For a couple of weeks now, I've been chasing a linear artifact in my prints that shows up as fairly evenly spaced gaps when printing flat on the heat bed and vertically in walls.
I presumed it was under-extrusion which is one possibility, but only one.
I chased that assumption to its' limit by tearing down and rebuilding the Extruder, changing the nozzle 3 times, changing filaments, recalibrating X,Y,Z and the first layer height a dozen times.
I tried increasing/decreasing the extrusion multiplier, lubing all the bearings again, cleaning the Bondtech gears again, but changing only one thing at a time.
You get the idea, but needless to say this takes a lot of time and reprinting the part adds to that repair time.
Surprisingly the problem was simple and logical, but melted down my tiny brain with input overload for the duration.
After 297 days, 14 hours, and 41 minutes and 5.566243 miles (8958 meters or 9.468644e-13 light years) of filament and good printing, the upper X-axis polished stainless steel rod has a horizontal 0.625"+ linear score roughly dead center in the shaft.
Of course it is on the back side of the rod, and naturally the rod is highly reflective so it is not only difficult to see and almost undetectable by feel.
I rotated the rod 90 degrees and the print was better, I rotated another 45 degrees and the flaw disappeared...I'll remember next time
.I should have seen this earlier in my diagnosis and saved myself the endless and mindless cursing, and that hole in the wall where my head went.
Replacement rods and bearings are on the way.
Summary: Look for the logical thing first as it was the simplest reason for the flaw, but I took the longest route to find it; adding credence to the quote, 'it's not the destination, it's the journey.'
Horse-poop.
Best, LB
with the bearing replacements.
.
and I am still baby step tuning it downward. Shorter Extruder body.
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