Not sure I’d call this banding as it’s happening only in specific areas, not across the whole part and previously a few days ago printed fine so not sure what to call this problem.
Top part printed yesterday / bottom printed a few days prior on the same printer. Printed the same parts on another printer yesterday and they came out fine with flat surfaces being flat.
More context: X1C with 350hrs on it, about a year and half old. Was having an issue that sounded like it was knocking prior so already checked the belt tension, and even replaced the hot end. Gyroid infill, etc. Bottom part printed fine after all that. and now the top part printed with these issues suggesting something is still wrong.
There’s a visible protrusion in an arc like its bowing out rather than going straight. The model is fine and you can physically feel the difference. The fact that it appears on the top to be happening in some sequence and frequency over many layers leads me to believe its some sort of an alignment issue.
I’ve run calibration multiple times, and run several self-tests that all check out fine. Looking for what else I can check to see if I can resolve this.
Try using a different filament brand (not BL) and see if it still comes out. Personally I’m using mostly eSun and PolyMaker for PLA and PETG, but there are other brands offering quality and reliable filaments to choose from.
Going to be hard to provide advice without knowing how it looks on the plate, you mention vertically so I immediately think of the case where the nozzle smacks the adhesion loose a bit and the part wobbles some small amount while printing is happening resulting in ugly bulges. But it’s just a guess and doesn’t seem to fit with how I imagine those parts break down.
Include the .3mf if possible that will allow experienced users to get a clear look at the possible issues.
Valid points, I can’t share the 3MF but it was printed as shown here in this orientation for a few reasons.
Same PLA (different spool) was used on another printer and it printed them fine. In both cases bed adhesion was great with no signs of it having been lifted off the plate.
Here’s a closer view of areas where its happening on the bad part vs one that was printed on another X1C.
Interesting. The best I can offer is that it seems to be the side with the aux fan that came out well versus the bad side with basically no aux fan. And that is negated by the fact you said its fine on another machine and im going to assume same orientation.
I suspect something to do with the issues you previously had with the machine, you mentioned belt tensioning and low print hours but rather long ownership. Did you clean the carbon rods and then tension the belts? That’s what I like to do, power off, loosen the tension screws, clean carbon rods really well, move the head all over the place many many times, clean one last time, tighten tension screws, calibrate machine from menu.
I would also check the replaced nozzle, at least that manual extrusion looks clean (straight down) and the screws are nice and snug and that the thermal paste is good to go.
Thanks, definitely have cleaned it, its well maintained even with the low hours, but I’ll have a run at doing all that again and see if it makes a difference.
It’s definitely interesting or I wouldn’t have posted cause I’ve yet to see an issue like this or know what to call it to see what others solutions were and it would seem isolated and related to the issues I’ve been having that I thought might have been addressed only for it to do this and leaving me ???
Update
As an update I heavily cleaned the carbon rods and moved things around a whole bunch and retensioned the belts.
While not completely eliminated that has seemed to help again. The question is, is there a way to tension the belts more? With the self-tensioning I don’t know if doing it a 3rd time theres some trick to getting them even tighter?
Things are certainly improved (and were for some time last week before going down hill again) so we’ll see if it lasts but appreciate the suggestions to try it again, just don’t know if a 3rd time is worth it or I should quit at 85% of perfect haha.
