Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

I thought people might find this interesting.

My Orion has the old-style wood cheapskate carriages. I recently adjusted the wheel cams, and noticed a faint parabolic pattern artifact on cylindrical objects. It was only noticeable when using an overhead light source.

The parabola seemed to either peak or bottom out just opposite the Z tower, so I checked it, and apparently the wheels were a bit too tight.

I loosened them a bit and the pattern went away. The best setting seems to be where it only requires moderate finger pressure to make the wheels slip against the tower.

I can only imagine that over-tightening caused some kind of deformation of the wheels. Kind of like when you get a grocery cart with a bad wheel. Fortunately, it does not appear to have caused permanent damage to the wheels.

Was there a flat spot on one of the wheels? I wonder if you'd feel a "tick" if you ran the carriage up and down by hand, or if the line in your print would have happened again higher up on the print? (one wheel circumference higher)

FYI, upgrading to the injection molded carriages and ball-cup arms are probably one of the best upgrades you can do to an older Orion (short of a Duet).

g.

Jimustanguitar wrote:Was there a flat spot on one of the wheels? I wonder if you'd feel a "tick" if you ran the carriage up and down by hand, or if the line in your print would have happened again higher up on the print? (one wheel circumference higher)

I don't know about "then" but I can't detect any flat spot now.