Man-o-man it's been a journey working with my Creality Ender 5 Plus, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. You see, my Ender 5 Plus is my first 3D printer and my first major dive into the world of 3D printing. I'm a tinkerer/engineer, so I'm no stranger to have to trouble shoot and fix things, but when you're unaware that there is a problem in the first place, that's a different story. I have just realized that my prints have been leaning in the Y direction, like all of them! Many of my first prints were short in height, so I didn't pay that much attention to it, but as my prints became taller it has become more apparent that there is a huge slant to my prints. So I just spent the last couple of days and a newish spool of PETG trying to figure out what was causing this slant. I am now prepared to share my findings with you.
** SPOILER ALERT check for smooth Y travel**
When I originally purchased the Ender 5 Plus and assembled it I recalled feeling
a very noticeable "bump/stop" in the Y axis travel.
I didn't do much at that time to try to resolve it. Now that I'm aware
of the leaning prints I understand that the "bump" is causing the Y stepper
motor to lose a fraction of a step periodically during the print.
**Check the POM bearings and eccentric nut compression.**
So I loosened the compression on the eccentric nut until I could just barely
make the POM rollers spin without making the Y axis move (I did this in
attempt to make the Y axis move smoothly without any "bumps").
I've gone back to check the smoothness of travel on the Y axis since the print and I see that the "bump" has come back. I know that it's the "bump" that is causing the loss of steps in the Y, but I don't know exactly what is causing the "bump". I suspect the POM bearings, but there could also be some defect in the extruded AL. I will keep you posted.
