3D Printing Stack Exchange
3D Printing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [z-axis]

Use this tag for questions related to specific movement of the Z direction of the printer - Questions about a machine or 3D model's Z-axis

For questions regarding troubleshooting or design of a 3D Printer or 3D model's Z-axis.

For cartesian printers, the Z-axis is usually the direction of vertical movement of the hotend to and from the build plate to the maximum height of the printer, or the lowering of the bed for non moving platform printers in the Z direction.

For delta printers, the Z-axis is used for, and defines, the movement of the third stepper associated with the third Z-axis tower.

This is an axis or shaft direction in the Cartesian coordinate system. Three axes describe the complete movement of the 3D printer. The Z-axis is usually the vertical movement of the platform from top to bottom when facing the a Cartesian style printer, or the vertical hotend movement up and down for non-moving platforms in the Z direction (e.g. CoreXY or H-bot printers).

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What's the advantage of two z motors?

Some RepRap models use only a single motor for the Z axis, others use two. For example, there is the 3drag that has only one motor and a smooth rod on the other side. There are modifications that add a threaded rod on the other side that is…
nnscr
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Nozzle rubs on previous layers

I'm having a frustrating problem with my recent built custom 3D printer so every single print I made, from the third layer, the nozzle is "rubbing" on the already placed filament. This results in a complete mess, melting the previous layers with…
eduardogarcia234
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Do I need to recalibrate z-probe offset every time I switch to a different layer height?

It occurs to me that I'm never really thinking about layer height when I calibrate my z-probe offset. This is obviously an oversight, because I'll want my nozzle to start higher for 0.3mm layers than for 0.1mm layers. After this realization comes…
mhelvens
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Screeching Noise when moving the Z-Axis Down

I have had my Prusa i3 clone for about two years and it has always made a screeching sound when the z-axis is moving down. I have tried many solutions for this problem like greasing the z-rods, printing a new top part (the holder at the top z-rods…
Loanb222
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z-axis hard to move in some areas - what could be faults, how to improve?

I have a z-axis which follows schematically the same principle as the makerbot one's (threaded rod and two leading rods with linear ball bearings carrying a level). It is from an old experimental lab doing physics or chemistry. The axis move…
kamuro
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How do I wire the z-axis motors in parallel on the Prusa i3?

There is a little circuit board, or breadboard or something in the diagram of the wiring for the i3. And it's mentioned that the z-axis motors need to be wired in parallel but beyond that they don't give you much detail about parts or how the wires…
leeand00
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Z-axis steppers and bed alignment problems

I've actually solved this, but I think its still a useful question which I don't think is easy to answer with existing questions. As soon as I'd built my ANET-A8 (Prusa i3 DIY kit), I found I was having problems with the extruder crashing into the…
Sean Houlihane
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Assembled my first 3D-printer: Lead screw problem?

A couple of days ago I got my first 3D printer: Creality 3D Ender 3 Pro. I finished assembling it last night. I booted it up, but ran into problems (which I guess is not a common thing for a beginner in 3D printing). After booting and running the…
Natural Number Guy
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Full steps mode for Z axis stepper controller

I have a Cartesian style 3D printer (FLSUN Cube), with two Z-axis stepper motors (1.8°, 200 steps/revolution) with T8x8 lead screw (8mm / 2mm pitch with 4 starts), and currently they are using 1/16 microstepping. As I know, microstepping is an…
Dmitry Minaev
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Does anyone know the thread size (pitch and lead) of the Anet A8's lead screw?

I bought a new printer, and unfortunately the left nut for the lead screw isn't tapped. Does anyone know the thread size, w.r.t. both pitch and lead, of the lead screws?
user441767
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Z motor not moving during auto home

My Monoprice maker select recently fried its melzi board. So I went out and purchased a ramps 1.4 kit. I've wired it all up and Flash the firmware with marlin(most recent build). When it boots up it boots up fine I go to prepare. And then I go…
user2698080
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Z Axis getting stuck with Marlin 1.1.0-RC7

Background: I just successfully installed a RepRapDiscount Full Graphic Display on my Prusa i3; and in doing so, I've upgraded all of the firmware to the latest version of Marlin, 1.1.0-RC7. With my previous version of Marlin, 1.0.2-1, everything…
Alex Sky
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Marlin "Tune->Bed Z" vs "Tune->Babystep Z" vs Z Offset?

What is the difference between: Tune -> Bed Z Tune -> Babystep Z Control -> Motion -> Z Offset And when are you supposed to use "Bed Z"?
cds333
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Z-Axis does not appear to be working on Ender-3 Pro

So, the wife got me a Creality Ender-3 Pro 3d Printer for Christmas. Assembly was easy, axis movements are all solid... when I go to print the test-dog.gcode file provided with the machine, it comes out looking... flat. Not kind of flat. TOTALLY…
Darryl Hadfield
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Problems with Z step

Recently I bought a Prusa i3 pro W (from Geeetech) and I've been struggling with something that is ruining all my printings. I attach a photo with what was supposed to be little "boxes": As you can see the Z distance is doing weird things, I think…
Juli15
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