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Help! My printer isn't working well


slamby

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Posted · Help! My printer isn't working well

I am a teacher in a high school with an Ulitmaker Original printer. We've had the printer for about a year and now there are issues. It's been used maybe 10 times.

It seems that the printer is "Lost" when it goes to start a print.

1) I recalibrated the print head by moving it to each axis and listening for the click.

2) I adjusted the bed height using the paper and nozzle trick.

3) When I try to print a file that I know works (from previous use) using the SD card, the printer head goes to the wrong spot and just moves in random lines.

Here's a link to the video...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HLRLwZ_2J1x2BZb8MWmg-4O91XHgPNcs

any help would be much appreciated. I don't know much about all this but I would love to have my students do a design and build project soon!

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    Posted · Help! My printer isn't working well

    So it looks like the X axis is probably moving fine (and the extruder and Z axis) but the Y axis appears to not be moving much. I think it's probably a loose pulley set screw.

    The Y axis has 6 pulleys and 3 belts. These are the ones on the left and right side of the printer that run front to back (that's 4 of the pulleys) and then 2 more on the short belt to the motor in the back left corner. Usually the problem is on those 2 that are harder to get. Hopefully you have the hex screwdriver or an L shaped allen wrench that fits those set screws. You can push the head around until the set screws line up. Then tighten them hard. Very hard. If you are using the green and black hex driver you can probably use your full strength. If you are using the little L shaped wrench your fingers should hurt after you tighten them. That hard.

    You can also take a sharpie and mark the shafts and pulleys on the short belt to prove that they are slipping.

    Your's seem to be slipping so bad, with power off you could try pushing the head to the front and rear of the printer and notice that the stepper doesn't always rotate.

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