Sidewinder Z wobble FIX General

FDM 3D Printers Artillery 3D
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So Your sidewinder has issues with Z wobble eh?

Heres a General List of what to go through
First from most common to least.

Here’s a quick guide on each of the components that may be
Responsible for your issue.
Im going to start off with the very first things you should check in ANY new printer you buy.

Belts:

Vslot wheels:

  • The next point of focus. The sidewinder uses V-slot wheels as a way to move its hotend and Bed for the XY and Z axis, This is a cost effective solution with the considerable downside of the wheels coming loose during shipment or over time.

  • This should cover tightening them: HOW TO - Fix Wobble & Adjust the Eccentric Nuts (3DPrinter) - YouTube

  • One thing you should watch out for is to not over-tighten The wheels or else you might make things worse.
    It should be just enough for you to not be able to slide the wheels out with JUST the grip of the surface of your finger

—If either of these do not work this is where you get a little bit more involved–

Leadscrews:

  • Public enemy number one!!! This section is probably the biggest culprit of banding on fully tuned printers.

  • This part is responsible for creating a smooth up and down motion between each layer transition.
    In some cases the screw being bent can have many negative impacts on the alignment.

  • You want to first test to see if your lead screw is bent
    some cases can be as subtle as this Bent leadscrew. - YouTube
    If you do run into this consider a replacement there is however something that can also be compounding this issue which leads me to…

Leadscrew nuts:

  • The tolerance on this part may very well be off causing unwanted up/down movement “backlash” every layer change.

  • I wouldn’t normally advise upgrading your way out of a problem but Anti backlash nuts are an overall benefit to any printer as you removed a variable of unwanted movement.

  • 3dprintbeginner has covered this in this writeup Artillery Sidewinder X1 Upgrades - Paid And Free | 3D Print Beginner

–If you’ve exhausted every option above then it is safe to say that the banding culprit is in the extruder.
I would double check that all the screws in your hotend assembly are fastened correctly–

Extruder:

Cooling fan:

  • This is where I discovered my Z-banding issue that inspired to write this.
    Generally speaking the duct design isn’t good. It has a sharp bend with a crude duct design. you can instantly upgrade this by Printing a new fan duct.

This thread is still a work in progress and ive yet to find a satisfactory cooling duct for the X2 but stay tuned!

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just some thoughts -

  • Z Screw already working against gravity, not sure backlash nut has value here. If this was a horizontal Z Screw, then I’m with you.

  • Extensive videos online exploring single vs dual geared extruders don’t pan out with ‘slippage’ theory; if anything, single gear extruders lead to less artifacts in the print. dual geared extruders can lead to imperfections in the visual quality of the outer perimeter, because any minor lack of concentricity means you can squeeze out more filament on one part of the turn than another part. When only one gear is at play with an idler, that problem goes away. Check out youtube for several videos illustrating this well.

  • Biggest Issue is getting to be perfectly vertical when installed; even off by 1 degree will cause Z Wobble. It is just a major challenge to have two long rods almost 500mm be perfectly vertical with 360 degrees of rotation. Even 0.01mm of lead screw later movement will translate to visible z wobble on the print surface.

TBH, the only real solution I’ve found, unless you invest a lot of money a la CNC, is Wobble Wings. Low cost & incredibly effective. I couldn’t believe the result till I saw it myself on a calibration cube - perfectly flat walls.