How To: Untangle Filament // Filament Guide

It has happened to us all - tangled filament! Alec is here to show you sure-fire ways to help you eliminate tangled spools and keep those 3D prints running full-time.

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[jjfrenzy]

Factory never tangles a spool of filament my a**

[Grim]

Somebody doesn't understand the difference between a knot and a tangle, I got a few rolls of crappy abs that have snags almost every layer so I was looking for a clever way of rerolling it, not sure why this video was at the top of my search.

[creamofbotulismsoup]

Filament CAN be tangled right from the factory, you may think it's not possible until you seen it first hand and had to either completely re-roll it, return it or gave up and threw it in the trash. Thankfully this has only happened to me once though there had to be at least 50 tangles when I re-rolled onto an empty spool(it was past the return window), once that was done it printed fine with no further issues. Though it is worth mentioning that this was the cheapest roll I have ever purchased, from a company that no longer seems to exist, can't imagine why...

[eitanskital]

tried the fix it doesnt work. (at least for me) it just doesnt get to the point it untangles

[scooting_turtle]

this video was a life changing video, i wasted almost $40 worth of filament then i reached it and found this video. i did this to all my roles, no more issues

[nerdyviews]

Just took 2 minutes to fix this problem on a current print that I've been babying for the past 2 hours! Thanks! Super helpful information!

[I-l-l-l-l-l]

So the guy at the factory can't also make this mistake...ever?

[joseamirandavelez]

This works well when you have a tangle in a new roll. you need to be able to pass the loops over the rim of the spool. If you are at the end of the spool, though, its quite difficult to make those loops wide enough to go over the rim...

[colincampbell]

Well, I can only go by what I've seen Myself? I had brand new sealed up in plastic spools from a good well known maker and
I cut away the vacuum sealed plastic and right away see there is a bad knotted up tangled filament spool even before I have taken off the end to cut the bent bit.

The amount of spools I have brought after the years that have had already fully tangled up knotted filament on is amazing!

I not even undone them and they are already tangled, so you can't blame me for the filament being tangled.

The daft thing is, some of the cheapest filament I have bought from little known companies are the ones I found as the most 100% perfect wound spools and these are half the cost of the fancy filament companies did. And yes that idea he stated as to unwind the filament and then when holding the filament section near the spool end and letting that loose bit to un-wind does not work?

In fact I had that loose end lot end up re-knotting up and getting totally tangled up such that I can't un-tangle it, I have to cut that section off to try to un-tangle it?
It just has so much tension in it, that it goes mad and tangles up into a knot as you are holding it to try to un-tangle it?

Even turning and twisting the tangled cut of length has no chance to fix it. It is beyond un-tangling. It just ties up more as you try to get around the tension and twisting filament.

I got so fed up by it, I no will print out a spool to spool re-spooling set up to move under tension one full spool to a empty one. Very few spools of filament even new ones are well wound.

[jasongrove]

As soon as I saw the hat I knew this guy would be able to help

[tiny]

I just had to throw away yet another 1kg spool a filament due to factory tangles. The spool was not salvageable due to the entire roll being horribly tangled. It was better to throw it away to prevent printer damage/wear & tear. Factory may not be able to create a actual knot, but filament can be purchased with tangles. I found it worth the extra $s to purchase tangle-free filament.

[SunnyDaysRFun]

I'm bran new to the 3d printing world, 5 days now. All of a sudden printing stops because of a tangle, errrr three times now on the same project. Not knowing what causing the tangle. So I started my 4th print attempt on the same item, every 15 minutes I catch it starting to tangle and save it, so after doing this for almost 3hrs on a 7 hr print job I catch this video on how to untangle while printing, THANK YOU, you saved the day, it worked!!!! Can I just throw you a whole bunch of money? I wish I could LOL

[halliwaxbasementbuilds]

Thank you for explaining, had 3 fails.. 18 hour print.. first night was 4 hours in, started again second night it worked until 8 hours in.. and last night 16 hours in it tangled again.. this video helped explain what I did wrong. Thank you!

[DenisMartin]

A knot and a tangle are two very different things. I mean what?1 Anyway, anytime there is loss of tension during the winding process there is a risk of tangling. So the video explanation is bull.

[micah]

2:30 for quick answer. Thanks for your help!!

[s_ckem]

You just saved me 20 dollars. Thank you so much :)

[darrellwertz]

Excellent information... fix worked on a current run and saved me a lot of grief.

[Lucyfer_E.]

3:18 i have misshandled my filament and made various tangles, how am i sure i took all of them out? is there any way to know?

[strube]

Oh cool a company that sells spools of filament putting out a video trying to convince people that it's not possible for a spools to come from the factory with tangled filament despite the experiences of numerous consumers. Carry on

[eyalyonai]

hi im having the same problem i tried doing it but it was still tangaled just in a different place. ive done this 7 times and i still have some tangles on my spool. can it happen from the factory?