The system needed to melt down and extrude the reminder of the last batch before moving on to the new spools.

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It works like a tape, except that there are no moving spools.

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In the case of ours, the square was red and green -- the plastic in our own spools, meanwhile, was white and black.

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Spools of concertina wire top the 10-foot fences that surround the camp, where workers eat under the bright lights of a mess hall, 20 days on, 10 days off.

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H. stands a table littered with dozens of boxes, each containing different parts of a fly-fishing reel: discs of stainless steel, screws, brake shoes, anodized aluminum frames and spools.

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"I just want to give it a try and see what happens, " he said in an interview last week in a home studio littered with spools of thread and bags of fabric.

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Next up, you'll be pulling the plastic filaments up from the spools, through two tubes and into holes at the top of the Stepstruder's head, holding it there for a few seconds, until the device's motor begins tugging at the strip.

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Rather impressively, just like its little brother, the CubeX relies on cartridges instead of spools for dispensing plastic -- either ABS or PLA. 3D Systems even calls them "smart cartridges" since it can distinguish between the two plastics and adjust the properties accordingly.

ENGADGET

After a few months, the canvases disappeared, though it was unclear to Vivian whether someone had finally bought them or Shelly had just thrown them into the Dumpster behind the ribbon warehouse to be carted away along with the giant spools of badly dyed grosgrain.

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