Slanted walls on left - varying extremities

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Hi,

Received / built my Ultimaker in April 2013. All my files originate from Google sketchup, exported as STL, opened in Cura, printed in quickprint mode set at ‘normal quality mode’.

On day one I initially printed the robot and two prints successfully. But after that all my prints started being printed slanted to the left. I have read other posts regarding this slanting print error so have done the following:

1) Re-positioned the x-axis pulley to ensure that the short black tension band is not touching the wooden back wall.

2) Added M3 spacers between the wooden back wall and black plastic risers

3) Loosened the x-axis motor bolts, pushed downward on the motor to create greater tension and then tightened bolts, this improved the slanting problem slightly but by not much.

4) Checked that all pulleys are tight on metal shafts.

5) Checked that the print head manually freely moves in both x and y directions without friction.

6) I have tried printing different files - my own files and a '20mm test cube from thingiverse' but the problem persists with all, some worse than others. On some occasions the extremity of the slanting has lessened during the print (see photo) (?)

I am new to 3D printing and for the last 2 days have been unable to print anything with a true right angle.

I now unsure what to do and any advice would be greatly appreciated, kind regards, Kevin

http://oi37.tinypic.com/2dw5m4m.jpg

 

[Daid 304]

While you say you have already checked this, the most usual cause is a slightly lose pulley somewhere on the X axis. I recommend using a marker to put some dots on the axis and pulleys, this way you can see if they shift.

I think your kit already came with some spare pulley screws in case one of them is bad. If you identify the lose pulley you might want to replace the pulley screw with a new one, some are badly machined and are better off replaced.

 

[gr5 2,069]

You want your pulley set screws very very tight. So tight you think you might almost break something. Make sure all 5 pulley set screws are tight. The 5th one is the most likely problem one - on the motor. Daid's idea of using a sharpie marker is very smart.

You could also consider lowering your jerk and acceleration values, but it would be a shame to do that to fix a simple mechanical problem.

There's a tiny probability that the voltage to your X stepper is too low. I really doubt this is it. The safest and simplest test would be to swap the X and Y drivers (they just unplug and you can switch them). If you do this, make sure power is off and remove all static electricity from your body before touching any electronics by not wearing a sweater and touching ground first.

 

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Dear Daid & GR5,

Firstly, thank you very much for your replies, greatly appreciated. I double checked all pulleys with an allen key and all were tight as could be. I marked the pulley and axels with a marker and the smallest slight slip on the rear x axis - although the grub screw on this pulley was super tight (?) bad grub screw on pulley? So I un-screwed the grub screw on said pulley & discovered that it was covered in grease/oil - which would of prevented it from maintaining a good grip on the axel - so replaced it with one of the spare 'non-greased' grub screws that came with the ultimaker kit. Printed the thingiverse '20mm test cube' and the slanted walls are no more. Thank you ever so much, you guys are 3D dudes for sure

Kind Regards,

Kevin