my3DBr

I would check the feeder.

Well the PLA will be there for a loooooong time. Any hints about what am I doing wrong? E steps are correct. Temp is even high, at this speed the details on walls are suffering. At the top walls are not touching, gaps everywhere, but flawless flow on walls. Nozzle Temp 225-230, Flow bumped to 100%, Fans at 100%, speed 40. Remember: 0.4 nozzle and 0.8 line width. Cube0.8Flow100Speed40.gcode IMG_9780.jpg.zip

Right now my enders are apar with the UM2, fact - although printing slower. I've done 8 or 10 calibrations cubes today, messing around with everything possible. Dissasembled and re assembled the Feeder, re done de e steps (witch contrary to plain math is not what Bondtech says) and...no good un til now. Perfect wall, top horrible. Could it be Cura's fault?

Hello Smithy. Sorry to respectfully disagree. There is, e.g., a well known video from Stephan - CNC kitchen talking about line width and its influence on print's characteristics. every nozzle being able to extrude even more than 200% it's size. There is also a plenitude os data and texts. The triad Temperature, Flow and Speed. Just a matter of reaching the balance. Of course there is the limits of the printer, bit I do believe my printer is able to do that. Example: https://dyzedesign.com/2018/07/3d-print-speed-calculation-find-optimal-speed/ where: Maximum line width The maximum line width will depend on your nozzle flat width. Manufacturers should specify this dimension to configure your slicer accordingly. The maximum line flat should be equal to the nozzle flat. Note that any overflow will have an impact on top infill quality, as it will tend to rise around the nozzle. Considering a 0.40mm nozzle having a 0.80mm flat with a 0.20mm layer thickness have a maximum line width of 1.00mm. Going bigger! However, nothing is stopping you from going a lot higher or lower. For example, the two images below are the same exact Gcode, one ran with a 1.00mm nozzle, the other with a 0.40mm nozzle. The line height is 0.50mm and line width is 1.50mm. Printed with a 1.00mm nozzle Printed with a 0.40mm nozzle As you can see, there is barely any difference. As long as the 0.40mm nozzle flat is within the margin, the result is pretty good. In this case, the layer height was 125% the nozzle diameter. Smaller nozzle can still extrude large lines, but have more flow restrictions compared to larger nozzles. The speed must be decreased to get the same results.

I am trying to print with 0.6 to 0.8 line width with serious compromise to quality. Lines are far from each other and no water tide at all. UM2 with DDG Bondtech, 3D Solex matchless 0.4 nozzle. PETG at 230 to 240 nozzle temp. Draft 0,2mm height. Speed custom 60. Temperatures over 230 do produces bad quality cubes related to excessive temp, but still with all space between lines. At the top, central lines are not touching wall lines, wall lines are afar from each other. Even the lines of skirt are apart from each other. Flow at 100 for everything but top/bottom, default CURA (97%, don't ask me why). I recently made some replacements on parts of the feeder: changed the stepper motor gear from plastic to metal - although both of them identical dimensions and teeth number - 11. Did NOT made E steps adjusting, after. Do I need to? What can it be? What is your experience with line width? Arquivo Comprimido.zip

So what was happening is I was using a POM 3rd party stepper motor gear, not the original, it was bended, pushing the central DDG gear aside at that bulged point, thus leading to disconnection to the lever gear. A false skipping step. I had two options: using a metal one or printing one. I put the metal one, but since I think the original is made of plastic, am considering changing it to the printed one. What do you think?

I have a lot of images but can't upload, don't know why. It says "There was a problem uploading the file. Please contact us for assistance."

Hello @Torgeir, happy new year. Would you mind pointing me to where can I find it? Anyway, I am also having problems with extrusion. UM2 with Bondtech DDG, 3DSolex 0.4 nozzle, PETg. Draft, 0,6 line width, 2 walls, infill gyroid at 20%, custom speeds, 230-235 nozzle temp and 75 bed temp, I really don't know why but custom flow gets 97% flow top/bottom layer in Cura. While printing everything seemed OK: walls ok, infill ok, first layer ok. But to the end...IMG_9729.jpg.zip

Oh I think get it. Are you new to 3d printing? It looks like you configured this print with skirt, this peripheral line is the skirt, not part of the print per se. Actually this looks like a nice first layer.

I replaced de third party stepper motor gear for yet another, this time a metal one. For now it seems ok. I bought the DDG for a ultimaker 2. Not +. So I had to make some adaptations - a 11 teeth gear (Aliexpress although you can print one) and a spacer adaptor - which I printed.

Actually the gear at the stepper motor was off center, pushing the central gear from place, thus making a gap with the counter gear and then missing contact. Wow.

Hello. So it seems the bore in the accessory gear is off center, thus giving skips. Anyone with the same problems using Bondtech extruders? Lucky I am...

After a lot of tinkering, I took radicals decisions. Spoiler: problem solved. I took back all the old (and a little screwed up) pulleys (even buying ones with the exact same specifications, the original ones are bigger in diameter), re aligned everything up, the problem with Y bigger tan X persisted. I took my dial gauge and started measuring steps. I realized why I did not noticed deviations before: they were little but present. 20mm in X were 19.88 and in Y 19.60. There you are. No escuses now: in practice all the schematics and mathematics were not valid. No "pulleys with X size and Y dents and belts with Z length equals N steps, so no deviation". I took all the possible measures possible: firmware upgrades, all the mechanics revisited (dismantled everything up for 2 times). Changed nozzles a few times. It was time for steps/mm reckoning. Done. Perfect squared cubes (although 20.6mm, witch I'll manage with horizontal expansion). I am very sorry for you engineers and Ultimaker makers, but I had to do it. Changed de steps/mm for X and Y. And I really don't know why: A) I took me so long to realize it was just it B) still believe in science and do understand all the logical mathematics involved - but....that's it. What I can tell you is that is more valued for me to have a machine working than obeying engineering proud. I have 2 ender 3 that never gave me that problems, for a little percentual of the price. My ultimaker HAD TO WORK properly, period. Thank you for your time and help. I expect this long story to hep others. So, the flowchart for uneven X and Y prints 1-check for belts, pulleys. 2-check for software/firmware problems 3-all the above are relatively simple, so don't be scare: go for measuring steps WITH THE RIGHT TOOLS, NOT WITH PRINTS if the above did not solved. Be safe.

Any news? Here I am still struggling with the same innacuracy. I don’t know what else to do. I bought all the moving pieces again from the same shop - belts and pulleys, the hole thing, and that will be my last try.

For now I am having troublesome hours trying to square the axis. When printing squares, the size of the back of the print is different from the front side. I've already made 2 or 3 alignments for now....the tools were made from PETG, which is a bit flexible. Will try printing them with PLA. Resizing Y size for 0,39 mm less solved the problem for now. Still fighting, I am not giving up the fight for now. I have to win the printer... Tiresome though.

Ok Sander, I will provide the nozzle change.

Hello again! So it seems I nailed it. Removing -0.39mm from Y axis in every print at any size solved the problem. I am really really curious to know what could be the reason for it. Broken firmware? I am using the last stable version of Tinkergnome - witch is not the latest version. Try the latest? Try the last oficial firmware for the UM2E+? Any ideas?

Hello everybody. It happens that those % diferences are not magical numbers. this diference works for 20mm cubes but not 40mm. What I did noticed is that Y axis is 99,8% of the time 0.4mm bigger, no matter the size. I am still waiting for a crimper tool to arrive so I can change the stepper motor for the Y axis, but I will try for now to reduce the print in Cura for 0,4mm is all sizes to see what happens.

Hi @SandervG, thank you. I did started a new thread but it did not reach people I don’t know why. I will try there then. I have new info, so I’ll put it there

I am getting EXACTLY the same problem in a UM2E. Everyday rechecking hardware for any king of source for this problem. No matter what I do, X is spot on, Y always bigger. Ended up getting suspicious about firmware installed. I'm at this moment compensating in Cura for the Y, printing lower then 100% size.

I have news. When adding 1,9% size to X, all sizes of the cube are equal. Amazing 20.36 exactly for both. When subtracting 1,9% size to Y, sizes are exact X 20.00 and Y 20.03. This shows I have a problem with the Y axis. But why when I run tests of steps they are ok? Now I have to print bigger files to see if this is a magical number.

Hello @Torgeir. I was having more intensity at work this week, so less time for testing. I deed printed a cube at 40mm/s; 0,15 layer if I remember correctly ( the "normal"mode). No good, still having a big difference between Y and X - in this case X 19.9mm and Y 20.31mm - the overall size has got smaller as expected, but my concern is similarity between X and Y. I'm baffled because I did measured the axis steps very accurately and they are ok, extremely ok - a needle glued in the printhead and a very good professional scale at the bed, moved the printhead with the scroll button in the printer. Everything pristine. All through 150mm. Sooooooo it's difficult to assume hardware problems. I was hopping for it to be inaccurate. I began to send emails to Bondgear to try to solve the feeder problem and I am trying to compensate this deviation between axis resizing the X axis at Cura. I am thinking about print one cube with Prusa Slicer but can't find a good GCode start.

Woooowww @Torgeir, you just said something very very interesting. You see, I installed the 3D solex kit matchless of heat block and the nozzle. I noticed something when the printer does the initial purge of filament - it don’t fall down 90° normally. It travels like to the side first. As you know this nozzle has two internal channels. Could it be it? Unfortunately I started to notice accuracy problems before changing it, recently. But never worried too much before. I will send come pics.

On to it, tonight! (Brazil time).

I greatly agree with you @Torgeir. Too much of an error to be only printing profile (assuming we leave dimensions equal on Cura, off course). Both sliding bearings are original, although only recently I’ve read on a official paper that there is a ideal position for them - the trails os the bearings positioned as an “X” but I don’t think this is the problem. I checked and rechecked for any play that would explain it, and could not find any. Not in the print head from the crossed axles nor in belts and pulleys. Sincerely I did not checked the printhead in various positions. Both 6mm print head axis are new, tested and checked for straight accuracy. Bought at Robotdigg. Even more, the difference between axis sizes in printings are reproducible in any place on the bed. I am getting close to affirm that this is a mechanical issue and dismounting and replacement a bunch of pieces not knowing what is happening. This is terrible. Or I can try to find a % to reduce from Y axis every time I print.