I'm hoping someone on these forums can help, as I'm fairly new to 3d printing, and I'm not really sure what's wrong. I recently upgraded my CR-10 with an e3d v6 hot end. For the most part it looks like everything is working, but the print quality is particularly poor. Oddly though, the quality seems to suffer more on one side of the print than the others. Overall, it looks like I'm getting poor layer adhesion (horizontally and vertically on the printed object). On one side though, the print lines are particularly pronounced.
If the V6 is installed correctly (E3D WiKi usually has detailed instructions) then the experience of hundreds and hundreds of people is that it works. Problems are so different and varied that it's impossible to say from a brief explanation what the problem could be. For example did you level the bed (if this is a feature of your controller?) did you disturb the alignment of the various axis of the printer? Is the V6 assembled correctly. Is there perhaps play in one direction and not another? It sounds odd that the print quality is worse on one side than the other, this sounds like the bed is sloping one way. I think you are going to have to go through a series of tests to check the mechanical alignment. With the BigBox the WiKi contains detailed instructions during the build, with a final procedure of leveling the bed, a nine point check. Not knowing your printer or controller it is difficult to know what instructions there are and if you build the printer or bought it assembled. If it is ready built then there may not be a procedure to align the whole printer, but at least a few checks will establish if the bed is level. Did you perhaps either alter the printer in some way or change something like the glass plate you print on, or maybe change the coating?
Is your firmware set to use the correct thermistor parameters for the E3Dv6? Otherwise the temperature readings won't be right. Is the nozzle size you are using the same as it was before, and if not, have you re-sliced your model for the new nozzle size? Also bear in mind that the relationship between the thermistor temperature reading and the actual nozzle temperature may not be the same as it was before. So even with the correct thermistor calibration, the ideal indicated temperature for extrusion may not be the same as before. Poor layer adhesion suggests either insufficient extrusion temperature or excessive print cooling.
Obviously I think I've got the hot end assembled and installed correctly, or I would correct that first. The firmware seems a likely culprit, the CR-10 bootloader is locked and I've got the parts required to update it, but I was hoping to limit my changes until I had things worked out with the hotend, it looks like I'll need to go ahead with the update before I proceed. Thanks for the help.