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Unanswered Z banding

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Luke, Oct 21, 2015.

  1. Luke

    Luke New Member

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    Ok, so Iv'e been having some huge z banding issues with my printer... Is there anyway to stop it? On another note, will the lead screw upgrade fix this issue?

    It seems like its worst now than ever but it's always been an issue, and i never noticed quite how bad it was until I went to a local shop which had some 3d printers on display, and the prints they were getting were incredible, you could hardly notice the individual layers, it was like they weren't there. It was really then I realized I probably should be getting near the same quality out of my printer.
     
    #1 Luke, Oct 21, 2015
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    that is the main point to the lead screw upgrade.
     
    #2 mark tomlinson, Oct 22, 2015
  3. Luke

    Luke New Member

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    Thats what I thought, but it's not like theres a nicely worded product description on their website. Is there any other way to fix the issue aside from the 100 dollar, sold out upgrade?
     
    #3 Luke, Oct 22, 2015
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    You can do other things suggested in the Z ribbing thread. None of them are certain to solve it, but they are listed there because they all helped. It was a lot of research to sort out, take advantage of it.

    Frankly, I never had it as a problem, but that probably a side effect of my printer arriving broken and me strategically implementing super-glue to fix other problems :)

    You could also buy replacement leadscrews and steppers yourself, but then you have to sort out how to modify the firmware (and possibly the leadscrews if they are too long). Not impossible, but more of a hassle.
     
    #4 mark tomlinson, Oct 22, 2015
  5. bamhm182

    bamhm182 Active Member

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    If you want to spend a couple bucks on an upgrade that may or may not work, there's Novice Expert's set screw coupler upgrade in the following video:

    Expert Mods: Set Screw Couplers

    This work GREAT for me, however, danzca6 tried it on my suggestion, and it didn't work at all for him. I upgraded to the lead screw just because I had already purchased them. I couldn't tell much of a difference between the set screw couples and the lead screw upgrade. The original couplers to the set screw couplers were night and day, though. In the following pictures, the left shows the stock couplers, the right shows the set screw couplers:

    [​IMG]
     
    #5 bamhm182, Oct 23, 2015
  6. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    The issue with the set screw couplers, they are still flexible couplers! There was no need to use flexible couplers in this application. So as they say, if you do this, your mileage may vary. A bigger improvement and just as cheap would be to replace the flexible couplers with rigid couplers, such as something like these:
    [​IMG]

    Will it completely eliminate z-ribbing? If you are lucky, maybe. The other issue solved by the lead screw upgrade is backlash. Regardless which threaded rods you have, threaded rods and nuts are simply not precision instruments. They are made to thread together easily, so the fit is purposefully loose. A proper lead screw helps to eliminate backlash and the resultant contribution to z-ribbing.

    Just a thought, if you want the ultimate in precision, then use the rigid couplers and use a ball screw instead of a lead screw, usually much more precise and smoother in operation than even lead screws. Will you be able to tell the difference? Likely, no, but you can have the satisfaction of knowing you have done everything possible without redesigning the whole printer.
     
    #6 WheresWaldo, Oct 23, 2015
  7. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    they're not about to go out and say "this fixes an issue with our printer!" because it would be bad business sense to admit fault to anything
     
    #7 Mike Kelly, Oct 23, 2015

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