May 9, 2020

Filament Joiner

This is a filament joiner tool. I’ve been splicing partial rolls of filament together by hand for years but just finally got around to making an alignment tool to help in the process.  This is a modified version of a manipulator I originally made for an ROV which I also used on the Robotic Arm I made. Basically this tool helps keep the filament aligned and helps press the two ends together after melting the ends.

 

These are what the internal parts and mechanism look like…

…and this is a quick GIF showning how it functions.

To splce the filament together I start but squaring up the ends with a filament cutter.

Next the two ends are clamped in the fingers and secured with the thumbs screws.

A quick alignment check is them completed. (It’s not always a perfect alignment but much like horseshoes and hand grenades … close enough counts.)

The splicing process consists of melting the two ends with a lighter (a soldering iron also works) and then turning the knob to press the two melted ends together.

The spice is pretty rough at this point…

But using a small rotary tool to clean up the splice is pretty quick.

I use this small rechargeable one. You have to use a low speed tool so it doesn’t heat up the joint to much which will cause it to come apart.

Here is the finished splice.

Another thing I want to add is a small center clamp to ensure a good joint. For now as a test I just drilled a hole in a pair of pliers.

It worked but it’s hard to hold the pliers centered so it’s not hard to move the joint off center. I will eventually add another mechanism to the mix to hold and center a clamp to the joiner.

Overall this method works well and I haven’t had any problems “Yet”… but it’s not foolproof so I wouldn’t recommend using a spliced roll on a long or important print.

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