Prints skewed/tilted, like a paralellogram, on formlabs form1

[juicy]

Hello everyone!
I bought a Form1 used a couple of months ago, which i was told was malfunctioning. Well, it was, the Y-galvo gain potentiometer was WAY off and everything came out at 200% scale on the y-axis. I have fixed the issue, but i am now facing another problem, which was clouded by the Y-axis scale issue.

So, it seems that the further i put my prints to the edges on the Y-axis, the more skewed/tilted they become, like a paralellogram. When printing in the middle of the build plate, there is no issues, but if the print is big and wide enough i expect that this will become a serious issue and everything will come out as a reversed trapez.

I have printed 2 straight pillars at the 2 edges og the Y-axis, to test and prove this phenomenon. As seen below, they both are skewed/tilted away from the middle of the build plate.

Is this something that anyone else has experience with? What can i do about it? Will i need to do something about the software or maybe the hardware? More Y-galvo potentiometer calibration?

[DKirch]

Hey @juicy,

Thanks for taking the time to post! It appears your printer does have some calibration issues because we absolutely wouldn’t expect that must warping on a printer that’s working properly. I’d recommend talking to our support team at the link below and they’d be happy to lend a hand.

That being said, it does make sense that things become more warped the further you get from the center of the build area. Because the laser originates from directly underneath the BP, as the laser points further out to the edges the roughly circular laser spot will get more and more stretched into an oval shape. Now typically this effect shouldn’t be all the pronounced and you wouldn’t notice, but combined with other calibration issues I suspect that’s why you’re noticing it more.

https://support.formlabs.com/s/contact-support?language=en_US

[juicy]

Thanks for the quick response. I will get on that immediately.

Cheers.