Hello Big Box friends, Please help me solve this problem! I've been unable to get any prints off my machine for weeks due to slipping in the y-axis that occurs randomly throughout prints. See pic for an example. The printer makes an awful sound anytime this happens, and is not solved by running super slow print speeds or adjusting belt tension. Does anyone know what causes this? Is there an easy fix? I'm stumped. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Things to check: Stepper driver voltage Pulley is not slipping on shaft or on stepper motor Pulley not rubbing on stepper motor mount and sticking Y-axis rods are parallel and motion is free and easy
@mike01hu printing PLA at 60mm/s, 220C, with a 0.6mm nozzle. Printer seems to be doing ok with small models, but anything that takes over 1 or 2 hours to print is doomed to fail from this sort of glitch.
I know it's like watching paint dry, but when I have had that type of problem I sat and watched for the failure to occur and in most cases the issue became obvious. In this case, I would look for ooze/pickup build-up on the nozzle that then drops, cools and causes a collision, a problem that I had with CF filament. I asked myself why only the Y axis but I saw that the long X transition along a curve was less likely to drip than the shorter Y transit and that was where the hang-up occurred on the next pass i.e. displacing the Y. A combination of retraction and Z lift usually worked but I am hoping that the block-socks are going to solve those problems.
Check you pulleys and grub screws are in tight, preferably with thread lock. Also if it's 1-2 hours in check the drivers have the fan pointed at them and they are tuned correctly and not over heating
That an impressive looking failure you got there! I'm with Pierce - check the grub screws and loctite them ALL
I 'third' what @Pierce said, I had exactly that problem - https://forum.e3d-online.com/index.php?threads/sudden-jump-and-then-prints-in-the-wrong-place.1851/ Turned out that the grub screw just needed to be tightened.
Been a while since I've been in the forums, but thank you for your advice, @mike01hu! I followed your advice and, after some hours of observation, managed to fix the problem by leveling the table the printer is on before leveling the printer itself and tramming the print bed to make sure the height sensor isn't in danger of colliding with a large print while it's printing. Been working fine ever since!
