Thanks for the tip, that wasn’t on my radar. I just followed that walkthrough and the Z screws were okay regarding tightness to the chassis, and tightness to the hotbed. One of the front Z screws may have been 2 clicks out of sync but they’re definitely all good to go now. And, the Z belt wasn’t “loose” per se, but it wasn’t as tight as it should be but it’s good now too.
Thanks for the tips!
General update: I figured out the banding is happening on layers that have a longer layer time.
What I think I know:
-Layers with a longer layer time cause banding.
-Layers that contain support interface have the worst banding, regardless of whether or not I’m using the same PLA filament for everything (vs ‘Support W’ PLA for support interface layers)
-“Top layer” filament in a layer also increases layer time, of course, which causes some banding for example
-This issue happens with all custom settings, but also with all default settings incl default PLA profiles
-These outer wall values are consistent across all layers, regardless of the layer time: flow, layer height, temperature, line width
I found a thread from a user who had/has this issue as well but they didn’t get any replies really…
Banding caused by differences in layer time Does anyone have any thoughts as to why increased layer time causes such noticeable banding and sloppy extra-overhangs?
Ref photo, this layer had bad banding and a really sloppy overhang area, and had support interface on the same layer:
The banding in my original post’s photo directly correlates to the layers with the longest layer times per Bambu Studio. So, the banding has to do with layer time somehow I think.