5s steppers losing steps...

[Projects 2]

Facts: I have not changed any speed/feed/material settings. Printer is now intermittently seeming to lose steps. A few days ago it printed and looks like in the front to back axis it lost a good number of steps and shifted the whole print forward between 1 and 2mm. yesterday it seems to have dropped the build plate too far by at least that amount. Oddly, the front of the print is significantly more gaped between layers (so the build plate is leaning forward? I have no idea how many print hours are on this machine, the printer does not store that kind of data.
My guess is that the increased heat environment is causing issues with the components over time. I also assume the only solution is to slow down my speeds in all directions to reduce the chance of stalling steppers....and start looking for a water cooled printer :D
Any other thoughts/experiences welcome!

 

 

[Carla_Birch 116]

Hi,

Why this might not give you the hours on the printer itself because you can swap print cores, you can see the hours the print cores have been in use for what might give you a good idea.

 

To do this from the touch screen on the printer pick: settings - about this printer and it will show the hours on the print cores like this

 

As for the layers shifting itself, it’s best to clean all the rods and make sure you got no play on them and then add a fresh drop of oil on them and move the print head around by hand to spread the oil over them, this also lets you feel if you can feel the print head getting tight as any point.

 

With you saying the prints moved forward I would also check the glass is tight in the clips so it’s not easy to move when in place.

 

Can not comment on the heat because I don’t know what filament you are running and at what temps and for how long, So that information would be handy, but unless your printing real hot and the printer is enclosed I can not see it being a problem. But it’s a good idea to post the filament type along with the settings you have used.

 

But I would personally check everything is oiled and moving free and the belts are tight.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Carla_Birch

[Jasonjason 6]

Are you sure you are loosing steps?

hard to tell for the photos, but looks far more like intermittent under extrusion.

Do what was suggested above, and clean your feeder out.

check you get consistent smooth extrusion when loading filament, should come out smooth, straight and no curling.

grease the z axis shaft

 

make a small tall tower and try printing that.

[Projects 2]

Thank you for the feedback guys!

After removing the prints, there was enough z shift that I could just peal off the section with ease. easier than supports lol. with that said the more towards the front of the printer, the larger the z gap, which means that the bed was leaning forward a good bit. I also noted that it seemed to be an issue between bottom layers section and the rest of the body. the top layers were also not right, but it was not a z issue, just seems to be shifted in the X or Y (not sure which). I will upload proof of that where a hex was printed, the pics are adjacent sides of the hex with focus on top and bottom layers. It is meant to be a tapered hex btw, so if you noticed that, it's supposed to be.

 

I have 2 U5 printers, so I will print the same thing on both printers to see if they both have the same result. I do oil and check tension on the motion regularly, they seem fine to me. The build chamber is normally between 100f and 120f depending on the material. Nylon is what this material is, and this printer normally is printing with ultimaker nylon. The other U5 (with no material station) normally prints carbon fiber pp or carbon fiber htpa.