I am experiencing problem with vertical walls with a P2S.
As can be clearly seen from the attached photos, the walls have irregular textures, ripples, and directional artifacts, visible on both external and internal surfaces.
If that were the case, wouldn’t the problem occur across the entire surface and not just in certain areas?
In the original 3mf it was set up like this, I tried to check if there were any painted parts by mistake, but there weren’t any.
However, the last test I did before that was with fuzzy skin disabled.
I was thinking about the fact that the day before yesterday I lubricated the axles as usual and the belts following the wiki (I heard a noise coming from an idler that got louder as the days went by).
Between yesterday and today, that was the first print with a slightly larger surface area; the others were small tests.
Could it be that this time I lubricated the axles too much and that this problem is caused by that, or that there was some problem with the lubrication of the belts or idlers?
Or maybe a bad tensioning of the belt?
I didn’t write about it before because I hadn’t thought about it. It’s not the first time I’ve done this, and I’ve never had any problems, but you never know.
What’s more, the first prints made after these operations were successful, so I didn’t think the two things could be related.
I have a vague and probably wrong theory and a unrelated solution.
Possible Theory (You should only read this if you are bored and don’t care about probably wasting your time): We all know the VFAs were improved in the latest firmware update. This means they had to have done something in the firmware to cancel out/move the steppers in a way to remove the VFAs. Knowing the exact time to move the nozzle slightly (VERY slightly) faster and slower relies on the printer having EXACT knowhow on the steps/mm and position of tool head. This is so it knows where the ridges in the belt and idler and whatnot is. So lets say during it’s homing calibration, it gets slightly off in terms of steps/mm. That means that the slowing and accelerating of the tool head (again you could never see this) is not occurring at the correct time, and instead multiplies what it is trying to cancel out. And that would explain why it homes like 5 billion times before each print. maybe I’m on to something Again this could be a laughably incorrect theory and not worthy of thinking farther about.
AANNNYWWAAAYYYS this is the part you should read
Possible solution unrelated from my “theory”: Click on the drop down next to files. Click preferences. Scroll all the way down and enable dev mode. Close that out, then go to quality, and under “precision” there should be “precise wall.” Turn it on, then slice the file. I have no clue if this will do anything, but it did mildly help the print quality on my printer.
I probably put waaaaaaaaaay too much on my sliders. And nothing happened. I don’t think that is related to your problems. And given how it worked right after a full calibration it seems more likely firmware related, but once again life loves to give us coincidences.
To me, this looks much more like a classical flow issue rather than vfa’s. The latter are caused by the belts and therefore tend to be matched to belt position rather than the diagonal ripple features seen here. They always feature the same pitch as the belt teeth and are usually countered by speed settings out-of-phase with the belt teeth.
Looking at flow issues, scarf around entire wall may have something to do with it. However, I’d assume the print preview to show a max flow driven print? Lowering max flow may be worth a shot. And/Or wall speed(s).
And of course, ensure the filament is self-dryed and calibrated.
As for maintenance, I agree that it may be best to redo the z-rod cleaning and re-lubrication.
Not because of excessive lubricant, but to check if the spindles have been pushed up.
That can easily happen (amhik), resulting in really weird effects. Flow issues resulting from excessive build plate displacement can be extremely hard to diagnose. On my X1, the spindles can be popped right back. In extreme cases, you may also want to check the heat bed z-axis bearings. On an X1, they can be loosened and then retightened using the two tiny screws of the holder to relieve stresses. Just do not release all of them at the same time
Finally, re-tightening the belts is fortunately easy enough to do that just-in-case.
Yesterday, I discovered that the problem was caused by the seam settings: when I disabled them, the model printed correctly.
To do a quick test, I disabled them all at once, so at the moment I don’t know which setting (or combination of settings) was causing the problem. As soon as I have some time, I’ll try re-enabling them one at a time to try to isolate the cause.
It would also be interesting to understand whether such a result should actually be expected with those settings, or whether there is an underlying problem (I will also check the ones you suggested) that is only highlighted with certain seam configurations.
I updated the original post by adding a screenshot of the settings I am referring to.
Again this could be a laughably incorrect theory and not worthy of thinking farther about.
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