X/Y-Axis vertical (dis)alignment

[drayson 74]

Hi all,

recently I put a glass plate onto the left and right axis (don´t ask why...) and I recognized that the front right bearing sit's a bit lower than the other ones (glass plate not touching the axis).

I found out that my l left axis has a vertical missalignment of app. 0.2° (measured with digital pitch gauge).

This leads to problems at print bed horizontal alignment. (3 leveling points the same hight, the right front one app. 0,7mm lower..) and stress in the movement of the print head.

Has anybody else recognizes something like this?

Has anybody an advice how to fix it?

I honestly thought about disassambling the axis and rework/sand the bearing seat in the front plate but then the bearing would not sit as fixed as it should...

Your assist/advice is appreciated...

 

[SandervG 1,519]

Hi Drayson,

Could you add some pictures to illustrate your situation?

 

[drayson 74]

Hi Sander,

here are the pictures - one from the right axis near the rear pulley, glass plate is flat on left axis and near the right front pulley, but has a gap of app. 0,7mm is the back.

I put the whole UM onto my glass table and it seems that the whole body is twisted as the right front leg is also "up in the air".

 

 

Any suggestions?

b.r.

christian

 

[drayson 74]

Hi Sander,

just as additional/summarized information - I think, I mixed up left and right in my initial description so here briefly again:

 

• glass plate sits flat on left axis
  
• glass plate sits flat on right axis near front pulley
  
• glass plate has gap on right axis near back pulley of app. 0,7mm/0,2°
  
• right front foot shows a gap to my glass table, remaining 3 feet touch table
  
• all corners show no gaps, front/side/top/bottom plates are well screwed to each other
  
• print bed vs. nozzle shows a wider distance on the front right edge when on all ther edges of the print bed are well aligned with the nozzle
  

I hope that this additional summary helps a bit to understand my issue.

b.r.

christian aka drayson

 

[gr5 2,071]

I would loosen all the panel screws, place on the UM on a flat strong surface, then have 2 large (heavy) people push down on the four corners and while pressing down tighten all the screws you can get to. See if that helps. Shouldn't have to remove anything to do this so it should be quick and easy.

 

[drayson 74]

@ gr5, thank you, good idea, I will try this on weekend.

another suggeston from a friend of mine is to take away the side pannels and align the front and back using a big "right angle". He mentioned that maybe the noses initiate tension because they sitting very tight...

So if your suggestion will not work I will try this next...

Nevertheless, it would be great if somebody from the ultimaker team could also give me a hint as they built them regularly...

 

[SandervG 1,519]

Hi Drayson,

I would also suggest to have some heavy guys push it down and tighten everything again.

Can you see if the right panel maybe has some off set?

If it does, and you are planning on disassembling it, we could also sent you a new right panel (although i can understand that would not be your most favorite option).

If you have never experienced difficulties during printing, you might also make the call to leave it like this and print some foot pads for your Ultimaker, and make the front right one a little bit thicker.

How is your printhead compared to the build platform?

 

[drayson 74]

Hi Sander,

regarding print head alignment - this was the initiatior for my investigation.

During alignment I recognized that I had to push the right front edge of the print head upwards. For this I used additional washers between spring and the z-table to get it aligned with the head - result is a twisted bed...

With this setup I worked a few weeks but not satisfacting as I started thinking of an heated bed.

First I thought that it is an ussue of the z-table so I thought of an 3 point leveling. This was the reason I tried to level with the glass plate and then put it also onto the axes ==> issue recognized...

As gr5 and you suggested, today I asked my neighbor to assist, unfortunately without success - we tried two approaches:

- untightened the screws, put pressure on it (he´s a 95kg guy) and bolted it. It bends back as soon as the "heavy guy" steps back

- untightened the screws, used two clamps to screw down UM onto the glas table, tighten, release the clamps - same result...

Within the next days I hopefully find time to disassamble at least the side pannels and try to align the back and front with top and bottom to try to find the root.

Hoestly I don´t think that it´s just the right side pannel. I fear that the noses/holes in the pannels might be the root cause for this kind of twisting the whole body as they are very tight and without any space for "adjusting".

Have you ever had such behavior in your "production"?

 

[SandervG 1,519]

The holes shouldn't have any room for adjusting, because this would result in room for play, and end in an inaccurate wobbly machine.

On rare occasions we have had a customer whose (for example) side panels had a slight deviation.

Usually this is recognized during or before the assembly, so it could be replaced by a new panel without to much efforts.

Of course i offer you this same solution if it turns out the frame has a deviation.

If you are in need of a new frame please contact me via support - homepage. I would be happy to help.

If it turns out the panels are fine and something needs/needed tweaking during assembly i would be happy to read about it here and offer you assistance.

 

[gr5 2,071]

The panels are laser cut and so should be very consistent. But if someone knocked a panel before it finished cutting or some similar accident I could see how one of the panels could have tabs or holes in the wrong place.

It seems it would be easier to enlarge a few holes with a file than order a new one.

 

[drayson 74]

@ Sander,

I absolutely understand why it is important that the parts have a press fit. I will investigate further and keep you informed latest next week - thank you for offering your support.

 

[drayson 74]

@ gr5, I took a look onto the side parts and if I'm correct it wont be possible to enlarge all holes to be in line.

Will try tomorrow to take apart the box...

Nevertheless thank you for this suggestion.

[drayson 74]

After a very interesting weekend disassambling/measure/assambling/measure.. I´m back and can give feedback.

first step: dismount only right pannel, measure

outcome:

- withpout the pannel, the axis are aligned applying the glass plate

- the UM case is not right angled to the glass table

second step: dismount only left pannel, measure

outcome:

- the axis deviation is still existing, no change

- when mounting right pannel, force is needed because a angular misalignment of notches/cutouts in hte right pannel is shown => leads to twisted case

thirdstep: dismount right & left pannel, measure

- front & rear are ok, axis aligned applying the glass plate

Honestly I can not identify if it is the right or the left side plate bringing tension into the box so I would like to come back to the offer of Sander to get new side plate(s) - best way a right and a left one.

So that´s my actual state... :-(

 

[SandervG 1,519]

Hi Drayson,

Thank you for your post.

No problem, we are going to make that work.

Please contact me at support at Ultimaker.com for details, so we can create the shipment.

 

[drayson 74]

Hi,

Thank you - you already got a request via the support form. Hope this is ok to get in contact for the details :smile:

 

[drayson 74]

Hi everybody!

Recently I received the new side pannels from Ultimaker - Thank yo for great support!

Yesterday I had time to dismount my old side pannels and try fit the new ones.

The outcome:

 

• dismounted right pannel, mounted new one => axis aligned well, no gap to see applying the glass plate but still a gap between foot and glass table (box twisted)
  
• dismounted also right pannel, mounted new one => axis aligned well and also not gapbetween foot and my the glass table is gone
  

 

Finally I disassambled the plates again to paint them within the next week.

It seems that only the combination of both new side plates are able to fix my issues. I will post news after final assambly, print bed adjustment and first test prints.

 

[keesjalink 0]

Adding to this discussion,

I had exactly the same problem and the solution was exactly the same: it seems that sometimes there was a slight problem with the side panels shipped ~may 2013. Replacing them with a new set did not help (panels had the same problem, but I only discovered that after mounting) and then a third set of panels (shipped free by UM) cured the problem and made my prints much better.

Lesson: this is not all that uncommon. Check your panels and especially make sure the X and Y axis are level. The easiest way to check: if the bed leveling does not work out (in one corner, the printed line is too thick or thin) you should suspect this problem.

After some back-and-forth emailing, solved well by UM support.

Kees

 

[bret 0]

I was putting together my ultimaker today and had a problem where the notches in the right and left panels did not line up with the holes in the front panel. I filed some off the notches to get them to fit holes. They were off by at least 2 or 3mm. Hope my machine doesn't have problems too. Really disappointing to get bad wood panels.