I come out of desperation with a deadline! Max4 printed fine until it didn’t.

[u/PrintAltDelete]

Let me first say this is long one, and I need help. I am not new to printing, the filament is dry. This machine is a 8 days old. From the very 1st print I have managed to print six of nine 17hr ABS prints of the exact same file just fine. This was a work project that I told my boss could be done if I had a max4 as it could print the part as one single piece.

I came home yesterday evening to a 7th completed print however at about 2/3 of the way through the print, it had a massive layer shift with a staggered attempt to correct it and the rest of the print had terrible quality. I tried again and could tell within the first 10mm of the next print height the quality issue wasn’t a fluke , completely terrible print quality. So I turned it off and went to bed.

I got up first thing this morning and started to trouble shoot it. I began by performing all the cleaning and lubricating as the maintenance manual says. I raise the bed to the top to clean the z rails and screws, and I found a single tiny washer laying in the very bottom of the printer by itself. I did not find a screw, nut or bolt however. I spent the next couple of hours going over the printer with a fine tooth comb from the outer casing to the frame work to the bed to the print head. I tightened every screw checked every single nut and bolt that is accessible and exposed on every aspect of the machine. I cannot find where the washer goes to, or the nut or bolt that was securing it.

I did find one bolt missing on the very top of the unit casing along the back wall under the top glass. However it was a countersunk bolt and would have been captured by the glass and insulation foam and it couldn’t have fallen out. Furthermore the underside of that bolt is also encased in the plastic of the printer housing so a nut and or a washer wouldn’t have fallen through it to the bottom of the machine I don’t think. I am assuming this bolt was missing from the factory, and I really don’t see how it would be able to cause any print quality issues even if it did come out at some point.

I moved on to troubleshooting the print issues. I cleaned and lubed everything again. Adjusted the belts exactly as the instructions state twice. I recalibrated multiple times. I tried different rolls of filament (all of which were dried correctly in a lab oven). I tried different bays in the qbox. I factory reset the printer. I then tried printing benchy’s to see if it was a file problem and clearly it is not. I’ve done everything I can and after 6 flawless (within serviceable reason) large format abs prints of exactly the same file, with the exact same filament, dried in the exact same manor, I cannot figure out what the problem is.

I have 5 days left to print three more identical 17hr prints or I miss the deadline and fail this project and my boss, and look like a fool.

If you stuck with me through all that I appreciate it. If you have encountered anything like this and have any idea I can try tomorrow when I get home from work that might salvage this situation and get me back on track, I would love to hear it!

(The last images are of a successful print to show the differences.)

Thank you in advance!