VFAs and not straight lines
I have VFAs that for the life of me, I cannot get rid of. I also found a slight wiggle in lines that should be straight. I have played with the belt tension and attempted to square everything up/ fix racking. I'm really not sure what else to do here. It is worst in X, but present in all sides, including when printed at 45 degree angle. Please help
7 Replies
rival-black•16mo ago
I don’t see specific mention of it your post so: did you look for belts rubbing/wearing? Check the idlers and motors for belt dust. If the belts are not aligned that can cause VFAs.
The belts are running the edges of some of the pulleys, but I'm not sure how to better align it. When the belts are loose, everything moves very smoothly. Once the belts are tightened, I can feel the varying resistance thats corresponding with the wavy edges (can see in first picture a bit as if youre looking down a piece of wood to see if its straight). There was a little bit of dust, but no visible wear on the belt. I've tried loosening all the pulleys to get it to align better and it didnt seem to make a difference.
rival-black•16mo ago
If the belt is rubbing near a motor, loosen the belts and adjust the toothed gear on the motor up or down by backing out the grub screw, adjusting, and retightening screw and belts. If the belts are rubbing near an idler it might be necessary to acquire 1mm or less thick washers/shims to adjust the height of the idlers.
Can you post photos of where the belts are rubbing?
The front idlers its along the bottom of the pulleys, the back idlers looks like its closer to the top. And with the printed part, I can't tell if its running top or bottom on the motor. Here's the front right. I will look through my hardware and try to shim it tomorrow.
I've been messing with the belts for some time and still have not resolved this issue. I adjusted the pulley placement on the motors, checked frame squareness and deracked and am still having vertical artifacts. A few things I've noticed: the rear idlers have the belt running pretty centered, but regardless of how I shim the front, it still wants to run the bottom of the idlers. Is this a common problem for the 500mm printers and just the weight of the belt? Could it be coming from somewhere else? Ive thought about replacing everything with gates, but I dont want to waste the money if its not going to fix it. The belts also seem to bounce quite a bit when moving.
if the belts bounce quite a bit you probably have to tighten them more, my 500 does do that with loose belts
I think the front idler on enclosure 2.0 doesn't mount square by default. The top and bottom plates can be misaligned and then the idler will not be perfectly vertical ap the belt will be constantly trying move in one direction. And then it will snap like mine did.
No idea how to get it right tho. And actually I think it was my rear idlers that where not vertical... Also no idea how to get that right.