Diagnosing/fixing "squareness" of prints

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andrewgodwin
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Diagnosing/fixing "squareness" of prints

Post by andrewgodwin »

I've been printing out square tiles for a project I'm making, and they're not coming out completely square - it's hard to determine how they're skewed exactly, but I would say that they're coming out trapezoid based on the way they tile.

It's not a very big error - only about 2mm between square tiles of 15cm on a side - but it's noticeable when trying to put them together, as the gap forms a shadow.

I know that delta printers can be hard to make perfectly square, but does anyone have any tips on how to at least reduce the error further? I'm unsure if I should look at tower stop screw heights, tower squareness to the base, software settings in the firmware, or other avenues. Any help is appreciated!
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Re: Diagnosing/fixing "squareness" of prints

Post by bubbasnow »

pictures help
andrewgodwin
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Re: Diagnosing/fixing "squareness" of prints

Post by andrewgodwin »

You can't really see it in pictures - they look square to the naked eye as they're only a few mm off on each side. I've attached a picture of them tiled together showing the sort of gaps that occur.
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IMG_20160712_162656.jpg
Mac The Knife
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Re: Diagnosing/fixing "squareness" of prints

Post by Mac The Knife »

That puts things into perspective. How big are your tiles? What material are you printing with? How thick are the tiles? What printer are you using?
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andrewgodwin
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Re: Diagnosing/fixing "squareness" of prints

Post by andrewgodwin »

This is PLA, the problem happens with both 7.5cm square tiles and 15cm square tiles, and I'm on a Rostock Max V2. The tiles vary in thickness from a few mm to over a cm thick, and all exhibit the same issue (it's inherent in the path of the print head, not a slope on the print bed, from what I can tell)
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Jimustanguitar
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Re: Diagnosing/fixing "squareness" of prints

Post by Jimustanguitar »

I wonder if you've actually got an over-extrusion related problem that's making the edges a non-flat surface...

If you print a square with nothing on it, like this one http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1439048 , does the width of the part vary along the length of the flats?
andrewgodwin
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Re: Diagnosing/fixing "squareness" of prints

Post by andrewgodwin »

I printed a completely flat tile similar to that while trying to test it, and it also exhibits the same problem where the corners aren't 90 degrees. Checking with a square, the entire edge pulls away from the square at an angle, so it's not an extrusion problem in that sense at least. The problem also happens with several different brands of PLA and ABS.
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Re: Diagnosing/fixing "squareness" of prints

Post by geneb »

That's Hiroshima, isn't it?

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