The sides of objects I print are not perpendicular to the bed but instead slope about 5 degrees from normal. They are tilted along the y axis direction. I carefully performed the leveling procedure using a feeler gauge and the provided paper gauge, and did this before printing (and after printing as a test), so I don’t think that is the cause of the problem. Other possibilities: something is wrong in the software that applies the leveling information, the y-axis stepper motor might not be working correctly, or there might be some binding in transport of the print head along the threaded rod on the y-axis. Below are pictures of the openscad design and of the printed object showing the skewed sides.
Boy it almost looks as if the Y-axis is drifting, like the stepper motor is loosing sync but yet in a uniform fashion.
The idea that the leveling may be to blame seems likely. But if the leveling was that off, you’d think it wouldn’t get started properly.
To Doug: It was printed with Snapmaker3D.
Added information: The STL file was printed on a friend’s printer and turned out OK – sides square to the bottom on all sides. So, the issue is with the Snapmaker 3D printer’s hardware or possibly software (leveling procedure). I end up suspecting the y-axis hardware – the stepper motor or transport mechanism. Testing these seems difficult for the equipment I have available. I’m thinking of swapping the x and y stepper motors as a test, but I don’t know yet how easy or hard that will be.
@dlsnyder I like your idea of swapping the x and y stepper motors to test. It shouldn’t be too hard. It is a matter of disassembly and reassembly. I hope it is more a hardware issue than a software issue; it’ll be easier to exchange a bad stepper motor than debugging code.
I decided not to do the stepper motor swap. I does look like it would not be too difficult, but I don’t want to mess with the hardware and invalidate any warrenty. Instead, I have requested a replacement of the “linear module”. I’ll wait and see what happens with that before taking anything apart.
@dlsnyder Could you swap the X and Y linear modules? If the part slants on the opposite axis after the switch then you have proven the problem is with the linear module. Just my 2 cents… Best of luck!
In response to mcpohorton: Good idea, so I swapped the x and y linear modules. The problem moved from the y axis to the x axis with this swap. Below are pictures of the printed object before and after the swap. So the problem seems to be with what is (post swap) the x-axis linear module. There isn’t much to the module – a stepper motor, a coupler connecting the motor and threaded rod, and the mounting of the threaded rod. I don’t know where among these the problem is.
