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Jun 2015

When printing I am getting ripples that are diagonal, not fully horizontal like on Z wobble issues. I believe it is a problem with my extruder - under extruding then overextruding. I have adjusted and readjusted the extrusing in firmware and tried messing with the ex​tusion multiplier with no success.

Anybody got any thoughts?

  • created

    Jun '15
  • last reply

    Jun '16
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I have a possible issue in mind, but I don’t know, if that could really be, what we’re seeing as those errors.

Is your printer a bowden or direct drive printer ?

When extruding, does the extrusion motor make a smooth rotation, or is it more like “jumping” to a specific angle, then stopping and again jumping ?

What layer height, nozzle diameter, filament diameter and printspeed do you use ? Also it would help to know the material and print temperature, did you test other materials and varying any of the settings mentioned above ?

I hope, that I can help you, but I need those informations, to make up theories and to think them through (+figuring out a solution)

Cheers,

Marius Breuer

Try reducing the stepper pot for your extruder driver - I had the same thing happen on my machine and it went away once I dialed back a bit. Also, you may want to do a PID calibration on your hotend - thermal cycling can make patterns like that as well.

Hi Christian,

I believe that the origin of your problem is in the extrusion mechanism. Perhaps a problem with the gears. In the Wade extruder, for instance, I think to the little gear having a problem on a tooth.

Perhaps, also, the pulley not well fixed on his axis.

Due to the regularity of the problem, I believe it’s a mechanical one.

Hope to have helping you, best regards, Jean

PS : Sorry for my bad English!!!

This could also be caused by retraction settings, try running with no retraction at all, at least you can eliminate this a s the problem if there is no change on your calibration print.

As all previous comments I agree that it is very likely an extrusion problem. The extruder is either pulsating or you try to push the extrusion too hard. I.e. Print slower and see if that helps. Of course you can try other pla plastics that are more friendlier to extrude. Especialy light colors like white give better results and require less extreme temperatures. White extrudes nice at 190 while black requires higher temp like 210 degrees celcius at 40 mm/s printing speed. Cura has a nice feature that allows you to tune the extrusion (extrusion percentage).

Good luck with trying all the suggested comments, i am sure you quickly find the problem and let us know what it was.

No, that’s very odd. I’d be interested to hear what others have to say.

It may be simple. The first thing I thought of is the bed may not bed level and/or the nozzle is not quite close enough to the bed. I’m sure you’ve already checked that though. :slight_smile:

Good luck!

-Michelle

If it were an extrusion problem, this would happen if your seams were lined up (each layer starts in the same place), but would not appear to be so regular if each layer started in a random location. In the pictured print, does each layer start in the same location? If so, try another print with randomized start points, so you can isolate the cause.

I have had very similar issues. Your problem is either 1) Your extruder is not firmly held in place so as it moves throughout your print the head will tend to wobble and move around. 2) Your belts are not tight enough resulting in lash which can and will cause things like I see in your picture to happen. 3) Your z axis rods are misaligned. You can check this by moving the z axis up and down and visually seeing if your y axis wobbles as it goes up and down. This is unlikely, as it would not cause the pattern I see in your photos…Trust me, this is not an extrusion problem. It is a problem with alignment and tightness throughout your printer

Also, your belts may be already tight. Check the fasteners that hold the belts to the carriages. One of these may be loose causing excess lash

I just dealt with this on a solidoodle 3 (direct drive extruder). It was a failing extruder stepper driver. I replaced it and the pulsing went away.

To be honest your extrusion looks not bad Are the parts well bonded If your having extruder problems other things typically go wrong this is very consistent I had said to check your belts I am sorry for the double post But your bearings could be warn or loose in there mounts

Adjust your X and Y motor pots on your board. This happens when your motors are pulsing from the lack of current, giving you the “moire” effect. *edit* Down voted for no reason. Guess I won’t give any advice here anymore

Have you adjusted the nozzle temp? I’ve been able to fix a lot of my issues like this just by raising the print temp up. Just out of curiosity, is that ABS?

The issue seems to appear along the outline of extrusion, there is no retraction at each 5mm of the outline, i think.

raising the temp make is even more pronounced. The part was printed in PLA but this also happens with ABS. The only filament it doesn’t happen with is ninjaFlex. I believe that is so because of the unique way ninjaFlex behave while its being extruded, in that the it creates a little pressure as its being melted and then extruded