Original Mini (1st Gen)
I bought this when it first came out, preordered it and moved and just recently unboxed it.
I'm new to 3d printing and my first sample prints were okay, but now that I've started trying out other prints, its gone down hill in terms of quality. I bought the Wifi and the SUPER PINDA and I'm hearing this whine on the Z Axis. I think from research I have layer bending issues and other various issues. For the most part I think I have good first layer calibration, I'm currently printing the spinda_adjusting_02mm_pla_mini_28m.gcode to make sure SUPER PINDA in right spot and doing the big calibration squares but it doesn't help with the print quality right now as its when the z axis moves up I think its messing up.
(Heres the video and pictures -> https://www.reddit.com/r/3DprintingHelp/comments/13qbzdy/original_prusa_mini_1st_gen_need_help/)
The first couple sample prints came out really good and I used the sample PLA. Now I'm using Hatchbox PLA and Prusa Slicer with default settings and its just been a doozy trying to get it solved. Hopefully I can get some insight here, I'm watching youtube videos and researching. I'd love to get better prints.
Thank you all!
RE: Original Mini (1st Gen)
Anyone help on this forum or is it dead? Still having trouble.
RE:
Try moving the Z-carriage all the way to the top, and then look at the bottom of your Z-axis, where the lead screw goes down a hole in a metal plate, and check if the lead screw appears off-center in that hole.
If so, look at the bottom of the Z-carriage, and you'll see the lead nut, attached with 2 screws. Try unscrewing those 2 screws, and then retightening them while holding the lead screw centered in the hole in the metal plate (or even push it beyond the center in the opposite direction, which is what I had to do in order to have it end up centered, and stay, after retightening the screws).
I just did this myself and the noise went away!
See these threads for more info (and people facing the same issue):
- https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/hardware-firmware-and-software-help/z-rod-screw-grinding/
- https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/assembly-and-first-prints-troubleshooting/strange-noise-on-z-axis-always-same-place/)
- https://www.reddit.com/r/prusa3d/comments/koh40u/prusa_mini_zaxis_squealing/
Afterwards I also wiped off all the smooth rods and put a bit of Super Lube PTFE grease on them, for good measure.
(DON'T grease the lead screw, see: https://help.prusa3d.com/article/regular-maintenance-mini_133222#bearings-maintenance)
Now mind you, even after all this, I did notice that when I push Z-axis movement to the machine's Z-axis feedrate limit (12 mm/s, or F720 [mm/minute] in gcode) using custom gcode, it makes a little bit of noise again. And when I force it over the default feedrate limit, by setting a higher limit (using M203 Z20 in custom gcode) and then moving the Z-axis at e.g. F1000, it makes a lot of noise again.
But so as long as I keep the Z-axis movement under that 720 mm/minute limit, the noise remains gone.