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Hi, I recently built a Rostock Max V2, I feel that I have the actual printer calibrated pretty well ( always room for improvement) But for some reason every time I make a print I get these strange misses.. It's like it just gets off set and the returns back to the right center. I have added a few pics. I am running PLA at 205 deg. but other the the Temp everything else is the same as the recommended SeeMe setting's from the website. Im not too sure how to fix it.

Thank you for your time

check your belt tension

Well I just had to reply to this.... Look at what's printing as I type this.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/SIfz3ua.jpg?1[/img]

Just testing out some HIPS

Sorry, I have no input for your problem :/ I just saw you were printing crystals and I felt connected by some cosmic force.

We can't tell from the photos if the offset is aligned in the direction of one of the 3 towers. I'm betting it is. I'm also betting it's the pulley attached to the stepper on that tower - it needs to be tightened. A skipping belt offsets and rarely returns, a loose pulley offsets, returns, offsets, etc.

regards,
Michael

I just finished tightening all the belts, They were all pretty lose. I am doing a test print now, more crystals, the skew seems to show up better with tall thin objects. I'll post a pic on the finished product. Thanks!

Here is the new print, it still has a slight miss alignment, but as far as I can tell the pulleys are still tight. I am trying out a wall now, its a wall of stones, it has some other issues with it, not so much alignment, as missing sections, almost like slic3r missed parts of the model, I have the same problem anytime I try to print any kind of box ( mostly Tardis's) The back right panels are always missing and it prints a line going down the middle and to the left.

sometimes if the wall is too thin it wont print. how is the shifting now, those crystals look pretty good until higher up. it looks higher than before though

Well the wall finished, it has a line across the middle with very little plastic, and it actually broke in half long ways when I took it off the plate, easy to glue back together though. and it looks stringy.. The crystals worked pretty well for the first 30 or so layers, then one of the back ones is shifted about .5mm to the right, but went back to the original position near the top, and as it went up more of the smaller crystals were shifted to the right, but not all of them. I would have thought the whole model would have shifted of one of the pulleys slipped.

Very strange symptoms indeed! With either a belt or pulley slip, the entire model would be offset not just a part of it. Is the offset aligned with one of your towers? That might give a clue as to where to look.

Also, how is your hot end attached? It might be shifting. That COULD create this problem.

It seems to be between the back Z tower and the right Y? tower. The hot end is just the stock one that came with the kit.

As far as the Tardis box, I'm thinking that its a problem with Slic3r.

So I have printed a couple more crystals at different scales, some bigger, and some smaller then the original. And so far they all are misaligned in the exact same places, so I don't think its the printer.. I am stumped, I ran the model through netfabb and nothing seemed wrong with it, and other people have been able to print it fine.. I'm not sure whats up.

Stingray103 wrote:So I have printed a couple more crystals at different scales, some bigger, and some smaller then the original. And so far they all are misaligned in the exact same places, so I don't think its the printer.. I am stumped, I ran the model through netfabb and nothing seemed wrong with it, and other people have been able to print it fine.. I'm not sure whats up.

thats good to hear, seems like a simple design you should be able to design something similar and produce a good .stl

Could be too little current or overheating of the stepper driver as well. -> Missing steps.

That might be it, though now I cant seem to finish any of the models that I have been printing, as it gets to the top of the models the plastic gets all stringy and brittle, or just stops extruding all together and leaves a mess. Its at the same point regardless of scaling though.. so Im not sure what thats about.

Can you post the g-code for the failed prints? I think the tardis is showing the same issue, the wall fails because of the offset (maybe different things causing more then offset though). Can you rotate it about 45 degrees and try it again? If the same wall fails, it's the sliced code, if the problem stays in the same spot on your onyx, it's something else all together.

Ok so Here is a good example of what has been happening, The model will print great for a while but then towards the top, down to the last few minutes of printing it gets all wispy and crunchy. I have also added the G-code for the cube, and the tardis ( I am going to try rotating it 45deg now ) Im not sure what causes it. Also on a some what related note, sometimes when the cold end is pushing the plastic spool it makes a loud popping sound, and the gear looks like it skips back, and the smaller the model or the tighter the printing is the more it pop's. Its like it is trying to move the same amount of plastic to the hot end, even though it cant use it..

Are you printing in PLA by chance?

g.

Yes its PLA.

It looks like you've got a heat creep problem going on. What happens is that unless the PEEK barrel of the hot end is cooled, the heat from the hot end will "creep" up into that PEEK section. This will cause the PLA to melt MUCH earlier than it should and it will swell and jam in the hot end.

Make sure you've got a PEEK cooling fan & shroud installed and that the fan is operating properly.

g.

Interesting, I have a fan on the PEEK, but not a shroud. I'll give it a try Thanks

I cant seem to print the fan shroud, I guess its a catch 22. I am using some tinfoil to act in its place while I try to print it again. I only have PLA though, so it will have to hold over until I get some ABS.

The fan shroud MUST be printed in ABS or you'll end up with a goopy mess on your hands if you install it and then print something.

g.

Well I cant print it any way, after the 6th layer its just a mess of thin strands. I tried using a stand in shroud to get at least one print done, and its not having it. not really sure what to do about it. The other fan duct for the layer cooling seems to be working well though. it was one of the first things I printed. What is confusing me, is if the problem was the heat creeping up, then why would it only effect the last few layers on more then one model? ( of different heights and sizes ) One model took 4 hours, the other only took 30 minutes, and now the shroud is being effected after 5 minutes of printing.

You might have a partial jam as well.

g.