Solved Not Printing Right

My Robo R1 has started printing poorly. I've included a photo. Any idea what is causing this? I am printing at medium quality. PLA. 210/50.

 

No oiler. Never have had one. Never calibrated the extruder either. 210 has worked in the past but I can lower it and see if that helps. This seemed to occur after my extruder fan fell out. When I went to put it back in place i accidently hit the moving blades (forgot they were still moving) and damaged them. Now the fan vibrates and you can feel the vibration in the x rods. Could that be causing the problem?

 

This is maybe a dumb question, I notice I can turn the z axis coupler independent of the screw rod. Souldn't it be locked in place. I checked the set screws and they are tight.

 

I used tape on the threads and now the rod does not turn relative to the coupler. Hoping that will solve the problem. Will try it out shortly.

 

The stock couplers that come on the R1 are designed to squeeze the threaded rod. I was never a fan. They also sell couplers like https://amzn.com/B00KHTVOEU (or better yet solid couplers like this https://amzn.com/B0176G1O78) where the set screws actually go into the rod and the stepper shaft at two points each. The stepper shafts already have the dual flats that make this work great. You can either use the threaded rod as is or take it one step further and grind a similar dual flat v shape into the end. Just another option if anyone wanted to go down that path. Either way, adding a bit of lock tite blue to the set screws help keep them in place.

Now the best option is to upgrade to leadscrews that are integrated directly into the steppers that Robo sells as an upgrade...when in stock. There actually is a way to take the stock steppers apart and just add the leadscrew in this manner, but I won't get into that right now.

 

Printing has improved quite a bit by taking care of the slippage between the z rods and the couplers. What I did was take an aluminum pie pan and cut a thin strip from the bottom of the pan. I pushed the strip into the coupler hole as far as it would go. Then I dropped the rod in, tightened the set screw and trimmed off the excess aluminum strip. Working well so far.

 

That's a good example of using what you have to solve a problem.

 

Mmmmmm.... Pie....