Solved Uneven First Layer on one side of bed

So this is kind of weird and I'm wondering if I did something that caused this to happen or if this is a setting that I somehow changed that pushed this over the edge. Since I got my replacement hot-end, my R1+ has been working, but I've noticed an oddity with the first layer when it goes down. For some reason, the left side of the bed is not placing down. It's leaving maybe a fraction of material, but doesn't really leave anything until the second layer. I've tried pulling the bed up off the magnets and then putting it back down. I've tried rotating the printer 90 degrees on the table its sitting on. Neither had any effect.

You can see this in the following images.

In this first image, you can see that the PLA just sort of stop when it gets to the left side or lays down an incredibly thin layer. Changing the starting Z-offset didn't really seem to affect this much, though I'll test more.




Here you can see on the second layer, how there is SOME material there, but it's very light.



And here you can see that the left side is translucent due to being thinner than the other side, which is the expected thickness.



Any suggestions as to what might be causing this?

 

This is exactly the same issue I have battled nearly from day one.
The "thin" layer is caused by the nozzle being too close to the bed and can't lay down any (or very little) material.

It's happening only on one side because your X is off (left to right is x).

As mentioned above, the ABL (auto bed leveling) is not perfect.

First be sure your left and right brass nuts are adjusted so that the vertical (Z) switches both trigger at the same time.
Adjust the left side brass nut because it's far easier to get to.

Next is manually level your bed using a piece of paper for a feeler guage and manually twisting the vertical screws to put the nozzle the same distance above the bed. This gets the machine "close enough" that the ABL function works much better.

I know this issue well!

 

Thanks for the help, guys. Sadly I have to travel this weekend, but hopefully I'll be able to try and fix this on Sunday. I was hoping it was something like this.

Related question: when I replaced the hotend, I had to manually move the z-axis...but unlike my other printer, the Robot has two poles for the Z. I believe that I initially made them out of sync when I did this (as I had to move the extruder up to remove the old hot-end. Could that be related and if so, is there a way to make sure they are properly in-sync? I'm just wondering if I accidentally made it so that the extruder itself is not level, causing the problem. Or is that something that can't actually happen?

 

Ah, outstanding! I've done that on the Printrbot when calibrating the bed sensor, so this is just a variation on that. I'll try that this weekend and let you know how it goes.

 

I tried shimming with paper "chads" (the confetti from a paper punch) and no matter what I still had the problem until I raised the left hand brass nut almost 1/4 inch. Raising the nut nearly solved my issue.

My Robo also seems to do better when I'm using CURA for my program instead of MatterControl. Not sure why.

Good luck and let us know what works for you please!

 

Well...that could have gone better. Glad the forums are back, wish they were here yesterday. I've basically broken the printer, so I've scheduled a tech support meet for tonight to hopefully identify what replacement part I need (though this pic should make it obvious).

Essentially, in attempting to level the X-axis correctly, I unhooked the part with the brass bolt (the Z-trigger?) Repositioned it slightly and then put the connector back on...and neither one would go back in properly. I don't know what I did wrong...I tried adjusting the clamp up and down, verified it LOOKED like it was in the hole and slotted in the proper direction, but it wouldn't go. Spent nearly two hours trying to figure out why. The difficult location for the file made it more take longer, obviously.

Here you can see the left side bolt:



And here's the right side bolt, which I didn't nothing to except loosen the z-trigger clamp; something I stopped doing when it proved too difficult and then just retightend. Neither one would go up in the hole and the clamp wouldn't go over the top to lock in place around the z-axis cylinder. Also, note that one wire hanging at angle? It start falling off while I was working.



And that lead to me breaking the printer thusly. The red wire kept falling off. I would put it back on. At one point, it just snapped clean off, which of course means that even if I could get the bolts back in, it won't work. After 2.5 hours of frustration, that was the icing on the cake.


Sent a few irritated tweets at Robo, then called the support number and at their suggestion, created a meet session tonight so we can maybe fix the bolts and then order a replacement part. So the printer is going to be out of commission for at least a week, given the slow shipping for parts. I had hoped this would be a quick adjustment, but sadly it's much more than that.

 

Thanks, Geof. Yeah, I was nervous about removing that zip tie, since I coudn't tell how easy it would be to replace. I definitely tried adjusting the brass nuts, but even turning them back and forth, they wouldn't go. That's why I'm baffled. I'm assuming it'll turn out to be something stupidly obvious. I had to suppress my hulk rage for a while after the piece broke off. LOL. Hopefully the meet with tech tonight will get me at least to the point where they can send the replacement and we'll be good to go.

 

The story continues, now on a better note. Thanks to some quick coaching from support, we determined it was just that you have to wiggle the plastic connector and nuts back-and-forth a might to make sure that they properly fit. In about two minutes of trying, got the first and the second followed soon after. The micro-switch is broken but they're already sending a replacement. My initial fear that I'd broken a major part is now (as Geof wisely advises above) revealed as just a small micro-switch, easily replaced. I may run over to the local Radio Shack at lunch and see if they have one.

If all goes well, I'll try the R1+ tonight and hopefully have better luck. Tip of the hat to everybody for the help!

 

Lucky to still have one

 

Just another update : luckily at least one Radio Shack is still running (the one near my home went out, so as danzca points out, I'm lucky to still have one in the city) and they actually had some switches in stock (albeit with a metal trigger on top). I picked up a couple on the chance they'd work. Last night I installed one and after a little finagling, the printer was working again, yay!

Unfortunately, I'm back to an improper leveled X-axis, though it seems better than before (as you can see from the first layer of this calibration print, below). It did, however, print decently until I cancelled it. If I'm lucky, I may have time to recalibrate tonight...otherwise a very busy schedule means not until the end of the weekend. Still, it's solid progress and a solvable issue, I think.

(side note: apologies for the continual documentation; my general goal is that if someone else googles this problem, this result will be out there. Nothing drives me nuttier than finding someone having my exact same technical issue and then never seeing if they got a resolution.)

 

Geof, initially I did not. Last night I decided it couldn't hurt and did so. Still works. So now I have a possibly related issue. I've been trying to do calibration prints and I'm not getting bed adhesion, even though the filament appears to be going to down evenly on both sides. Watching as it prints, it looks like the print head is too high. I've changed the GCode setting to move the nozzle closer to the bed, but I'm not sure it's actually doing it. The print at z -0.6 seems about the same as 0.00, which suggests to me a problem with the bed leveling.

I'm just not sure what to do about it. I'll try and record a video of it tonight. Does anyone have any suggestions of what to check?

If I need to paper-level the printer, that's fine...but how do I actually do that on the Robo. On the Printrbot, I just calibrated the Z-axis and the bed sensor using a piece of paper...but I'm not clear on what to on the R1+.

Thanks,
Dru.