Kinder Egg Filament Cleaner
My 3d printer will sometimes goes unused for periods of time (gasp!) I was having some clogging issues and thought that maybe dust could be the cause (the printer shares the mud room with the dog crate, so, you know, dust can be an issue.) My solution was to make a simple filament cleaner using a Kinder Egg capsule that I had lying around (I can’t bring myself to through them out – too handy!) What’s a Kinder Egg you ask? You, like me, must live in the USA. A Kinder Egg is a blissfully delicious hollow egg-shaped chocolate that contains capsule with a a small toy (that usually requires assembly.) This heaven-sent chocolaty goodness isn’t available in the USA because the small parts pose a potential choking hazard. The children in the rest of the world are apparently sophisticated enough not to choke on the small parts, so to get one you (or a friend) has to travel to another country and import them illegally.
Anyway – to make a filament cleaner, drill a 1/8″ hole (for 3mm, smaller for 1.75mm) in the center of both sides of the Kinder capsule (or 35mm film container – dang I miss those) and run your filament through the base. Pack the capsule full of cotton balls, gauze, or other material that isn’t likely to add dust as it wears (probably not anything paper-based) then run the filament through the top and snap it shut. Now your filament should be dust free and your printer should be just a little more happy.
I credit my childhood in the 80s for the idea… the spoke cleaners on my Huffy were the inspiration.
You could do a similar thing with one of those plastic Easter eggs that people use to put candy in when they hide them around the yard for kids which are freely available in the US. Cool idea!
Hadn’t thought of that! Very good idea.
This is so smart. I can’t get the eggs to do this though because they are illegal in the USA and they don’t sell them here. 🙁
You could use a 35mm film capsule or as Graham mentioned, a plastic Easter egg should also work.