Hey 3d printing people.

[demofox@mastodon.gamedev.place]

Hey 3d printing people. Any idea what causes this kind of misalignment in a 3d print? It didnt rotate on the base during the print, the print just screwed up.
Could it be the slicing software that messed up?

[aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@demofox I won't say that it's impossible for slicing software to have bugs, but unless you're running highly experimental software that's probably the last item in the trouble shooting flowchart.

In this case, it looks like your hotend is having trouble holding a steady temperature. When the temperature dips down too low, the noodle gets thinner and has a harder time bonding with the last layer. You might also have a belt slipping one axis.

[aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@demofox here's an annotated diagram

The magenta regions are places where it looks like your temperature is unstable. The red arrow is the axis where it looks like the slip happened, and the red X is where I'm guessing where the print head might have crashed into the print causing the slip.

As for the print separating from the raft at the bottom, I am unsure whether that is just a trick of shadows in the picture, otherwise it is most likely Archimedes's fault.

[aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@demofox note that the part at the top looks fine. That is because the print head is moving less on the horizontal plane, which is causing the hot end to loose less heat. Usually you'd see the opposite problem (warping from running too warm) there.

[aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@demofox To fix the hot end problem, try to make ambient temperature more steady. My favorite trick is to put a desk fan near by such that the hot end is always under constant airflow no matter what position the gantry and plate are in, and wait for the temperature to stabilize before you start printing. Build chambers are also popular for stabilizing the temperature, but they tend to run hot which can introduce its own problems. The critical thing is steady ambient temperature.

[aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@demofox as for the belt slip, lube up the rods

[aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@demofox more things that could potentially help with the temperature problem since your printer for the most part seems to be running too cool:

- run it slower

- run it a little hotter

the air flow thing is the most important one though. you'll want to make sure the airflow is consistent first.

[aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@demofox I scanned through the other replies, and I want to also note that the temperature thing is the more critical thing to diagnose first, since if a layer fails to bond properly it can warp and create an obstacle for the nozzle to crash into, which can cause belt slippage like in your print.

[demofox@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@aeva thank you so much! Interestingly, its still firmly attached to the raft, but maybe that is only in the center.
3d printing is quite involved apparently!
This is also a 50$ printer that is a year old so maybe not the best setup :P