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When I print a model with many small features, the retract happens very frequently, and the filament thins out in the busiest sections of the model.

I can see as the frequent retractions occur that the extruder flexes upward away from the x axis base plate. I retract 2mm, then feed 2mm when it gets to the new spot, however as the extruder has a backlash of nearly 1mm.

I'm still experimenting with these values, but has anyone else seen this issue and resolved it? Here's a video showing the backlash in the extruder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OEm3ny10UM

It makes prints such as http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:25282 impossible, and probably any print requiring small supports.

steinman, I put an extra bolt in the back of mine to prevent that, but also, in slic3r, you can use add length on restart to accomplish feeding in more than you retract

I saw that setting, but I'm worried about adding blobs of extra to prints that don't have this issue, or even different parts of the same print. I suppose I may just have to have separate print settings, but I'll try stiffening the whole assembly first.