I have recently observed some strange occurrences of shifted layers on my A350, see images below.
I have no idea how to deal with this and how to proceed…
So I would be very grateful for you kind advice.
Finally, I should note that I did not yet observe these shifts “live” / “in action”, so I’m not quite sure how they occur.
I may have to stay around the machine and observe for the next print, but perhaps I can already implement some measures to avoid this.
General setup:
I’m working with “fresh” rolls of PLA+
Filament is in a drying box outside the machine and is fed through a PTFE tube
I’m using a normal glass bed attached with some office clamps
I couldn’t observe any movement or shifting of the glass bed; it seems well attached
I calibrated the machine manually with a 5x5 grid, with the bed heated up to the standard starting value of 70 °C
I attached the heating bed to the frame after heating it up to 70 °C and letting it soak for a while and I used the (perhaps useful) clockwise screw tightening pattern, starting from the centre
Printing setup:
Printing at 215 °C, based on temperature calibration
Bed temperature is at 70 °C for first layer and then goes down to 60 °C
Retraction settings are set to 0.8 mm at 40 mm/s and Z hop of 0.5 mm, based on retraction calibration
Extruder e-steps is also properly calibrated
Linear advance K value set to 0.08, based on the Marlin website calibration
Parts are sliced with Prusa Slicer
Slicer settings “pretty normal” overall; I can provide individual values if they are relevant, but I can’t think of anything special there
Speed values are also “normal”, general working speed is at 50 mm/s
Add a wide brim (at least 1cm). Make sure you have z-hop (may be labelled as “Lift Z”) set. If it still doesn’t work, retry with Luban or Cura to make sure the slicer isn’t responsible.
I sometimes get results like this from Slic3r (which Prusa Slicer is forked from) with settings pretty close to the Luban “normal” preset. It turned out to be adhesion problems in a couple of cases, but I’m still mystified about others.
@ElloryJaye It looks more like a combination of bad adhesion and lost steps, I think @Drizzt430 had this problem and it was from way too fast movement speed. @SabinSnorlax please try this print in cura, let us see the results, that will give us more of an idea of if it’s slicer settings or something else.
I wonder if your heated bed cable is snagging on the rail and stopping the y axis movement of the bed causing lost steps. I can see it in the photos that the cable is behind the rail.
Many, many thanks @xchrisd for pointing out that thread!
The issues and the related root causes sound very, very similar.
After reading (fairly quickly) through that thread, I can imagine 2 main causes for my issues:
Software-related, somehow to do with using Prusa Slicer and obtaining G-code that “doesn’t work well” on Snapmaker.
To quote @MooseJuice from his thread:
Hardware-related, most likely to do with the linear rails.
Since I have a fairly early-stage machine from the Kickstarter campaign, I can imagine there are some hardware flaws in there that I haven’t become aware of yet.
Of course, it could be something else.
But for now I will try to re-print the white model from the images after slicing with Luban.
The print should take around 1 day, so if it works out without any issues, then I’ll be 90+% sure the “culprit” is software-related…
@MooseJuice I wouldn’t be surprised at all if you’re right.
I printed a ton of stuff late last year for some friends while slicing with Luban.
Printing time and looks were as you say “less than ideal”, but everything worked OK.
But it would be a shame if Prusa Slicer isn’t an option due to all these issues…
I wont accept that as a reasonable response. I have found ways to make my “unprintable” stuff that should be fine but isnt because “snapmaker” print. Its just foolishness. They can try to shove luban in my face all they want, its inferior.
trying to pinpoint what exactly the machine hates these days. if it can be narrowed down we can get it addressed.
Unfortunately, simply slicing with Luban didn’t do the trick, see images below.
Last year in October / November I had no issues with 3D printing before I switched over to laser for a longer period.
The main changes since then - that I could imagine are influencing the results - are:
The new glass bed, which as mentioned seems to stay nicely in place and does not show any signs of movement.
Generally speaking, an increased use time of the machine, so more potential for wear and tear.
As a next step, I guess I’ll have to “babysit” the machine for the next print and see what exactly happens that causes the layers to shift.
And I guess I’ll check the other thread linked by @xchrisd to see if there’s any “general solution”.
But if anyone has some further ideas on how to proceed, I’d be very grateful!
The glass bed wouldn’t cause this to happen. Follow these steps, update us with the result. I’m honestly wondering if you have an intermittent y axis. I didn’t see you mention a clunk but I’m still suspicious about a rail.
Good point @Artezio, I will give this a try!
If the y-axes are not moving in sync or are somehow skipping some steps, then it makes sense that such errors would occur…
Maybe this didn’t show up during lasering because the y-axis movement is quite steady?
Yeah it could be just coincidence that it’s happening now instead of when on laser. I just want to eliminate it as a possibility. Also, could you post the stl file? I want to inspect it.
@Artezio I checked the y-axis movement and everything seems OK; basically same as in the video from Snapmaker.
Still, as I haven’t properly observed what exactly is happening during printing, I can’t rule out some issues with the y-axis modules;
Perhaps I’ll hear some ‘clunk’ sound and see some skipping if I pay attention; let’s see.
I should note that I printed this successfully twice last year around October;
When, as mentioned, things were going pretty much OK with 3D printing.
So I really have no idea why I’m having these massive shift issues all of a sudden.
No, I believe all these issues happened since upgrading to the latest firmware 1.12.
And I’m pretty sure all my OK prints from last year were manufactured on 1.10.
I must admit I feel pretty lost right now…
To the point that I don’t even know if this is a software of hardware issue and which root causes to investigate next.
I don’t know if “escalating” this to Snapmaker support would help, but I really have no idea how to get a half-decent print without massive shifts.
I’ll probably give that print job of Minas Tirith another go today and see “live” what happens…
I agree with you, @WilliamBosacker, this seems to be an adhesion issue.
On the photo the printed model is rotated further and further.
This means something has changed and the machine couldn´t rotate its axis. @SabinSnorlax or did you randomly placed the failed print on the surface?
