Extruder has play in Y-Axis

Just wanted to say thank you, this saved my print quality.

Before:

After:





Since I received the x1c I can’t get quality prints, I contacted customer service with whom I spoke for a long time and they made me clean all the bars several times and claimed that my settings were wrong. I had them send me a gcode and this is the result. They told me it was the faulty extruder and they sent me a complete one to change but the result was always the same. Could the procedure in this post solve my problem in your opinion? I have the extruder that moves too

Print a cube, 50x50x50mm is enough, 2 walls and rectilinear infill @15%. Take a look at the infill when it’s printing (or just stop it when it gets high enough). If you see double lines like I had in my first photo then you have a backlash problem. It might be caused by this (you should be able to tell where the play is, could be something else).

But to be honest I don’t find your prints that bad - although I got used to some flaws in my prints and to hide them with filament selection, so I’m not even sure now how well it’s supposed to look :slight_smile: Matte PLA (BL ones at least) show flaws more than most other filaments I tried, I only noticed problems on my machine after loading in the red one.

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It seems to me that it would be more prudent to create a half split printed bearing that would sit inside those two cavities, using the open slots to keep them secure on the X axis so as not to try to shift, at .33 to .35 mm thick to secure the housing to the bearings. when squished via screws. The fix is on their end to increase the tolerance of the existing part and re-cast them, or provide a printable STL/3MF to the users to modify.

For the record, the play came back. I’m going to disassemble it again and use metal tape as shim, but I’m thinkig of ordering a new carbon rod assembly which hopefully has a better fix implemented. I’m not sure how those threads in plastic are going to hold up if I have to do it again.
How are your printers doing? Did anyone also have to redo it?

Hello, is it now fixed? What was the cost? How many hours have you used the printer? Is it time consuming to change the parts?

I shimmed it more, maybe even too much, and tighteneted it. One of the screws didn’t feel right, I think I overtightened it.
It has a bit of play now (it has been printing non-stop), and I already have new carbon rods and plan on changing them this weekend.

Taking it apart and shimming it is not too bad. Changing the carbon rods is not too much fun (I changed my belts previously which is 99% of the work), mostly because you have to remove the panels, get the belts out and back through, and in the process you should clean everything, the idlers, any debris, and hope you don’t strip any screws. Last time it took me maybe 4 hours but I was taking my time, cleaning everything, also readjusting the Z belt and tramming the bed and my idlers were very dirty and had to be almost scraped off… I hope I’ll be done in under 2 hours this time :slight_smile:

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Thank you, it’s really good to hear honest feedback. How many hours have you printed in total? Why I am asking is to understand the durability of the printer. We are currently researching which printer to aquire at workplace. There are lots of printing with PA CF filament. High precision is required.

About 7500 hours :smiley: It’s been printing almost non-stop ever since I got it and I printed a lot of nasty (CF/GF) stuff from it. I don’t think anybody has to worry about durability. At least not in the ways people expect. The carbon rods are perfectly fine, it still prints fine, I am constantly getting compliments on my prints, yet I know it can be a little bit better. Whatever mechanical issues I had were either

  1. there right at the beginning - loud aux fan that I swapped
  2. caused by transport - thread on one Z rod was damaged which manifested as the toolhead knocking down supports because it got slightly stuck - I filed it, oiled it and it’s been good ever since
  3. caused by me - I bent the bed a bit by forcing it down by pushing on it. Then I bent it bet and just one corner is more uneven than it was. But I also discovered some of my print plates are getting uneven and making it worse (they just wear out in the middle where most of the stuff is printed, so it’s good to shuffle it around if you remember to do that :))
  4. really minor like that toolhead play I have now - it’s nowhere near as bad as when I discovered it and it would print just fine for another 7000 hours. Or that my bed moves a bit front to back on one side which doesn’t really affect anything except I know it’s there and should take a look at it, I noticed it just because the priming line was not parallel to the edge like it used to be, I tucked it in and it’s fine - maybe I just didn’t tighten up the screws enough when tramming it.

Overall, don’t worry. It’s always possible to get a lemon should you buy a Ford or a Porsche, it’s the same here, but the printer in general is good and reliable and I don’t regret getting it.

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You know you make your bearings not round?
The bearings are round and with shims you make the wrong way. Its not a solution, in time you habe more problems

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Wow! You had so much play that the infill changed direction?

Only if too much pressure?