Travel isn't parallel with plate.

[iluvzcereal]

I'm having tons of problems with calibrating the ORION. I've attached a photo of the problem. The printer struggles to create straight lines parallel with the glass plate. Basically it begins travelling higher than the plate and slowly lowers as it travels farther down, eventually hitting the plate and dragging across it. Then it turns around to do the next line and does the same thing: starts at a Z that is slightly too high, only to lower and begin dragging on the plate.
I've tried recalibrating several times (ver 0.91 firmware btw) but the problem seems to happen fairly consistently.

Any help would be great.

[TFMike]

have you run the towers gcode and adjusted the end stop screws accordingly?

[Tinyhead]

have you run the towers gcode and adjusted the end stop screws accordingly?

+1

Looks like your Y tower screw needs to be tightened a touch (assuming looking at the machine from the front). Like TFMike said, do the tower end stop calibration.

[iluvzcereal]

I've done that several times using the towers gcode. I even used the process for calibrating the Rostock MAX as suggested by another topic for recalibration. When the extruder stops near the towers, I've tried to be meticulous in adjusting the screws and so far it seems great in that aspect. Just traveling across the plate is proving difficult. It's almost as if when going back and forth, the extruder follows a sort of 'figure 8' pattern: starting high and ending low regardless of direction.

[iluvzcereal]

It's also hard to tell from the picture but it usually looks more the centre is thin and the outer edges are too thick. In the picture the top edge has barely any filament but thats only because it broke off. Sorry about the bad photo! I checked the Hrad and calibrated it so the centre is also leveled with the towers.

[guanu]

if the center is thin and all the outer edge is thick, you will want to change the horizontal radius in your eeprom, and if the outer edge is thicker, you want to lower the number by about .2-.3mm... then reset your z and give that a shot....

Guanu

[iluvzcereal]

I did the Hrad pretty meticulously and it doesn't help. It basically prints thinner the farther along it travels, so it still prints really thin at the edge as well. This thin layer is just hidden however, by the fact that when the head turns to go the other way, it prints thick thus making the edge LOOK like it's completely thick. The middle however is uniformly too thin and thats why you can see it easier. Im sorry I cant explain this problem better. It just seems very weird.

[iluvzcereal]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1j30wfzcgz5gp ... .34.31.mp4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here's a link to a video. The print is really bad but you can see the behaviour. When it starts a new line it rises then falls. Then when it turns around, it does the same rise then fall, tracing a sort of 'figure 8' pattern (you can tell by the extruder and its reflection how far the extruder is off from the base).

[guanu]

hmm ok, since I see its the version with the old platform, the one thing I'd try first is take off the arms one at a time and test the ujoints, see how they spin.. check if any are locked up..

Guanu

[iluvzcereal]

Wow I checked and 4 were locked up. Im proceeding to lubricate the joint and polish the rod to help fix this. I'll keep you updated to see if anything works better.

[iluvzcereal]

hmm ok, since I see its the version with the old platform, the one thing I'd try first is take off the arms one at a time and test the ujoints, see how they spin.. check if any are locked up..

Guanu

THANK YOU! You've solved 3 of my problems:
1. Travel isn't parallel with plate
2. Straight lines in general
3. Extruder not reaching the perimeter when doing a solid layer.

Now I can get to actually printing stuff.

[iluvzcereal]

Marking this as SOLVED