These misprints appear to be a result of an offset of the XY printing plane resulting in a quality print that has about half of the build offset about 1-2 mm. This is a randomly recurring issue-doesn’t happen each print. Has anyone else ever experienced this issue? Hardware or software issue? Or maybe someone just bumped it while walking by? Any insight is much appreciated.
The cylindrical prints were canceled mid-print because I just happened to notice the issue.
Just bumping the printer won’t do anything, the drivetrain is too strong. Are you watching the whole print so you can listen to what the printer sounds like when it happens? As for print settings your print temp is a little low, try 235. Build plate is a little high, try 95.
It could be the unused nozzle crashing into the part. Raise or remove the unused nozzle. Possibly a break in the x cable.
Longshot here but when I had a layer shift issue it turned out to be a sticky point on the Z axis screw rod and it was enough to skew the build plate until it got past that point.
From the pictures, you can see that besides the offset, the layers are all looking good, so the stepper motor seems quite innocent. It is also rather unlikely that your slicer randomly adds a few millimeters to the X or Y coordinate.
Since the layers above the offset are also moved a few millimeters and not microns, most definitely a belt skip. It is also unlikely that someone bumped into the printer so hard that caused a belt skip. Why this belt skipped happened could be caused by belts that are wrongly tensioned or one of the teeth is damaged. I would put my money on:
Are the belts too loose or too tight?
Does the top and bottom part of the belt have equal tension on each axis?
Examine all the teeth of the belts to ensure they are not damaged
Examine all the teeth of the gears driving the belt to ensure they are not damaged
The offset shows that there is a problem on one axis only. So just check the axis parallel to the direction of offset, the problem should be there. If you cannot find anything I would let someone more experienced examine it or contact Flashforge.