Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Comments on How to calculate remaining volume of a wire spool

Parent

How to calculate remaining volume of a wire spool

+3
−0

There are a bunch of rolls of 3d filament at my library in various degrees of emptiness/fullness. When I pick one I need to know that it likely has enough remaining for my print job.

How can I calculate the (approximate) volume remaining of a spooled wire, given the diameter of the core/center of the spool (nonusable area) the original diameter of the spool when it was full, and the diameter of the material currently remaining on the spool?

If I'm looking for a percentile answer then I doubt the width of the spool comes into play, but they're aboue 2.5 inches wide.

If the core is 4 inches and there's currently 6 of material where there were originally 8, I know that it's not 50% empty, because each layer is larger than the next.

The filament is 1.75mm, but it might be easier to assume that its infinitely thin, or a liquid somehow evenly attracted to the spool core.

I do imagine the diameter of the filament and the way it's packed (square, or hexagonal/staggered) might impact a little do if I was trying to calculate length, but I'm hoping not for volume.

I found this answer: https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/a/19038 but I put it into a spreadsheet and it doesn't look right at all:

PctRemaining=(100*((CurrentDiameter-EmptyDiameter)/(FullDiameter-EmptyDiameter)))^2

So what's the right way to solve this?

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

0 comment threads

Post
+0
−0

After I wrote up the question, I think the answer just hit me.

Calculate the area of three circles: (was going to say cylindars, but I don't think that axis matters) a) the minimum/empty diameter b) the maximum/full diameter c) the current media diameter

Then: b-a = the starting area of media c-a = current area of media

current area / starting area = % remaining.

For an 8 inch diameter spool with a 4 inch core: graph showing material remaining for given empthy depth

The smaller the core, the more pronounced the curve. If the core is 1000 inches, then it looks almost straight, as I'd expect.

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

1 comment thread

What the heck? (2 comments)
What the heck?
re89j‭ wrote about 2 years ago

I made a sheet to run this formula and it's telling me that an 8 inch spool with 4 inch core and 6" material diameter is 50% full. That can not be. it must be less than 50% right? Since the outer two inches are larger rings than the inner two..... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14c3QMKsYymeF2pOgkD-gRrLjOw05nVl0PbpAW39DTNA/edit#gid=0

re89j‭ wrote about 2 years ago · edited about 2 years ago

https://search.brave.com/search?q=area+of+a+circle

Look at that. the helpful snippet on the right of that search result page is incorrect. 2 pi r sounds like circumference to me not area. Pr^2 is area I think...

Yup, that was it. The spreadsheet finally looks plausible.