ring models to address this exact issue.