One wavy side - any ideas?

Hello,

I've been printing off odd bits on my printer here and there, mostly little things for the kids to play with, but I wanted to sort out my settings before trying to print off anything serious.

Someone kindly gave me a config file, which has proved to have solved a few of the issues I was having, so I've started to be a little bit more ambitious with some of my prints.

I wanted to make a little fidget keyring
[www.thingiverse.com]

I printed out all of my bits, and in my haste jammed them all together, and snapped off one of the pegs that the cogs sit onto, this was entirely my fault, as I wasn't patient enough to wait until I'd tidied up all the edges of by bits.

I decided to print out something a little simpler while I tried to remember what clever place I left my craft files, so I printed out some little monopoly houses to replace ones that have been long lost.

Most of the printing came out really well, but one side is all wavy







I tried printing out a group of 4, and just one on it's own, always with the same result that that one edge was wavy

When I was printing out the group of 4, each one was rotated on the bed by 90 degrees, and whatever edge was facing the little reprap logo was wavy.

For the little houses, I'm not really too fussed, I've managed to files them as smooth as I need them to be, but going back and looking at my cogs, I have the same problem. where one side of them is slightly wavy, so my nice round cogs are slightly egg-shaped.

The printer is in a cupboard, so temperature is constant, belts have good tension, I've checked over teh machine and everything that should be tight is tight, and everything that should move, moves freely.

Is there something really obvious that I'm missing?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2016 03:48PM by RoboticMonk3y.

When you assembled did you tighten and loctite the threaded balls to the carriages and the effector? This would explain some wavyness if the balls are rotating when the carriage is traversing, moving the position of one ond of the arm perpendicular to the direction of travel and making the movement of the effector inaccurate.

First thing I'd check. Have you been able to print things before with no wavyness?

Thanks for the reply,
just taken off each arm, one at a time, my threaded balls are all tightly secured in place.
Now the arms are back on I've checked and there's no play in any of them.

How odd.

What were the issues you were having that the config file fixed?

Wondering if you're having the same issues as me, if so, would you be able to share?

I was struggling to get slicer to make the bed the right shape, I also has the issue of the hit end resting on the print when it was finished.

I wasn't having wavy problems before. I can only assume that I've knocked something , moving it into the cupboard I'm printing in.
I tried printing out the robot today
The first thing I ever printed is on the left, today's print is on the right.

Quote
FragrantParrot
What were the issues you were having that the config file fixed?

Wondering if you're having the same issues as me, if so, would you be able to share?

I've looked at your post and I think I've been having a similar issue where my first layer was mushing into the bed.
I noticed that the hot end was leaving little dents into the build tac, I lowered the temperature down to 150 and the auto calibrate worked much better.

I'm still confused about how the robot print can be so different.
Is ambient temperature important?
I currently have my printer in a cupboard, the temperature in the room is fairly constant, but would I get better prints ifvi shut the cupboard door?

So I decided to go for it and print something much bigger than I've been printing so far.

I printed out this [www.thingiverse.com]
And apart from the fact that for some odd reason slicer added a single layer to the entire top of the print. The print went well. After a quick run across some sandpaper the gear turned with only the odd but the f resistance.
I've taken a picture and the front still seems to be wobbling on printing.


I think I'm going to have to try and double check that everything is tight. It's rather frustrating that I'm so close to perfect prints but can't seem to work out what I'm doing wrong.

@RoboticMonk3y

Loose pulley, broken diagonal arm, and worn out ball joints can contribute layer shift.
I had experienced above three cases. It was hard to troubleshoot. I ended up replacing all six diagonal arms, effector plate, and 12 ball joints.