How to Guide: Markforged FX10

Loading a 3D Printing Material Filament Spool into the Markforged FX10

To load a spool, start the workflow on the touchscreen by pressing nozzle A. Press Load Material and then choose the spool bay that you want to load. Then choose the type of material that you’re loading, and then press partial spool, even if it’s a new spool. We do this because each spool comes with a little bit of extra material for purges. So by selecting partial spool, you’re going to get every last cc.

Next you need to weigh the spool, find the end of the filament and cut it at a 45 degree angle. This angle makes it a little bit easier for the extruder to catch the filament.

Then take the desiccant packs that came in the material packaging and put them into the spool bay. Make sure you only use the desiccant packs that came with the fresh spool and make sure you throw away any old ones. We have another guide that explains why this is essential here.

Then you can place the spool into the spool bay and take the end of the filament and feed it into the pre extruder. Then you’ll need to enter the weight of the spool into the workflow on the FX10 and you’ll be asked if you want to Load or Preload material.

This is for the automatic material changeover feature. If you press Load, it’ll load the material straight to the print head. But if you press Preload, it’ll prepare the spool for future use.

In this example it is the first and only spool of material, so we’re going to press Load and the FX10 will detect the filament in the load tube. It will then start to pull the filament in automatically. Then the printer will preheat the nozzle, purge some material, and it’s ready to print.

It’s worth noting that the metal loading process is very similar to this, and we have another guide on loading metal filament spools into the Markforged Metal X here. The Metal X filament loading blog has both video and written step-by-step guides.

What are Continuous Fibres and Continuous Fibre Reinforcement (CFR)?

Now we’ll briefly explain continuous fibres, before looking at how to load them.

For those who don’t know, these “continuous fibres” are for the continuous fibre reinforcement ability that’s unique to Markforged 3D printers. Simply put, this process (CFR) takes a continuous strand of carbon fibre, Kevlar or fibreglass, and carefully irons it into the part, cutting it exactly to measure. With this kind of reinforcement, you can actually 3D print parts that are stronger than aluminium.

There’s a free design guide here on how to 3D print stronger than aluminium with continuous fibres.

At the time of writing (March 2025) the FX10 can print in continuous carbon fibre, and it’s flame-retardant aerospace variant, and more materials are constantly being added.

Loading a Continuous Fibre Spool (Carbon Fibre) into the Markforged FX10

Next let’s load some continuous carbon fibre into the FX10.

On the touchscreen, press nozzle F for fibre and then press Load Material. Then select the type of material you’re loading. In this case we’re using carbon fibre. Choose the type of spool and then press partial spool. Once again, we’re doing this to make sure we get as much fibre as possible from the spool.

Then weigh the fibre and enter the result on the touchscreen, and the FX10 will tell you to close the visor. This is so that it can move the printhead out of the way for us. Then the screen will direct you to open the visor again and start feeding the end of the filament into the load tube.

The fibre extruder will then start pulling the fibre in and take it all the way to the printhead, and the FX10 will then ask you to check that some fibre has been purged from the nozzle properly. When you press Done on the touchscreen, it’ll trim off the excess. Don’t forget to brush this off of the print bed before starting a print.

With that the continuous fibre is loaded, and you can see how much fibre is available on the touch screen on the nozzle.

Starting a Print with the Markforged FX10

Now let’s start a print on the FX10. Using your web browser open the part in Eiger, which is Markforged’s slicing software.

You can learn more about the Eiger software here.

Click Print, select the machine, and click Print Now. And that’s it. The material settings will all be taken care of by the software, and the FX10 will get on with the print.

It’s fast and precise too. The FX10 can print to a layer height of 50 microns, meaning that the layer lines are barely visible on the prints. It also prints significantly faster than its predecessors, and even when compared to other filament printers, it’s on the high end for speed.