While I acknowledge the expectations Ellis tries to set, all the youtubers out there have me chasing a dragon looking for better and better layer aliment on my z-axis. I suspect (at least) one of you will come out of the woodwork and say your printer has better aligned layers than mine too 😭 I'm certainly not alone, but even in that thread you can find some people claiming that not everyone experiences the issue
So far, I've been through three iterations on my CW2:
- BMG gears with a grub screw
- BMG Integrated Drive Gear Assembly (IDGA). Press fit gear = no more grub screw
- FYSETC CNC Pom w/ Helical gears, since evidently the BMG gears can still be somewhat offset
Results below with me hand holding my cellphone and moving a Pixar style desk lamp to be at a progressively steeper angle to the face of the cubes. Left = FYSTEC Pom (I also used Orcaslicer), middle = BMG IDGA, right = 'normal' BMGs. Note that the cubes are upside down.
Vanity shot with very soft and indirect light
Direct light, 90 degrees to the face of the cubes (basically perpendicular)
Direct light, ~45 degrees to the face of the cubes
Direct light, ~5 degrees to the face of the cubes (basically parallel)
At this point, I am going to shrug, give up, and print with fuzz (or avoid harsh light).
Are you sure you are looking at the right things to improve? Did you check all the screws on the gantry and toolhead? Is your tap (if you use it) solid?
Not at all, that's part of the reason for this post. I did give all the screws a once over and everything is nice and tight. The tool head was completely rebuilt between the first and second cubes. I'm on team kicky and it's been pretty reliable/repeatable.
Does your x-axis have any play at all? Try to pull forward/backward on your (cold!!) nozzle lightly and see if it moves, it should not.
It did somewhere along the lines due to my hot end shaking itself apart, but I fixed that before attempting the cube on the left. There's maybe a small reduction in ringing, but homing is a whole lot more consistent now.
What do you mean with fixed? Did you replace the rail?
It was truly the hot end. The hot part of the hot end was starting to fall off the heat break due to the three screws that held them together loosening. Fixing involved disassembly, some clean up, and reassembly.