First, I find white to be a very unforgiving color. Temp might be an issue as it’s a different pigment. I printed a lot of white at around 215°C. When I look at the orange for similar issues, I can see them (perimeter voids and waviness), though they are diminished. I’d double check the severity by printing something in orange for comparison.
Do you have the bearing slop issue? Grab the front of your bed and move it back and forth. Is there significant wiggle? Check out this video:
I have this issue. When printing round, curved or thin wall parts, I see waviness like that when it starts to loosen. I have to re-jam the shim into the gap. I expect the plastic yields with heat and time increasing the gap.
This may sound silly but if you using the XYZ ABS in white, it prints terrible… so change material and see if that makes a difference…
Also check the white idler pulley on the carriage belt, as that’s prone to wear if not lubricated frequently, the metal pin in the centre of the the pulley wears into the plastic causing quality issues with prints…
It sounds like you went from one print two weeks ago and everything was fine, come back and everything is off with the only thing really changing is the filament. I think Andy and Spanner have the right idea in putting the orange back in to see how it prints.
I agree with them that it’s probably the filament. Either due to the temperature as snoobler mentioned or, if the white was sitting out while on vacation for two weeks, it may have absorbed a little moisture if it was humid. Two weeks probably isn’t enough time to have much of an effect but if you had adjusted the A/C to not run as much since your were going to be away and it was in high humidity it may be possible.
Did you by chance change the heated bed settings? Perhaps recalibrate the bed with a micrometer? I am betting on bed heating issues. One reason I am switching to Repetier is to control the heated bed more effectively.
Bearing slop was already addressed so I will just say, I had that issue, but resolved it with a knife blade.
I no longer use the Davinci filament, as I get better and cheaper results with third party filament. I would say that the issue is likely one of the ones suggested before my post, or the heated bed settings mentioned in my post.
I forgot to mention I don’t use the stock XYZ cartridges, the white from XYZ is terrible looks more yellow then white.
White ABS is my most used filament and prints in the same quality as the other filaments. I used the orange print because it was easier to point out.
I will change the filament, never hurts to test it.
Looks like holtane posted the same idea about the humidity as I was typing my reply. Now that I think about it more, I was focused on the two weeks away. Depending on how/where you store your filament, it could have slowly been absorbing moisture prior to the vacation as well. Filament storage is something easy to get sloppy about since it doesn’t usually matter much if you’re in a climate controlled environment and actively using the printer. I have some stored in a plastic tub with desiccant but a few just out on the table next to the printer. Now that I’ve said all that, I’ve never actually had issues with humidity myself yet but have noticed that some brands seem to produce more consistent prints than others. You didn’t mention the type of material and whether or not the white and orange were the same brand. That could be a factor.
I actually had a different filament out at the time (forgot about it) and the white was in a closed cardboard box. I’m testing a different filament now to see if there is any difference.
I suspect moisture in the filament the only downside to abs is its hydroscopic quality. I’m still using stock software in my 1.0 and I had a similar issue I checked everything ended up tearing the whole machine apart screw by screw and came across cracks in the factory bearing supports when the machine reached temp the cracks would open and cause poor quality prints. I printed a couple bearing holders from the davinci section on thingiverse. I’ve been thinking of loading repetier but I’m still a little timid on the software side of things.
It looks like a filament issue, if it has been left idle for 2 weeks and has possibly absorbed moisture then the filament wont bond properly, which is what is looks like here. You can bake the filament in the oven to dry it out at a low temperature or use a low setting hairdryer. It can happen quite easily but isnt a well known problem. Thats assuming like you said you levelled the bed etc
Try another filament spool - the voids are symptomatic of filament that has absorbed moisture from the air. You extruder drive gear could also be a problem here - it may have bits of plastic embedded in the teeth which causes the filament to flow inconsistently. Check and clean with the small wire brush. The drive gear idler is also a problem spot. It wears and gets sloppy on the shaft. I actually installed ball bearings into mine.
I live in Louisiana. The biggest problem I run into is humidity. I place my spools in a ziplock bag with a little bit a desiccants that I bought from Lowes. This is what I suggest to do.
I have a big problem with nylon. I put it in a bag for 24 hours and the next day it is printing like a champ. After a week or so in the bag you will see a pool of water that it is collecting. Tons of water is stored in the plastic.
