2.1 Load filament on the Polar3D printer

For a video demonstation, see:

Polar 3D youtube video: WWBD - Plate and Filament Installation

1.

Swing out the spool holder arm from the back (see Figure 1.2) of the Polar3D printer.

2.

Unwrap the spool of filament and place it onto the spool holder; see Figure 2.1.

3.

Find the end of the string of filament.

4.

Snip off the end of the filament – perhaps an inch or two – with a pair of scissors or wire clippers to get a good, clean end to feed into the printer (especially if the end is kinked, or melted, or blobby); see Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: Snip end of filament

5.

Feed the filament through the filament guide (the hole at the top of the Polar3D printer); see Figure 2.1.

6.

Stick the end of the filament into the filament feed hole at the top of the print head. The “feel” of this takes a bit of getting used to: when sticking the filament into the feed, you must push past some initial resistance: you must push the filament in far enough to engage with the filament drive gear inside the print head, and then down past that into the throat of the extruder. The Polar 3D support site has a clip of this process:

Polar 3D support document “Loading and Unloading Filament”

Note that if you cannot seem to get the filament past the resistance at the filament drive gear and properly engaged, it may be that a bit of old filament has stuck, hardened up, in the filament drive gear. (And since Polar3D printers get a sample print performed at the factory – see for instance the yellow “Benchy” boat object pictured in the shipping box in Figure 1.1 – your new printer could have a bit of filament hardened up in its filament drive gear.) In this case, heat up the extruder as discussed in step 7 and then again try inserting the filament, manually feeding it through the filament drive gear (and perhaps pushing out a now-melting blob of old filament).²

7.

Check that the filament is properly inserted and engaged with the filament drive gear as follows:

(a)

From your device (phone, tablet, computer), connect to the printer’s local IP address to access the printer’s local web interface. (If your local network permits access from the Internet back to your printer’s local IP address, you may instead conveniently access the printer local web interface and perform such settings while within the Polar Cloud. From the Polar Cloud main menu, expand the left-hand menu and click on “PRINTERS”, then click on the image of the printer you are loading with filament; this will take you to the printer’s dashboard screen. At that printer dashboard screen, click on the “LOCAL UI” button (gear icon) at the upper right, to navigate to the printer’s local web interface; see Figure 2.3.)

Figure 2.3: Polar Cloud printer dashboard LOCAL UI button

At the printer local web interface, click on the “Controls” tab from the vertical menu on the right (Figure 2.4) to get to the “Manual Printer Controls” screen (Figure 2.5). At the “Manual Printer Controls” screen, enter a temperature of 185°C and click the “SET” button; see Figure 2.5.

Figure 2.4: Printer local web interface Controls tab

Figure 2.5: Manual Printer Controls screen: set the temperature

(b)

Once the extruder has warmed up, which you can see on the Manual Printer Controls screen just underneath where you set the desired temperature, on that same screen click the “Extrude 1mm” button several times, to extrude a few millimeters of filament.

(c)

Note that if the printer already had a bit of filament in the extruder – and the Polar3D printers get a test print performed at the factory so even a brand-new printer may have a bit of filament in the extruder – you may see molten plastic leaking out as the printer heats up, even before you tell it to extrude filament. But you want to see the printer feeding in and extruding your filament – the filament you just loaded. Seeing a string of your filament get extruded as now molten plastic confirms that your filament is properly loaded, and you’re ready to print!