New troubles, or returning troubles, with the 3d printer – my prints have started to shift again. This was a problem a few weeks ago, the prints would seemingly randomly shift in the y-axis, resulting in faulty or unusable prints.
After my office remodel, I releveled the printer, and tried some other prints, and the problem was mysteriously gone. In the process, I also had to replace the cooling fan as well, since the fan had died (and it was making the x-axis motor overheat). For whatever reason, the printer was working very well again, and I managed to finish several successful prints (enough for the bottom level of the watchtower project).
Then, just as suddenly, the problem has returned. With this latest print (a basic floor tile), the shifting is always occuring at the same point in the print (right before the floor texture). I thought perhaps it was the model, or the slicing, so I rotated the model 90 degrees in the slicer, and re-tried – same result.
I am hesistant to believe that it is caused by a slipped belt – not only is the y-axis belt a real pain to get to and adjust, but a slipping belt would be much more frequent. And simply moving the printer would not cause it to be resolved.
My current theory is an overheating part inside of the printer – perhaps dust covered. By moving the printer, the dust was disturbed. That may also explain the same timing for the error – it takes that long for the component to overheat. But it is all theoretical. Until I can sort it out, my overall build project is on hold.
