<p>I can easily see spending more of your time value trying to fix this than the cost of a replacement spool of even premium filament -- so be aware that tossing the filament and buying another spool is a legitimate solution.</p>
<p>That said, it's likely the damage is confined to the outer few layers, so it may be possible to use a sharp knife (utility knife, for instance) to cut through a few layers of filament, peel off what's cut, and find undamaged material underneath.  Whether that will solve your feeding issue is questionable, but it may be worth spending a few minutes with a utility knife to find out if there's any good filament left on the spool.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-08T15:41:18.277Z
I've already spent more time than it's worth trying to fix this, so as much as anything I'm trying to work out if I can do better next time. So far, I've just been snapping the filament and unwinding it until it breaks, but I like the idea of using a Stanley knife to get deeper quicker. As for the feeding issue, I might ask another question about that later, but I suspect thats a 'lowest bidder' problem, and I should just pay more than bargain basement prices for filament. *8')
Mark Booth
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-07T13:18:23.287Z
2024-11-07T13:18:23.287Z
Zeiss Ikon
<h4>The problem</h4>
<p>We recently bought some PETG filament, but made a mistake when putting one spool in the dryer, and ended up melting the spool a little (it was sat on the bottom of the filament dryer rather than suspended on a roller in the middle of the dryer). The first time we tried to print with it, the filament snapped as it was stuck to adjacent filament on the spool.</p>
<h4>What I tried</h4>
<p>With filament near the melted part of the spool fused together, I forced the end free and that let me unwind it most of the way around the spool, until the filament got close to the melt again, when the filament broke rather again than separating from the adjacent loop of filament. Separating that by hand again, I continued trying to manually de-spool the filament, but the filament kept breaking, usually near the melt.</p>
<p>I thought that if I could de-spool enough filament, it might start freeing up, but even after removing 2 or 3 complete layers, the filament is still breaking. It did go from breaking every loop, to sometimes going 5 or 6 loops before breaking, but it still seems to be break eventually.</p>
<h4>Where do I go from here?</h4>
<p>Is it worth trying to save this 1kg spool? If not, we've lost almost a whole kg of filament, but even if we do, we'll always worry that it will be be unreliable and break while printing.</p>
<p>I understand that PETG is more liable to breaking when it's not dry, but I'm reticent to put this spool back in the dryer, for fear of making things worse. If it's the only way to stand a chance of recovering it, it's probably worth the risk.</p>
<p>Note that even a fresh new spool of this manufacturers filament exhibited a little sticking of the filament to adjacent loops on the spool, but not enough to prevent the filament from separating from the spool when the AMS lite pulled on it.</p>
<p>That combined with the problems we've been having with the filament tangling towards the end of another spool from this manufacturer (a one hour print took two hours last night with all the &quot;Please check if the spool or filament is stuck&quot; errors I had to correct) does make us doubt the quality of this filament.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-07T15:01:24.043Z
How large is this spool of filament as you already had to throw 1 kg away? If it is a 10 kg spool I can image you want to save it, but if it's a 2 kg spool I'd ditch the whole spool (even if for hobby, if for business I wouldn't even start to untangle it). An economy spool of PETG from a premium supplier would mean a 50 euro investment against a lot of frustration to unspool it. Can you add a photo of the spool and the deformations?
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-08T15:34:34.630Z
I don't think the AMS lite supports 10kg spools @Oscar, but I've updated my question to be more clear.
Mark Booth
<filament><petg>
Can I recover a spool of PETG that seems to be melted together?
Mark Booth
# Can I recover a spool of PETG that seems to be melted together?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-11-07)

#### The problem

We recently bought some PETG filament, but made a mistake when putting one spool in the dryer, and ended up melting the spool a little (it was sat on the bottom of the filament dryer rather than suspended on a roller in the middle of the dryer). The first time we tried to print with it, the filament snapped as it was stuck to adjacent filament on the spool.

#### What I tried

With filament near the melted part of the spool fused together, I forced the end free and that let me unwind it most of the way around the spool, until the filament got close to the melt again, when the filament broke rather again than separating from the adjacent loop of filament. Separating that by hand again, I continued trying to manually de-spool the filament, but the filament kept breaking, usually near the melt.

I thought that if I could de-spool enough filament, it might start freeing up, but even after removing 2 or 3 complete layers, the filament is still breaking. It did go from breaking every loop, to sometimes going 5 or 6 loops before breaking, but it still seems to be break eventually.

#### Where do I go from here?

Is it worth trying to save this 1kg spool? If not, we've lost almost a whole kg of filament, but even if we do, we'll always worry that it will be be unreliable and break while printing.

I understand that PETG is more liable to breaking when it's not dry, but I'm reticent to put this spool back in the dryer, for fear of making things worse. If it's the only way to stand a chance of recovering it, it's probably worth the risk.

Note that even a fresh new spool of this manufacturers filament exhibited a little sticking of the filament to adjacent loops on the spool, but not enough to prevent the filament from separating from the spool when the AMS lite pulled on it.

That combined with the problems we've been having with the filament tangling towards the end of another spool from this manufacturer (a one hour print took two hours last night with all the "Please check if the spool or filament is stuck" errors I had to correct) does make us doubt the quality of this filament.

**Tags:** filament, petg

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: How large is this spool of filament as you already had to throw 1 kg away? If it is a 10 kg spool I can image you want to save it, but if it's a 2 kg spool I'd ditch the whole spool (even if for hobby, if for business I wouldn't even start to untangle it). An economy spool of PETG from a premium supplier would mean a 50 euro investment against a lot of frustration to unspool it. Can you add a photo of the spool and the deformations?  
> **username_0**: I don't think the AMS lite supports 10kg spools @Oscar, but I've updated my question to be more clear.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2024-11-07. Score: 4

I can easily see spending more of your time value trying to fix this than the cost of a replacement spool of even premium filament -- so be aware that tossing the filament and buying another spool is a legitimate solution.

That said, it's likely the damage is confined to the outer few layers, so it may be possible to use a sharp knife (utility knife, for instance) to cut through a few layers of filament, peel off what's cut, and find undamaged material underneath. Whether that will solve your feeding issue is questionable, but it may be worth spending a few minutes with a utility knife to find out if there's any good filament left on the spool.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I've already spent more time than it's worth trying to fix this, so as much as anything I'm trying to work out if I can do better next time. So far, I've just been snapping the filament and unwinding it until it breaks, but I like the idea of using a Stanley knife to get deeper quicker. As for the feeding issue, I might ask another question about that later, but I suspect thats a 'lowest bidder' problem, and I should just pay more than bargain basement prices for filament. *8')  

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