Filament Splicing Clamp and Angle Cutter Guide

prusaprinters

<p>If you do any reasonable amount of 3D printing you will accumulate short pieces of filament from the ends of rolls.&nbsp; The pieces will be too short for another print job but too long to throw out.&nbsp;This filament splicer jig allows pieces of ABS and other material to be rejoined into useful lengths and/or rearranged for interesting colored patterns in printed objects.</p><p>Print the “Filament_Splicer.stl” platter that includes the Cutter Guide.&nbsp; Clean out the hinge holes using a 3/16” (5mm) drill for the base and a 7/32” (5.5mm) drill for the two top pieces.&nbsp; Cut a section of 3/16” (5mm) dowel the length of the base for the hinge pin and press it into place connecting the base and the two top pieces.&nbsp; If the dowel is loose in the base, a drop of glue on the end of the dowel should hold it in place nicely.&nbsp; A pair of binder clips will be used for the clamps.&nbsp; Clean out the filament holes in the Cutter Guide using a 1/8” (3.2mm) drill for the 3mm hole and a 5/64” (2mm) drill for the 1.75mm hole.&nbsp; (If you have a numbered drill set or a metric set that could be a better option).</p><p>Using the “Cutter Guide” a controlled 75 degree cut can be made in the end of the filament piece. &nbsp;When splicing, it’s useful to rotate the filament so the natural curl from the roll will tend to hold the cut faces together.&nbsp; Cut the ends of the two pieces to be joined.&nbsp; A single edge razor blade is used for cutting.&nbsp; It may be useful to tap the razor blade through the filament using a piece of wood or a mallet.</p><p>Slide the filament into the clamp with the cut faces lined up and clamp with the binder clips.&nbsp; Then using a toothpick add a drop of acetone to the joint.&nbsp; Flip the clamp over and add a drop to the other side.&nbsp; Let the splice set while the joint fuses and dries.&nbsp;</p><p>Note:&nbsp; The spliced joint won’t be as strong as a continuous piece of Filament so take care when handling a spliced piece.&nbsp; The splices do feed through the extruder nicely.</p><p>Note: I’ve only tested the splicer with 3mm ABS, but it should also work well with 1.75mm ABS and other materials.</p><p>This design is also posted on Thingiverse:</p><p><a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1052283">https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1052283</a><a href="#_msocom_1">[D1]</a>&nbsp;</p><p>Some of the comments from Thingiverse indicate that you can splice PETG using Toluene, Acetone doesn’t work for PLA, and that you can fuse any kind of filament using a lighter after a bit of practice.</p><p>One last comment about switching filament during a print:</p><p>I’ve replaced the extruder on the hand built Delta printer with a “Zesty Nimble”.&nbsp; This allows for a light weight direct filament drive at the hot end using a remote stepping motor.</p><p><a href="https://zesty.tech/">https://zesty.tech/</a></p><p>After a “panic” watching the last of the filament from the spool start to disappear into the extruder I found that the square cut end of the next spool could be manually inserted and continue feeding without a skip. &nbsp;But, you have to be quick to track the movements of the Delta hot end.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>