This is a head scratcher. My prints have been going downhill recently. At first I just wrote it off to the cheap Chinese filament I get off e-bay for $9 a roll. But then I bought some (theoretically) good stuff – (eSun + PLA) and it actually got worse.
I have rechecked all the basics, frame is square, extruding right, 20 mm cube does okay. I will get a good a print then a terrible print.
(Note at the very beginning of the video, the green part is cheap stuff AND ok, the grey is the expensive the stuff. Now the green would do this as well but it is getting worse every day. )
Hi
How was the print oriented on your print bed?
If the opening and the cleanly printed side were oriented in the x direction, then Y axis could possibly be your problem.
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I often neglect to wipe down my Y axis rods because they are somewhat difficult to clean.
After cleaning my Y rods, my prints usually improve quite a bit.
I will say that I normally print using other materials, but I have seen slightly sticky situation on your Y rods.
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Just a thought.
Yeah knowing how the print is sitting on the bed really narrows down where to look in terms of issues. It could be one of your leadscrews is loose. What happens with that is the setscrews in the upper or lower section of the coupler loosen but not enough that the leadscrew isn’t still turning, just enough that it can slip over the duration of the print. Auto leveling checks the start correctly, but as you go up layers, the left side gets a full turn to go up, the right side only turns 15/16ths of a turn. By the time you get to the top, one side is squished up.
it could also be cooling. if you have one of the two cooling fans fail, you may only be recieveing part cooling on one side of the fillament. The symptom of that would usually be that the inside of the “good” section of the part would be messed up, while the inside section of the “bad” part of the part would match the quality of the good side. Other things could be point heat sources, like a computer sitting next to the bed blowing hot exhaust on one side of the part. it could also be related to lifting. if the heated bed has a partial failure, it could be that its not holding the PLA on one side, and lifting due to contraction. PLA is much, much less prone to that than ABS, but it isn’t out of the realm of the possible.
It could also be model wierdness. It’s unlikely since you are experiancing the issue on multiple parts, but if you want to PM me a link to that section of the cockpit if you don’t want to post it, I can take a look at it and see if it slices odd for some reason.
Another possibility that you shouldn’t be seeing yet is an electrical short in the motor, heater cartridge or thermistor lines. the symptom there are really really really hard to nail down, but what basically happens is that as the print head reaches full X maxiumum, it looses connectivity with the control box and cools down briefly, or looses one of the motor coil pairs and the print head looses force. That issue is usually intermittant, and it happened to me once, and I had a hell of a time trying to figure it out.
It could also be gummed up bearings or other sort of glitch.
Thats about normal from the rod setup. You can improve it a bit possibly by loosening the bearing mounts and shifting them either up or down, the goal being to bring the side of the bearings into better contact with either the inside or outside rod surface, prefferably the outer surface to improve the distance between points of contact, but its a small enough variance it shouldn’t matter.
Thanks so much for getting back to me! I just got back from the flying field. One printed plane flew and the other would not so I am 1 for 1 on that front!
I am sunburned and whooped now but first thing in the morning I am going to go over all your suggestions.
I want you to both to know how much I really appreciate your time and effort and writing up replies.
I think I found it. Well, a local Taz 5 owner who is not on the forums told me about this and it either solved my problem OR just happened to improve after I did this.
So as we know the extruder assembly has one screw up top. With the metal inset you can only get it so tight so the extruder head pivots on the screw.
Now my Taz 5 buddy said he put a piece of two faced carpet tape behind his extruder to eliminate the slop but I did not have any of that. So I used every rednecks best friend, duct tape! I wrapped it over the edges so it would be an interference fit. I actually have to put some downward pressure (not a lot) on the extruder head to get the screw hole to line up
2 faced carpet tape is not all created equal.
I use lots of it and over the years I’ve learned to purchase carpet tape that has a cloth embedded in it.
Home Depot stores do have it, but you will need to chose wisely.
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If your duct tape solution keeps working, That would be a Good Thing.
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The correct use of Carpet tape, in my opinion, will solve many situations that Duct Tape can’t quite make it.
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Thanks to yourself and your friend.
