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White lines - feeding problem?

2549 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  schpeedy, 
Z
Hi!

Me and a couple of mates built our first DTG a while back based on an epson r1400. We got it up and running after a few snags but one problem remains. When printing it seems as if the pf moves to far inbetween each run leaving a line of 1,5mm unprinted surface.

We use frictiondrive and all parts are from the 1400. So far we used epson drivers.

I'll try to add a photo to show the problem. Don't mind the smeared colours, we got that sorted. The problem is the lines in the print.

Would be great if anyone who has had similar problems could point us towards where to look.

Regards
//Joel

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S
Hi Joel! Platen is so heavy and inertia drives platen to mouch!And too mouch friction is your problem!Try using aluminium platen 2mm and gumified corc glued on shaft side and without screws on slider on shaft side of platen.EKPrint have a options called "Gap Adjust" and "Feed Adjust".And I see that lines are not straight,your platen is moving too mouch left-right?Or head is too high from material?
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Z
Thanks for getting back to me stampac, had a feeling inertia could be the problem.

There was massive friction issues in the tracks used initially, so for this testrun only one track was used. Hence some wobble.

I will remake most of the build during summer when getting back home. Currently away with work...

Will make a better body and a lighter drawer + platten assembly and also make a tracksystem for the drawer with very low friction.

Could you perhaps say how much cap compensation can be made with EKprint? I'm fairly new to this and never tried a RIPsoft. Would like to make a better feedingsystem and might need some fine adjustment for it.

Thanks again for getting back so fast.
Love the quick feedback on this forum.

Cheers
//Joel
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spiderx1
EK rips gap and feed work when the gaps are consistent and closer together as in every head pass. Feed adjust overall length of art to compensate for gear / pulley ratio mismatch. Friction drive with original rod should not have the problem that belt drive do.
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Randy is correct, using friction drive you should not experience any gap issues.. this tells me its in the hardware/set up of the build.. start by using two slides and make sure your platen travels freely before installing the friction rod, after this is accomplished it needs very little adjustment to the rod itself and will print as it does in its stock configuration... best of luck
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Z
The setup is frictiondrive and the friction is not to bad at the moment.

There is no snags between the framework and the drawer and still we get this behaviour. It seems as this machine prints one wide chunk and then moves on for the next one which is wierd since movies here on the forum showing the same machine behave different with shorter pf movement and faster printhead motion back and fourth.

Suppose that could be a matter of drivers and settings but nothing we found so far.

We are a bit puzzled by this since a build with frictiondrive should not have such issues. Suppose the next step would be to try a lighter drawer+plattenassembly.

Our current setup is free from screwheads on the drawerbottom and covered with cork. Similar to other builds. Rails used are the extending ballbearing type. Just can't remember their name in english right now. Pardon my english skills...

Suspecting there might be something wrong with this printer. But don't want to give up on it just yet!

Cheers
//Joel
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S
Hi,
i have build my own dtg printer and its finished soon. Now i have a problem with my friction drive. The printed image looks a little bit mess.



My Plate is made from aluminum and can moved very easy.

Can someone help me please?

I´ve made a video from the motor and pf sensor. It seems the motor is not strong enough.

Thanks
Stephan
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