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Hi, this is a general 3d printing question so I hope it’s ok to post.

I have a Bambu A1 so printing with rolls of filaments. I have bought a load of spools from Bambu and then a bunch from a variety of sellers on Amazon and regardless of brand I seem to get lots of tangles on my spool. By which I mean the filament seems to have been wound in such a way that the layers overlap meaning that the printer can’t extrude as it can’t turn the spool.

Is this fairly common or am I having bad luck? I can’t see how it’s something I’m doing and every brand insists that their spools are carefully wound but every other print seems to have this issue.

I've had it once (using just Elegoo FDM) in ~17 months of printing so it does sound like a bit of bad luck.

I haven't had that problem with the super-neatly rolled spools. I had some cheaper spools that didn't have that level of control and I had some problems with tangles.

I have also made a few mistakes by not controlling the loose end of the filament on the spool when changing between colours, and it becoming tangled. I always make sure to take care disengaging the spool from the machine, feed the loose end into a holder (or clip it to the side of the spool) to prevent this.

I haven't had that issue yet but I've seen recommendations to respool them. There are systems to do it but it can also be done with just a pair of holders for the spools (like rods between pieces of wood, nothing fancy).

And supposedly it's better to do it twice to prevent microfractions from changed tension from a different position on the spool.

Haven't had it once in 5+ years of printing. I buy Elegoo, Anycubic, Sunlu and they're all perfect wound every time.