Solved Calibration Box corners always bow upward

I'm trying desperately to get my Robo3d to print something, but I'm back to doing calibration cubes. This is an original Robo 3D Beta, with the upgraded Y-axis (which has awful problems with heat bed wiring), and an E3D v5 hot end.

When I print the cube, you can tell almost instantly that the very corners of the cube are curling up.This will, of course, plague the print for the rest of the layers. How do I fix this?

Filament type: PLA
Extruding Temp: 210
Bed Temp: 0, 50, 80
Bed makeup: Boro Glass + Aqua Net Extra Super Hold

 

No better. But let me try some of my other filament (I'm using a spool of Blue Robo3D filament at the moment, but it may be bad...)

 

Ok, tried with orange. Definitely less bowing at the corners (although the tops still have a bit of a ridge). So now I'm focusing on the higher levels, and there are ridges for both the X and Y directions. It's not single-layer alignment, these are groups of maybe 5 layers?

 

How do I fix it?!? I tried to do a vase, but that failed miserably. It was doing poorly, but working... until the filament spool got stuck.

 

I've been intentionally *avoiding* doing that upgrade until I know I can get the printer working (I've already spent nearly enough on this printer to buy a second one). But I'll do the rest of my testing and getting things working and then get involved in upgrading the Z axis.

 

And it's *exactly* what's wrong. His details are incredibly helpful. The ribbing is *exactly* aligned to the threading of my Z axis. I'll definitely go through all this stuff there.

Ideally, there should be a troubleshooting page which shows images of problems, and likely causes. You were correct on the bad filament, the filament is old and has started to gain moisture, a no-no for PLA. Once I got past that, I could focus on the ribbing, which is nicely covered. Being able to take my calibration cube and compare it to a set of problem images would go a *long* way in taking a beginner to printing quality prints.

 

FYI: I just ordered the Lead Screw upgrade kit.

 

Kevin, do you have any pics of your cube? I'd be curious of what yours looks like compared to some of mine. Same boat and not wanting to get to crazy throwing money at this printer but it might be that I need these new Z screws. My very first cube out of the box looked a lot better than my latest as far as the sides go. Of course I have switched to Cura and might need to go through all the calibration tweaks to rule out general setup issues. I am also still using the Robo Blue that came with it.

 

Robo blue is horrible filament. Also the lead screw kit will make a huge difference right away. I installed new lead screws a few months ago and it fixed all of my ribbing problems.

 

I agree the free filament is as good as what I paid for it. Burning through it on upgrade parts since pretty isn't a main concern on them. I may still look at getting the new z screw upgrade that gets rid of the couplers in the near future.

I may have found part of my problem. I had printed and installed some z-screw stabilizers that sit on top of the z screws and clip to the z smooth rod. I removed them for a print and the sides look a lot better. Seems odd that would have caused an issue. I removed them because I noticed on my right side screw the little sensor that sits on the nut under the x carriage on that side would rock back and forth with the screw, but the other side didn't. Now they both stay put when the z screw moves back and forth. Might have been adding too much force on the screw rodss. Still slight artifacts, but big improvement. My z screws wobble when I run it up and down and I thought the stabilizers would help. Then I others run with no tops on the printers. So maybe letting them go is better than trying to support it.