[SOLVED] I'm trying to print a tall, thin cylinder, but these rings start appearing around it towards the top. Does anyone know what could be causing this?
[SOLVED] I'm trying to print a tall, thin cylinder, but these rings start appearing around it towards the top. Does anyone know what could be causing this?
I've printed similar objects with a different colored PLA, but I ran out of it and switched to this.
Is it possible that this could be influencing the outcome?
I have tried reducing the printing speed by 50%, but this did not seem to have a significant impact.
[SOLUTION] The problem was a loose screw. The offending part as well as the new result are pictured below. It's not perfect, which I guess is actually a part of the model this time, but it's good enough for my purposes and way better than what it was before.
I figured this out by twisting the Z-axis thingy manually all the way to the top to see if I could feel any issues. Towards the top, it would start to 'skip', where I would turn and pretty much nothing would happen. I assume this has to do with the lack of lube at the top because my prints rarely go that high. I checked to see if the screws were loose, and sure enough, the top one was. I tightened it up and now my printer is printing like the beast I remember!
Isn't this kind of a torture case for 3D printing? The higher you go, the more the part itself is an unreliable surface. Even in subtractive manufacturing, any weird sticky-outy bit with an extreme aspect ratio is prone to getting snipped off to become a separate piece.
Print two cylinders half this tall. Or print one piece flat along the board. Or buy a plastic dowel.
14Check if your print is wobbling when it reaches that height. If it does, you may need to add support to fix that - a few organic support touch points halfway up should help
12Could you give me advice on how to do that? Is it something that I would have to add manually in a 3D modeling program, or is there a way to do it in Cura?
1I am not too familiar with Cura, but I don't think they have the 'support painting' feature of prusaslicer and the likes that would allow this. In those, you can paint where you'd like your support to touch or use modifier meshes to selectively add regions that should be supported. It's the easiest way I know, though I have heard that Meshmixer also used to be able to do that.. but I've never tried.
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In machining/cnc land everything is a spring. I would suggest finding a way to print it with a more rigid setup. Maybe try putting some kind of support around the cylinder part way up.
11Z binding, I think. Your Z axis is binding up either due to issues with that area of your screws or overheating of the motors (less likely). Lubrication can help unless there is an issue of the screws being warped.
Edit: what machine are you using?
10Thank you for this information. I am using a Creality Ender 3 V2.
4So, this seems counterintuitive, but slightly loosening the part that attaches to the x axis can help as well.
For clarity, you loosen the brass fitting on the x axis that attaches the rod to the x axis.
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It's a cylinder I swear!
7Print again same gcode. If the rings are at the same height its Z axis issue, otherwise model is just too tall
3Hate to tell you but 3d printing Is not the right manufacturing process for the job ... You may have It work out but thers no reason to melt pellet plastic into a somehow precise 1.7 mm diameter wire spool so that you can make a noozle go round for hours.... Just buy a pipe ... No matter what it will be cheaper more precise and sturdier ....
2New thought: set the stl up, drop it through the floor of the build plate to only print the stupid area. That narrows it down to wobble or z binding. Z hop could help a bit with wobble.
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