2024-01-07 - filament cleaners

since many years i'm using a simple method to reduce nozzle logs – cotton pads to clean the filament. the idea is simple: use cotton pad, ~loosely tide with a zip-tie.

despite it's obvious simplicity it works astonishingly well! this is how example cotton pad looks like after processing 1kg spool of filament.

despite i always cover my printer with a sheet when unused, and keep filaments in bags, when on shelve, there's still surprising amount of dirt captured. if not for the cotton, it'd all go to 0.4mm nozzle and clog it in no time.

all good – can't complain about results. solution is super cheap, too even tough you need a new cotton pad and zip-tie for each filament. i was wondering how does it compare to commercial filament cleaners, though.

some time ago i was doing some shopping online, and was missing like 1 EUR for a free shipping. so i decided to buy a commercial cleaner and give it a shot.

the nice part is that you can wash it every now and then and re-use multiple times. there are however 2 drawbacks.

1. it needs to be mounted before filament goes into the tube.
2. it is super-high friction.

ad.1 well – i tend to forget things, and installing a filament, just to realize that it needs to be removed again, to mount the cleaner was not great. this is however not a big thing, as over time i'd likely get used to it.

ad.2 however is a real pain. compared to cotton pad that's basically 0-friction, the commercial solution actually required some real force to move around. the problem is clear – this puts extra strain on extruder, that needs to be overcome. in my case the difference was large enough i needed to tighten a filament-pressing screw, because at high speeds i filament could get stuck. grinding filament with extruder was not a good choice, as it offered less uniform filament diameter when entering nozzle.

the long story short – after truing it out, i'm definitely staying with cotton pads!

for some more 3D printing tips, see my 3D printing 101.