didnt notice this before but, even the first layer shows the striping, notice how the bands get closer on the long travels in the center.
Hey Lego
Kind of ran the same test yesterday, (post # 44 above) Different sized blocks 100mm tall and yes the banding gets narrower the bigger the box. Its having to do with the amount of filament. Its not related to the Z at all.
although another odd question, is the indent on one side of the same print in the same place as on the other side of the print? I know it could be a tiny difference but is it possible the defect starts at layer 5 on one side and is printed on Layer 6 or 7 on the opposite side.?
I wonder if its temp related? Maybe a bad thermistor not keeping accurate temp or the PID tune is off and its not calculating proper temp?
i did a pid tune and everything looked fine, plus if i watch the control on the printer i see a swing from 200 to 199 but only for a split second. seems to correct itself fairly quickly. could this be a firmware issue ? or power fluxuation to the extruder stepper ?
this is all so strange hehe
umm, All I know at this point we are all going to kick ourselves for the solution when we find itā¦
So at this point we have eliminated filament, we have eliminated Z axis imperfection, we have eliminated, temp control. Its not X or Y related.
Only things left are firmware, slicer, extruder (or parts thereof) , wiring, or gnomes.
ā¦or gremlins.
i can say with certainty its not the slicer, ive tried 3 different slicers and the results are exact. may need to try a simple firmware update. havent done one since last year when i purchased the machine. to be honest i didnt want to mess with it since it was printing so well
I would agree with that, Firmware can go really really well or really really bad, quickly.
We can add slicer to the eliminated side of things
currently doing a test print since updating firmware. crossing fingers
although if it works it will be bitter sweet since i will never know what exactly was causing the issue 
so my hotend just crashed into the bed. apparently BLtouch stopped working now.
lovely 
on a side note, im using crealitys official update, however i usually go with TinyMachines. i noticed Tinymachines website has changed since i last visited and i couldnt find any firmware on thereā¦is Tinymachines still offering firmware for Creality Products ?
just printed another small test, results are a bit better but still seeing the bands. im printing a benchy atm. to compare with my last one
Printed a benchy and results were not very good. Striping and banding everywhereā¦however since every layer on the benchy is different as opposed to something like a cubeā¦you cant differentiate each 10layer band. It just looks like a mess. Ive been thinking about getting ahold of creality although im not sure how far that would go
Just for my curiosity, can you post a picture of the mutant Benchy?
Wow. I have to admit Iām out of ideas. Interesting to see that itās still following a regular pattern on part of the cab where the cab is the only thing being printed in a layer.
Iām completely baffled by this. Iāll be really interested to learn what the end cause turns out to be.
I have been watching this for quite a while. I also donāt really have a good idea but I am going to suggest something quick and easy to see if it makes any difference. Change the nozzle and do an atomic pull. An oval aperture behaves oddly. I donāt think that is what this is but it looks like everything else has been tried.
Hey Kite
I was thinking nozzle earlier but it seems universal irregular on all sides. North and east side look exactly the same.
One thing I did not notice the answer for though, on the larger block test prints (post 45) if you measure from the table upto one of the ribs, is the distance the same on east side and west side? in other words are the āribsā all though say Layer 200 or is it layer 200 on the east side and 202 on the west side? From what I can see it looks like changing slightly on every side. that would tell me its 100% in the extruder. relating to the amount to filament extruded.
Iāve never printed anything in vase mode so perhaps I donāt fully understand the concept, but itās my impression that it lays a continuous stream of filament without retractions. What I donāt know is: does it gradually raise the print head such that the movement from one layer to the next is almost continuous, or are the layers in vase mode separated by abrupt layer height changes?
I ask this, because printing a large cylinder where the extruder runs in one direction continuously and (hopefully) where the Z-axis moves slowly but continuously, might yield a clue.
Iād suggest filming the extruder knob. Also try filming the Z-axis lead screw looking straight down. Playing these videos back at high speed might reveal speed shifts, or z-axis movement.
Iād be curious to see if a cylinder in vase mode exhibits the same ribbing.
LEGOManiac,
Yes, the z motor and extruder move up slowly in vase mode. I just finished calibrating my slicer flow using this. Here is a great link for setting up a single wall test cube.
https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html#flow
R