Installed some bling chasing better z-axis layer alignment. The new parts do look nice, but at this point I think I'm chasing ghosts

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨IMALlama@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨3dprinting@lemmy.world⁩

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/6a71a78a-86da-4ae9-8fe4-e8d633cf9172.jpeg

While I acknowledge the expectations Ellis tries to set, all the youtubers out there have me chasing a dragon looking for better and better layer aliment on my z-axis. I suspect (at least) one of you will come out of the woodwork and say your printer has better aligned layers than mine too 😭 I’m certainly not alone, but even in that thread you can find some people claiming that not everyone experiences the issue

So far, I’ve been through three iterations on my CW2:

BMG gears with a grub screw
BMG Integrated Drive Gear Assembly (IDGA). Press fit gear = no more grub screw
FYSETC CNC Pom w/ Helical gears, since evidently the BMG gears can still be somewhat offset

Results below with me hand holding my cellphone and moving a Pixar style desk lamp to be at a progressively steeper angle to the face of the cubes. Left = FYSTEC Pom (I also used Orcaslicer), middle = BMG IDGA, right = ‘normal’ BMGs. Note that the cubes are upside down.

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At this point, I am going to shrug, give up, and print with fuzz (or avoid harsh light).

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Comments

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seathru@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
That’s pretty rough. A bone stock Ender 3 does better than that.

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- IMALlama@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This makes me sad. The center and left cube are pretty solid in person until you get direct overhead light on them.
  
  I just added another photo to the OP with a more diffused light sourced. It makes all three parts look pretty good.
  
  I do kind of wonder if this is a compromised based on speed. I wouldn’t say I’m going fast, but I am running 110 perimeters and 3k accelerations. Maybe I should print a slower cube.
  
  Other ideas are welcome :)
  
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  - seathru@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It may be a trick of the lighting. The picture you added looks much better. But I wouldn’t think you would be able to see that kind of errors just from light.
    
    I’ll dig out some old prints tomorrow and see what they look like under a direct harsh light source. I say old because as soon as I started modding my printer, the quality went to shit. I may be able to print TPU and ABS now, but it definitely doesn’t look as good as before I started messing with it.
    
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  - ShepherdPie@midwest.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You sure this isn’t some sort of flow issue? The z-axis should be judged based on measurements of the cube if I’m not mistaken (20mm cube = 20mm) while the look of the print is dependent on speed/flow/layer height/plastic quality. The extrusion looks pretty inconsistent, and I see a ton of ringing even without anything immediately near by to cause it (you can see it across the entire width below the little slashes from corner to corner).
    
    I dunno what firmware you’re using, but with klipper, resonance compensation and input shaping can help eliminate things like this.
    
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JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Extrusion variance and bad tolerance filament will also exhibit the exact same looking issues, not just poor Z alignment.

Just to be sure, you have z-hop disabled? That can cause all kinds of issues if the gantry isn’t absolutely perfect.
Another thing would be making sure all variable line width printing options are disabled, I.e ones that try to fill gaps with thicker lines or print thinner lines faster to stretch the filament.
And finally, melt temperature oscillations, making sure every feature - outer/inner walls and infill - are printed at the exact same, slower, speed.

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- IMALlama@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Extrusion variance is one of the reasons why I was focusing on my extruder. I’ll have to try a different brand of filament though. I’ve been printing more or less exclusively in Pokymaker ASA. It’s cheap, and prints well enough, but I can’t find tolerance info on it.
  
  Z-hop is not disabled, I’ll have to give that a shot. This is a Voron 2.4, which has geared and belted Z. I’ll have to do the math to see what the actual resolution per full step is later tonight.
  
  I’ve given the gantry a once over twice now and everything seems square/right and moves freely.
  
  Right now I’m thinking my order of attack will be:
  
  Try a print in atomic filament PETG since I trust the quality of that filament to reduce one variable
  
  Check belt tension all around
  
  Run through Ellis’s tuning guide
  
  Input shaper
  
  Print a cube in vase mode (I have a bunch)
  
  Disable thin walls
  
  Disable z-hop
  
  Reduce (or eliminate) micro steps
  
  Slow down velocity and reduce accelerations
  
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  - JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Start by checking if you have TMC drivers and if they have Stealthchop enabled, it can also cause these types of issues. Especially for the extruder motor.
    
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B0rax@feddit.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Are you sure you are looking at the right things to improve? Did you check all the screws on the gantry and toolhead? Is your tap (if you use it) solid?

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- IMALlama@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Not at all, that’s part of the reason for this post. I did give all the screws a once over and everything is nice and tight. The tool head was completely rebuilt between the first and second cubes. I’m on team kicky and it’s been pretty reliable/repeatable.
  
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  - B0rax@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Does your x-axis have any play at all? Try to pull forward/backward on your (cold!!) nozzle lightly and see if it moves, it should not.
    
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Damage@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
That sure does look blingy!

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HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Nothing in that picture looks accurate

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- IMALlama@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  What do you mean? The quality of the cubes themselves or the surface finish? There is a bit of skin defect going on and it looks like OrcaSlicer introduced some corner rounding about 1/3 of the way up the blue cube. I still need to run input shaper, but the prints don’t seem that bad? Maybe my standards are low s because of the absolutely appalling quality of my old I3 clone.
  
  This is also intentionally pretty harsh lighting. I just added the OP to add a photo with more diffuse lighting and all three prints look way more like what you’ll find on the web.
  
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  - HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The inserts are poorly inserted and into oblonged holes, and the print w quality looks poor
    
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tagginator@utter.online [bot] ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
New Lemmy Post: Installed some bling chasing better z-axis layer alignment. The new parts do look nice, but at this point I think I'm chasing ghosts (https://lemmy.world/post/13244323)
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