Position change

[Draygor]

Hi all newbie here.

I bought a Wanhao i3 plus about 2 weeks ago, and as many others have said, I was printing within half hour of opening the box.

I have printed continuously over the past 2 weeks, with a great success rate.

Last night I set a print off that would take 12 hrs (it was the biggest thing I’ve printed to date), and it all went wrong.

Where there should be vertical side, there we now sloping sides.

Nothing has changed in the setup at all.

So I tried again this morning with a smaller print and the same thing started to happen, so I stopped the print

Has anyone seen this before, and if so can someone please help me?

I’ve got loads to print, but dare not do anymore in case it continues to happen.

Many thanks

[Davidgev86]

Hey,

Could be belts, make sure they are tight. Could be stepper currents/over heating causing it to skip steps. Did anything touch the bed while printing? could of misaligned it. Also check the gears on the steppers, make sure the grub screws are tight.

Good Luck! also you could contact Wanhao USA they are pretty good with customer service

[Stephen_Jones]

Check the obvious first, turn off power, slide table in all axis, notice rumbling, change bearings out for proper ones or get someone to print you plastic ones. the i3 is notorious for crap bearings, don’t worry its easy to get new ones, or have you got crap falling off the bed onto guide bars,motor. good maintainense is essential to good prints.

[Wasatch]

Similar thing happened on my i3v2 and it was time to re-square my printer. The Z frame had become misaligned with everything else and found my entire base was out of square too. Drove me nuts for quite a while. Seems too soon to have all that happen with your Plus but I would take a good square and level (and digital caliper) and find out what’s out of alignment with everything else.

[3dprintingguy]

also check that your axis cables arent faulty or loose

[Wasatch]

Just curious… is this PLA or ABS? Believe it or not a partially clogged nozzle can cause stuff like this too. Clean the outer surface of the nozzle too. If it gets gummed up it can cause the extrusion to drag and will through the lower layers off because they’re still soft

[Draygor]

OMG

I have already changed the bearings out for the linear plastic ones, and that has made a tremendous difference to the noise level and smoothness of the Y axis. I have just taken the gantry off, slid the bed back and fore a few times and felt a kind of ‘bump’ in it’s travel, when I lifted the base up and turned it over to see which screws to remove, a grub screw fell out on the floor.

Where might this be from?

Do I remove the bolts under the heat bed, or underneath the base to get into the belt and motor etc?

Thanks for all your help so far.

[Draygor]

I have just taken the gantry off, slid the bed back and fore a few times and felt a kind of ‘bump’ in it’s travel, when I lifted the base up and turned it over to see which screws to remove, a grub screw fell out on the floor!

I have removed the lower cover and the Y axis stepper motor gear has 2 grub screw holes, but no grub screws. There is a ‘key’ flat on the shaft though, shouldn’t that stop it from slipping?

I am obviously going to put the grub screw back in, but not sure which hole to put it in?

[Draygor]

PLA Wasatch

[Wasatch]

There should be two… One on the flat and the other 90 degrees from that. And no, the flat on the shaft is not enough by itself to keep it from slipping. Great time to go through the entire printer and make sure ALL the screws are tight. They are are notorious for being loose from the factory

[Draygor]

There is only 1 that I can see Wasatch! When I tried to re-sit the screw, I found that the hole was under the cowling of the motor - it seemed like the pulley had slid on the shaft in towards the motor.

I had re-aligned the pulley on the motor with the opposite pulley, and refitted the single grub screw (better than none at all, but I will order some new).

I’m just about to put it all back together and try another print.

Thanks

[Stephen_Jones]

I’m not sure, I think the guide rod pillars have a grub screw but it may be from anywhere, when you move the table and feel the bump mark the position, look at the guide rod, check for any depressions or scratches, its easier to feel the position sometimes than see it. If it was a major bearing collapse one of the balls may have made depression in guide rod.If its not good enough to run have to replace guide rod I’m afraid. good luck

[Stephen_Jones]

See, dosent it feel good to have found it yourself. while you’ve got it off. put an extra brkt on idler wheel, surprising how much this can flex. May stop future probs.