X axis measurement prints compressed

Hello all, I will post pictures later, and before I begin, my technical terms are not that on par, I am a South African architecture student and inventer, and I just built my reprap prusa I3.

I still have one or two issues with my nozzle clogging up but thats not the problem...This evening I printed three test objects and noticed a problem, on slic3r and pronterface my object's measurements are correct, but when I printed it, the x axis measurement is compressed by n factor of +- 0.8mm.

I checked everything, my x axis motor runs normally, the belt doesn't slip or anything, I checked all the screws, I just can't figure it out. The Y and Z axis measurements are correct, its just the x axis...

I have scaled a object now and I am going to print it tomorrow, but how can I fix it? Tomorrow I am going to print a object just as a preview for a client, but I would really like to fix this problem. And I talked to the company who sold it to me, but the guy is a ass, he thinks that the only people who buys a 3D printer are people who are profesional in programming and such, I am a very tallented designer and I do know how to work with electronics, but he can't help me, so please, what can I do?

And if anyone could tell me a easy way to clean the nozzle it would be nice...

Have you calibrated the printer? Normally you print an object of a specific size, such as 100 mm, then measure it. If it isn't the intended size, you change the steps/mm for that axis in the firmware. You want to calibrate the extruder first, then calibrate the rest of the machine. See Triffid Hunter's calibration guide on the reprap wiki for details.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

I did print a 40x40x40mm block to measure, but this is the problem, by some miracle I got the printer to connect to my windows 10 system, I cant remember how, and now I dont wana touch the firmware cause whell, i have no idea what im doing...so ill check it out tomorrow and give feedback. Thanks a lot for the advice

If it's a constant .8mm then it's likely backlash or a slightly loose pulley. If it's more like a proportional factor then it is probably steps per mm. The way to tell is to print test objects of different sizes. Say 20mm, 40mm, 60mm. If your sizes come out 19.2, 39.2, 59.2 then check your pulley and make sure it is tight on the stepper. If it is tight then you could edit the backlash compensation in the slicer. If you get something more like 19.2, 38.4, 57.6 then you probably want to adjust the steps per mm in firmware. Hopefully you have a copy of the firmware that you are currently using so you can just change the steps per mm and upload. Some firmware allows adjustment of this without compiling and uploading. Depends on which firmware you are using.

hey guys! so I started to work on the printer again, and I was wondering. I got the program simplify 3D, and saw that it has a scale function...if I figure out the ratio, wont that work just as fine?

If you expect help with this you have to provide more info.

Is the X dimension of every part you print incorrect by the same % or does the error % vary? Is the print size off by the same 0.8 mm no matter how big the print is? Is the error +/- or is it always + or always - ?

If it varies, there may be (probably) a mechanical problem causing the error. That needs to be fixed.

If it doesn't vary, it's probably a calibration issue. Scaling in the slicer can help, but it is best to properly calibrate the printer, if that is the actual problem.

How do you control the printer? Does it have an LCD/encoder panel? If you're using a computer to drive the printer, what host software do you use?

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]