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I have been trying to print a pretty long print, about 12 hours long, but each try so far I notice at a certain point the layers start shifting like if someone moved the glass while printing.

First time it shifted towards the front between the X and Y axis and the second time it shifted towards the Y axis.

I'm at a loss, I dont know what is causing it, recently I have installed the new V5 E3D hot end and updated the firmware to .91 or whatever the newest one is.

I am attaching pictures so you can see what I'm talking about. Any help is much appreciated cause I need to get these parts printed 100% with no errors!

First thing I would check would be the tower carriages. You may have one or more towers too tight, you may also have a flat spot in a bearing cover.

carriages are ok, they move freely and the bearing covers have no flat spots. any other ideas what might be going on?

I'm attempting a print of just one of them instead of all three to see if that makes a difference

You have CF arms correct? I vaguely remember something like this with my stock arms. They galled up in the joints. Pulley slip?

Hey there,

Just so you know, I'm still working through a bit of perimeter weirdness with my E3D V5, but looking at your pic, I have a pretty good guess as to what may be happening on that print.

(I still haven't been able to prove this for myself, but it's a good working theory) It looks to me like your nozzle is getting caught on the print, and shifting your build plate over a bit. every once in a while, the slicer will change direction for infill or something, and it will shift back.

OOOOR... you've got a loose/not tight belt pulley, that's slipping a bit every once in a while, from the same set of possible causes below.

I've had this happen when:
- I'm printing with too high a flow rate
- thin support structures get a bit wild, and cast off or transitional movement drags material over and interferes with the print
- nozzle goop accumulates in the same starting spot and creates a high spot
- a corner lifts (cringe)

I don't think it could be the print head moving the piece cause to be honest I use way to thick of a layer of ABS Juice on my glass (but I never have curled up edges) so it would have to slide the whole glass sheet.

Yes I have the Trick Laser CF arms.

I'll check my pullys when I get out of work to see if they are loose somehow. Also when I get home I'll report on the status of the single print.

I did actually have a very similar symptom once or twice. I was only using 3 clips to stick the glass build plate, and occasionally the whole plate would shift a bit if I had any of the mentioned issues.

Now I use 9.

Those big shifts I could maybe see the head dragging it a little bit but now whenever I am printing something the layers just dont seem to always line up, it may be off just a very small hair but it is along the whole print and those little differences are very noticeable, it makes it look really bad! I dont know what happen to my machine but this wasnt happening before I upgraded to the E3D and also the newest firmware. Are there settings I should be tweaking? Layer hieght? Nozzle size? Acceleration? something?? IDK, I love this machine but at the moment it is frustrating the hell out of me!!

You know, now that you mention it, I did notice a difference in perimeter finish when I updated to 0.91 as well.

I wasn't sure if it was a result of the recent E3D upgrade, or the software upgrade.

wfiw, I recently printed out a part for a client, and external perimeters were set to 10mm/s, and it just wasn't as smooth as I remember being able to do. at 10mm/s, I expect a pretty much perfect surface, and I didn't get it.

I may downgrade back to 0.81 this week and see if there's a difference.

I am going to switch back to .81 as soon as this part is done printing, and then print the same part again and see if there is a difference (I need three of these anyway) . Once I have downgraded and printed the part again I will report the results here.

I know people have said it is a problem with one of the axis (ie belts, pullys, binding joints) but I have checked everything and my pullys are still nice and tight, belts are at a good tension with no apparent wear, and I just went through and lubed all the traxxas joints just to make sure ( I do this every week like clockwork anyways), and I have sat here for a few hours just watching as it prints and have not seen anything that looks like any kind of skipping or anything out of the ordinary.

Maybe my machine is due for a complete recalibration, I'll do that next after downgrading my firmware tonight if I've made no progress with the uneven layers.

Anyone have any other ideas? I'm more than open to suggestions as I tend to overlook the simplest things sometimes lol

Thanks for being there to help guys! Don't know if I'd be so far with my printer without all the people that make up this forum!

I switched back to .81 and that didn't seem to help, then I started searching this forum and started to think it wasn't getting enough filament, so I printed and watched my extruder this time and noticed it would skip every now and then and that the spool just wasn't spinning freely. I took a trip to the hardware store and now have a spool holder with bearings allowing the spool to roll freely. I haven't tested it yet but once I get out of work at 9 I'm gonna do a big test print and see if this solved my problem.

AndThenSome09 wrote:I switched back to .81 and that didn't seem to help, then I started searching this forum and started to think it wasn't getting enough filament, so I printed and watched my extruder this time and noticed it would skip every now and then and that the spool just wasn't spinning freely. I took a trip to the hardware store and now have a spool holder with bearings allowing the spool to roll freely. I haven't tested it yet but once I get out of work at 9 I'm gonna do a big test print and see if this solved my problem.

We're hoping you got it this time, AndThenSome09.

YEAH!! we have a winner! That was the problem for sure! Now that my makeshift spool holder allows the spools to roll very freely on bearings my prints are looking pretty good!

Seems as though the stock spool holder really only works with the filament you buy from SeeMeCNC, at least that has been my experience.

When I get home from work I will post pictures of what I used and how I did it just in case anyone would like to try it, the most expensive part of it was the two flanged bearings.

OK, here we go..... My Hardware Store Spool Solution:

Things you will need:

1x 10 inch long 3/4 bolt (zinc plated since its cheaper and isnt going to be outside so no need for Galvanized)
5x nuts to fit 3/4 bolt (zinc plated)
4x 1.37 inch D fender washers (zinc plated)
2x 1.37 inch D flanged bearings

Total cost: $20

You use the stock spool holders brackets and screw a nut all the way down to the end of the bolts threads and then put a washer following it now slide the bolt through the slot on the inner bracket, tilt the bolt so the end is up in the air and put a washer then a nut on the bolt, once you get them far enough you want to lay the bolt back down and have it resting on the bottom of the cutout of the outer bracket. Before you tighten the nut in place that will be holding the bolt, make sure the bolt is level with the bottom of the cutout on the outer bracket, now tighten that bolt. Now slide on a flanged bearing, washer, and nut (in that order) until everything is flush with the outer side of the outside bracket. Now put on a nut then washer, flanged bearing, and another nut so that the two bearings are the width of your spool, I set it so the flanges of the bearing come up around the edges of the spool, so the spool fits just right in between the flanges of the bearings. Now you have an adjustable spool holder, if your next spool is thinner or thicker just tighten or loosen the outside bearings nuts.

That's it, pretty simple I'd say, didn't cost a fortune either!

One thing I plan on doing is removing the whole thing and hacking the end of the bolt off with my hack saw so it's not sticking out so far on the other side of the brackets ( I had to use one this long so the threaded part would be long enough to cover everything)

Now that I think about it I could have probably just used a threaded rod but that most likely would have been more expensive and I was looking for the cheapest solution to my problem.

Thanks guys, hope this helps someone out there!