3D Printing Today #525

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

News:
In Situ Inspection
https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/in-situ-inspection-a-gateway-to-cost-effective-and-reliable-additive-manufacturing-230159/
Segments:
CAD UI Rust, Nextruder, VisionMiner’s IDEX

Thing of the Week:
Extension cord lock
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6565488

threedprintingtoday.libsyn.com or
Search for 3D Printing Today wherever you get your podcasts

[vr...@optonline.net]

So - Andy, I listened to the prior episode - I think it was just last night. I heard you mention VM for next episode - and, I was like - WOW - COOL! I also knew it was coming, but, didn't know when. As such, this morning I Made my boss Rob listen to just the End of the Episode - where you talk about the next one - and VM - and he was like - COOL!!!

Then, this evening, right before leaving work - I checked email, I saw This message in the forum - and I posted the Episode content and podcast name to our General channel within Slack! So - you may have At Least TWO - or More new listeners tomorrow!!! Heck - my whole office may listen to the podcast!

 

Anyway - just FYI...

 

-K

 

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[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!]

So, this morning before getting to work - I listened to the VM Segment only (I skipped forward) -- and it was a GREAT Segment! Thank you Andy and Whitney!!!

I then got to work, told Nazar about it - he's the Creator of the 22 IDEX - and he listened to the whole podcast. He then told me it was a Fantastic podcast! Seems you now have another new fan of your podcast!

L8r,

-Kurt

[Niels Wullems]

Hey guys,

Thanks for another episode of the podcast.
While as a freelance mechanical engineer I get your frustration with the subscription model, because it's expensive.

But personally I also see the benefit of it.

Mainly it allows me to adapt my tool, the cad software, to my client's need. No more working in a incompatible program but simply renting the right software of my projects. Once I'm done I cancel my sub and go on to the next.

But I also get it can be annoying if you're not doing projects for different clients or you're not a big corp who rather have Opex instead of Capex. 

For that reason I own a perpetual license of Alibre   So I would suggest to everybody who need/wants a CAD program to check out Alibre Atom, Alibre Design, and Spaceclaim. Far enough, Alibre might not be as capable as Fusion but it still gets the job done. I've been doing a motorsport project with it, and it handled it well. 

Also if you really want a OS independent program you should definitely check out Onshape. It's free for hobbyist and has great capabilities. 

A free option would also be Siemens' SolidEdge for makers and hobbyist.

My last option would be to buy a hobbyist license for Solidworks ($50-100/year), but then you need to deal with Dassault's 3DExperience platform. I personally can't recommend that.

However I do also have some criticism and I'm gonna be frank here.

I'm quite disappointed with the content of the podcast of late.

I feel there is little to no actual 3D printing value in the recent segments.  

To paint a clear picture, I feel like I'm listening to Waldorf and Statler complaining mainly about Prusa and PrusaSlicer.

While I agree with you guys on your valid arguments on where Prusa is dropping the ball, I don't see the value of repeating the conversation every week.

Best regards,

Niels

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!]

Niels - I disagree with you!

The Prusa XL is really along the lines of the future of 3D Printing! It's not a standard machine - and it requires indepth discussions along many avenues! And, Andy is doing a great job on that. Understanding the Extruder head - seeing where it's going - the Good and the Bad - that is a Good thing for him to talk about! Have you not heard the previous talks - where he mentions you can FULLY Retract out of the Melt zone - and then it becomes SUPERIOUR as a Tool Changer - and no longer MESSY Tool Changes - and NO NEED for a Prime Tower! Have you NOT Heard this???

Also, this episode talks about VisionMiner - and that's ALSO A Game Changer in regards to 3D Printing - with SOLID Tech - and the ability to print HI-TEMP Materials in a way other machines either - (1) Can't - OR - (2) - YOU Pay a MUCH Higher Entrance Fee to print at those Temps!

So - Think again about what you are writing - and about How Great Andy is doing at this podcast - it's SOLID SHIT and GOOD Shit indeed! 

Of course, if you don't like it - Feel free to stop listening to the podcast and find another YouTube 3D Printing Channel that is ALL Positive and NOT Always Realistic!!!

Just sayin'...

-K

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Hey come on… no need for getting riled.

We do the podcast for fun. We do it for free. We don’t do it for gain of any kind which in turn means we don’t cater to anything or anyone….  but yourselves… which by the way is exactly what Waldorf and Statler did. I don’t care.  As such we don’t have the same way of seeking out content as other podcasters or tubers do. Our motivations are intrinsic as such we don’t care at all about ad money or download numbers… which actually always seem to go up when we rant. Go figure.
On our ranting about Prusa… Prusa is a unilaterally run entity which does both brilliant as well as totally bonehead stupid things. We report both per our experiences. Iirc, the last episode I made sure to state as harshly as I could without expletives about how a “fully assembled” XL is shipped without final systems testing of any kind. Seems to me that singular factoid can be a major deciding factor for someone seriously considering a purchase. There is no other podcaster or tuber with the balls or experience to make this little fact known.

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

On a similar thread… lately I’ve been watching YouTubers related to guitar playing… one very well known tuber did a vid on an effects system accessory in  which I disagreed with their glowing description. Basically this accessory was an item that was relatively expensive yet super easy to make yourself. I commented on this in the comments of the vid in which I carefully pointed out what was incorrect about the item and I included a url to Thingiverse that showed how to make you own for just a few bucks. He deleted the comment. All the comments there were only glowing love letters for the item. Obviously the vendor of the item had bought their opinions. I killed my subscription to his vids.

We will never do that.

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!]

Andy - I agree. 

When a printer is sold for around $4K - it's truly INSANE That there are no systems leveling testing done!!! That really is just stupidity. And I also appreciate your honesty about this and being able to state such factoids.  Have you made a gripe about this factoid on the Prusa forum? And, I'm also curious - is there any posts you've made in the Prusa forum that have then later disappeared? Again - just curious...

So, from my own experience of working at Essentium, and now VisionMiner - it really is critical that proper QA is done on a machine before shipping it out. When I first started at VM, shortly after I started, we got a shipment of a batch of machines from Ukraine. And I was part of the team doing the final QA on those machines. Including XY alignment, running final alignments and calibrations - and printing of a basic test part to make sure the machine is properly calibrated before then repacking it up and having it ready to ship to new customers. And, for me - to see that simple test part printed, in 2 colors, and printing well - it made me happy to see that really good test part - and I felt proud of the machine that it can do so well!

And that's truly important - to properly stand behind a machine like the 22 IDEX. Even now, as I print various customer parts - It can be rather thrilling at times to see a truly GREAT customer printed part. On a related note...

Recently, we got these 2 parts from a customer - and they were VERY Complex parts - with fins and cavities. The request was - could we print it in Glass Filled PEEK. Well, I was reviewing the parts with an associate of mine at work, and we even tweaked the parameters of the Supports - regarding angles - to see if the Prusa slicer would slice it with minimal supports - and, Nope - it was a NO Go! It was putting in Tons of supports. I showed a screenshot of the slice to the customer - and he was like "No Bueno".

Now, this customer claimed that they were able to print these parts on the Bambu with NO Supports. Of course, they were printing it in some simple material as a test - not sure which one - but maybe it was PLA. And the customer DID know that printing in a Hi-Temp material is a totally different ballgame. A VERY Important point - the customer Specifically designed the part w/DFAM in mind - and they insisted it SHOULD print without supports. Even though, some of the "fins" on the part had leading bottom edges that were kinda hanging in the air.

Now, my associate at work figured Maybe we could do a LITTLE part cooling. Even though - normally - for GF-PEEK, we DO NOT do part cooling. Since, Andy - as you probably already know - some of these Hi-Temp materials, you simply can NOT do part cooling - or else the parts simply won't print right, or they fail, or they have bad imperfections. 

Also, another note that some folks may not be aware of - in regards to Hi-Temp materials printing. That is, generally speaking -  you MUST print a single part  at a time. So, even if a customer requires multiple sets of a part - you MUST print only a single part at a time. There's a number of reasons behind that factoid - but, for now - folks will just have to take my word.

So - for this customer - it was TWO different parts. And, since this was Purely going to be a Test as to whether we COULD Successfully print the part AT ALL without Supports - the test would be to only print a section of the part. Like about only the bottom 1/5 of the part. And, some of the folks at work figured it would be a Fail. But, yeah - I put part cooling at 30% - and - I printed BOTH Parts in Sequence - 1 behind the other - and due to the fact I knew the Prusa Slicer would NOT Properly do the Brims in Sequence mode printing - I decided not to print Brims - and had my fingers crossed that it would NOT need the brims in order to be successful. 

Well - BOOM - it all worked - NO Supports printed - and the small pieces looked AMAZING. Even my boss Rob was THRILLED when I showed him the parts! And, the customer was Also thrilled to see a pic of the test parts!

Am still waiting for the customer to get back to us - and have us print the parts. In the end -- if the parts work for them - they will then buy a 22 IDEX. 

As such - Yeah - the 22 IDEX machines can Really ROCK at times - and I find it Thrilling to be able to Successfully print complex parts and see them come out well!

Sorry this Reply was a bit Long Winded...

L8r,

-Kurt

On Sunday, May 12, 2024 at 8:53:01 AM UTC-7 3D Printing Tips and Tricks wrote:

[Niels Wullems]

So I think there is a misunderstanding about my message and my intent. That's my mistake.
In no way am I trying to suggest you should stop being critical of Prusa or their products.  And you definitely shouldn't become a marketing shill like  99% of Youtubers and podcasters 

I personally don't care about Prusa as a company since I have no stake in the company nor do I own any of the products.

.

My intent, where I apparently failed, was the fact I have the feeling I'm listening the same podcast every week with a new segment every once in a while. 

The reason I've said what I said is because I believe you've provided better content in the past which has been helpful to your listeners. 

And I believe your audience is better served with a more in depth analysis and conversation than a repeat of the same conversation you've had a week (or 2) ago.

Op zondag 12 mei 2024 om 19:25:56 UTC+2 schreef Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!:

[Ed Street]

I had to listen to #525 because of this thread. :) So first, subscription services are a very GOOD thing overall and, without a doubt, a major step in the positive direction.  Having 'owned' the program and never updating it leaves you at major security risk, which leads to exploits, hacks, and compromised data.  We are seeing a good number today because of this very reason.  The explosion of data breaches is not due to upgrading/updating software but refusal to upgrade/update.  New features are one of the hotly listed items in a changelog, but seldom still, we are not privileged to the bug fix listing; many won't make a list and are kept internally for various reasons.

Next, I will catch some serious flack for it, but Fusion 360 sucks!!  It has a very horrible layout and interface.  The free version is massively crippled and you are left with a fraction of what the program is capable of.  I have a sub to shapr3d and going something like 3-4 years now.  It is super good to have a touchscreen tablet like a Surface Pro.  The apple pencil is also wicked good with that.  If Fusion 360 were more like shapr3d on the interface, more people would be using it.  Also, TinkerCad is garbage quality; I have seen many models that looked very bad coming from there.  There is a very good reason that FlexiFactory uses 3DS Max.

Niels Wullems, I understood what you meant with your first post.  Many topics could be discussed that are not.  For example, 

the changes are being made to Klipper. 

The new additions like Edy Current to Klipper.  

The development change pathway for Klipper

Filament expansions with productions (here is one that most probably is unaware of!)

Refilling Filmanet spools. Many companies, such as KVP and Bambu, still ship just the refills.

You can also ship the empty spools back to US companies like Push Plastics, who will gladly reuse them.

Integrated sensors on the tool head and nozzle cameras.

Scarf seams.

No offense to Andy and Kurt, but if you were to count the number of times certain keywords were said, it would be really up there; top of the list would be "tool changer," "full contact support," "Prusa," and "Stratasys."  While these are good topics, they are not the only important ones.

[Scott Hess]

On Sun, May 12, 2024 at 12:38 PM Ed Street <black...@gmail.com> wrote:

I had to listen to #525 because of this thread. :) So first, subscription services are a very GOOD thing overall and, without a doubt, a major step in the positive direction.  Having 'owned' the program and never updating it leaves you at major security risk, which leads to exploits, hacks, and compromised data.  We are seeing a good number today because of this very reason.  The explosion of data breaches is not due to upgrading/updating software but refusal to upgrade/update.  New features are one of the hotly listed items in a changelog, but seldom still, we are not privileged to the bug fix listing; many won't make a list and are kept internally for various reasons.

I think this gives vendors a bit of unearned credit.  A lot of programs only need security updates because the vendor basically creates an Internet C&C center for purposes of updating the code and tracking user activities across their entire fleet, and they only have a useful-to-attack privilege level because they need to be able to push and pull data in the background for those purposes.  If you removed all of that, many programs wouldn't be worth attacking.  The part about annuitizing revenue doesn't hurt.

For instance, it would be completely reasonable for my slicer to have no network access by default, and any attempt to push a gcode file to my printer could pop up an OS panel to check if I want to give the app permission to go on the network once, or always to this host, or always to anywhere.  Likewise, my slicer doesn't really need unrestricted filesystem access.

-scott

[Chris Albertson]

I'm also critical of quite a lot of software, even more so if I wrote it.  This is how stuff improves.    I have to agree that Fusion360 could be better.  But on the Mac, Fusion is, I think the least bad option for free (no cost) parametric 3D CAD modelers.     There are so few options an all are flawed.   When I use FreeCAD, I find I'm making 3X as many clicks to do the same thing as in Fusion on the Mac,the other option is OnShape.  It runs in a web nbrowser and all you work is in public

I joined autodesk's beta program so I see what is 6 to 4 weeks from general release.   I see very slow but positive progress with Fusion.   Just resently the  quality of the graphic rendering improved.  FreeCAD is moving forward too but at a rate that is even slower than Fusion360

My criteria for a 3D CAD system is if I could design something like a Milwalkee battery powered drill.   The drill has an organic outer shape with free form compound curves, has rubber over moulding but inside are machine parts like gears and motors and some electronic PCBs.    Fusion would have no trouble with a this, I could design a battery-powed hand tool with Fusion.    FreeCAD could do this too, although is it not so good with the freeform organic shapes and lofting.

In a perfect world I would be using SolidWorks on an Apple Mac Studio.   But this is not going to happen.

[Duncan Reed]

Being a Linux user I can’t even used fusion 360 (well I can run it in a vm but that another level of complexity). So I tend to use onshape and blender. 

If/when freecad gets more usable, if it does, would happily swap to it. I font really get on with openscad.

On 13 May 2024, at 20:18, Chris Albertson <alberts...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm also critical of quite a lot of software, even more so if I wrote it.  This is how stuff improves.    I have to agree that Fusion360 could be better.  But on the Mac, Fusion is, I think the least bad option for free (no cost) parametric 3D CAD modelers.     There are so few options an all are flawed.   When I use FreeCAD, I find I'm making 3X as many clicks to do the same thing as in Fusion on the Mac,the other option is OnShape.  It runs in a web nbrowser and all you work is in public

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[Chris Albertson]

Fusion360 runs very well in a VM, assuming you have a computer with good graphics and lots of RAM. I used Fusion on Windows 10 with VMWare on Linux for some years before buying a Mac mini. The old Linux PC was a 8-core Xeon, 64GB RAM with low-end Nvidia card. The new M2 mini is much faster. But Fusion on VM was good enough that I designed things as complex as autonomous quadruped robots on the Linux system.

[TobyCWood]

We talked about Scarf seams in the next up podcast. We recorded it 6 weeks ago.

Sorry, but we talk about what we like to talk about. We just recorded a segment on the STEP methodology of AM. Interesting stuff. Every now and then someone posts something here or somewhere that I frequent thats new to us and we look into it. For example the post from stw3dp about the Filament Library. Yeah, that'll be a segment for sure.  Currently neither of us are Klipper users but even if we were in the past whenever we dove down into a version of FW... such as Sailfish, RRF or 32bit Marlin we always got complaints that the segments were too technical or too specific. Ya can't please everyone!

On Full contact support and toolchanging. I'm the first to admit my extreme bias. That bias comes from more years of 3D Printing than most others. I know from that experience that open source based 3D printing failed to live up to the quality that industrial machines provided over 15 years ago. Why? Simply because the SSYS machines used soluble supports that had full contact to the parts. I talk about it because IMO it's the single most important thing regarding low cost, open source based 3D Printing in FDM. Toolchanging and IDEX machines have finally started to make the open source tech as good at 3D Printing as the older FDM industrial machines and very few if any of tuber pundits ever talk about it(probably because they did not know anything about it to begin with!). Now they're starting to talk about it... they've even made up their own term for it ... "Solid Support" IMO a misnomer which is typical of those wannabe influencers.

[Chris Albertson]

On May 15, 2024, at 1:07 PM, TobyCWood <andyc...@gmail.com> wrote:

We talked about Scarf seams in the next up podcast. We recorded it 6 weeks ago.

Sorry, but we talk about what we like to talk about. We just recorded a segment on the STEP methodology of AM. Interesting stuff. Every now and then someone posts something here or somewhere that I frequent thats new to us and we look into it. For example the post from stw3dp about the Filament Library. Yeah, that'll be a segment for sure.  Currently neither of us are Klipper users but even if we were in the past whenever we dove down into a version of FW... such as Sailfish, RRF or 32bit Marlin we always got complaints that the segments were too technical or too specific. Ya can't please everyone!

On Full contact support and toolchanging. I'm the first to admit my extreme bias. That bias comes from more years of 3D Printing than most others. I know from that experience that open source based 3D printing failed to live up to the quality that industrial machines provided over 15 years ago. Why? Simply because the SSYS machines used soluble supports that had full contact to the parts. I talk about it because IMO it's the single most important thing regarding low cost, open source based 3D Printing in FDM. Toolchanging and IDEX machines have finally started to make the open source tech as good at 3D Printing as the older FDM industrial machines and very few if any of tuber pundits ever talk about it(probably because they did not know anything about it to begin with!). Now they're starting to talk about it... they've even made up their own term for it ... "Solid Support" IMO a misnomer which is typical of those wannabe influencers.

Don’t be too hard on them, everyone is only a “specialist” we can’t be experts on everything.  Those YouTubers are specialists at YouTubbing.   They know how to set up cameras and speak into a microphone. and how to build a set that looks like a real 3d printing lab, and how to write click-bate titles and monetize Youtube.    I am very poor at that.  

Back to IDEX.   I’ve been wanting that for a long time.  My “specially” is robotics and I’ve wanted to print hybrid plastic.  This is where I might have ABS and TPU.  Think about “soft joints”. What if I could build a leg bone with a ball bearing knee join but the bearing was floating in a flexible TPU donut?   OK maybe not a leg bone but certainly finger bones, they need flexible joints that can controllably deform under pressure.   Next we need to measure the amount of deformation so that we know the amount of force applied which leads to the next “3D printing revolution I want….  Today I can print 20+ parts and assemble them with CA glue to do this, but I want assemblies to come off the machine.

That would be some means of embedding parts and wires into the plastic as it is being laid. Down.  I don’t want heated brass thread inserts, I want more complex metal parts to be put in while the part is printed.  I want to print not just a part, but an “assembly”.    But I’m a specialist, I’ll leave this to others. 

My next printers might be a combined tool changer/IDEX.    I’m thinking of not one but two tool carriages.   And what if opne of the toolheads was a robot “pick and place robot” that can pick parts from a bin and place them into the build volume.    Once you can change tools then why to the tools all have to be FDM print heads,   Why not a “hand” or a laser or even an router.

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[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!]

Hey Chris,

Interesting discussion points indeed!

In fact, the idea of a pick&place tool was Exactly something I had been wanting to work on at Essentium. And, I had discussed in on a Number of occasions with various engineers there over time. 

I had worked out a lot of the details in my head. I would essentially replace the Hot-end/nozzle unit with a kinda robotic gripper design. The hope would be to produce the unit such that I could print it as a single unit with joints - and print it via the StrataSys machine we had at Essentium - with Dissolvable supports. The idea would be to use the existing filament feeder & hob gears to control the gripper. It would have like a metal cord/wire in it - that get fed upwards between the feeder gear. Then, at that point - it is simply controlled via existing GCode as though its controlling filament movement - but, it's instead controlling my Gripper!

I actually told a bunch of the Essentium engineers that if I could make it work - how cool would be to put 2 cameras in the printer - and use the whole printer as a remotely controlled robotic type chess playing game - which 2 people can play remotely. That was the Fun concept of an initial implementation. But, folks Had previously talked about pick&place, for doing things like dropping in RFID chips.

Too bad I never seriously tried out my idea...

Had NOT Thought about this for over a year now - until your comments. 

Just now - as I was typing this up - I turned and looking inside one of the VM printers I am sitting next to - figuring if I could actually implement my idea of this machine. Who knows - maybe I could!

L8r,

-K

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

I think with an idex or tc you can already print parts with TPU as hinges or joints. It’s only a matter of designing it. The printers available now can do it. We’ve featured a number of examples of this already in the TotW.

[Chris Albertson]

Grippers in pick and place machine can be very, very simple.  A common one is just a vacuum hose.  It looks like a rubber 3D print nozzle but has a Bowden-like hode connected to a small pump.  This is how they make printed circuit boards,    This. Vacuum is machanically simple because there is no moving part in the tool head, you can run the hose back th=o tht electronics compartment.   It coud lift a quite large object too.    Many wearhous robots use vacuum to lift heavy boxes.   Basically it is just a suction cup sized for the parts to be moved.

I think the laser cuttter head is another obvious case.    But a router requires a very strong and ridgid gantry.   

I really like you idea of printing dissolvable plastic and then placing metal parts into the plastic.   This is a way to do micro-mechanicaly assembly.   I’d not call the disolvable plasic a “support” but rather an “assembly jig”.  

You can carry these ideas out even further if you look at machine tools.   Our printers have three axis, x, y, z.  But a million machines might also have an A-axis.  There could be a rotary table with an axis of rotation parallel to the Y or X axis.     A 5-axis machine can reach the part from any angle, not just vertically.  Here is a link to a 6-axis “3D printer” https://forum.linuxcnc.org/media/kunena/attachments/26336/robot.jpg

Klipper might work or if not Linux CNC would for sure.   Both are open source and fairly mature with large user communities.  

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[Evan]

Hi, about your discussion on the nextruder. I don't think that the issue is present only on the MK3, as there is a video here about the issue (although I admittedly never experienced it on my Sprite extruder on my ender 3. Here is the follow up video on the nextruder.

[Chris Albertson]

> On May 15, 2024, at 2:29 PM, 3D Printing Tips and Tricks <3d-printing-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
>
> I think with an idex or tc you can already print parts with TPU as hinges or joints. It’s only a matter of designing it. The printers available now can do it. We’ve featured a number of examples of this already in the TotW.

Yes, of course, this is why I want one as my net printer. But then I started thinging what else I could do with a tool changer. I could use a tool other then an FDM print head and open up a lot of options.

I tried to list printing two kinds of plastic as the usual use for IDEX but then went on to think of other uses like pick-and-place or a router.

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!]

Chris - thanks for your feedback to my reply. But, slight misunderstanding. If I could print the part on a StrataSys machine with Dissolvable supports - it means I would have an almost complete prototype ready to be tested. Just as a proof-of-concept. Real version would indeed mostly be made out of metal. But, with the SSys version, I could have joints and things that rotate easily, after supports are removed. The only thing is - I might incorporate a small nut & bolt just to attach and lock in the metal wire that would feed up into the extruder gears.

-K

[Chris Albertson]

The first step is to have a tool changer.  After that, development of other non-FDM tool heads is just that, you only have to make a new Toolhead.   If all the toolheads use CAN bus then even the data and power cables remain the same.     It is a smaller job, only needing to perfect the toolhead and you can still use the printer as a printer while you do toolhead development.

I think IDEX/tool changer is possible.  one fixed FDM head and one tool carriage.

I am making a new Fusion360 model of a 350mm size Voron 2.4 that uses 4020 and 4040 extrusions.   Goal is to have much stiffer frame, then will upsize belts to improve belt stiffness I’m looking at closed loop A,B,C motors and a larger electronics bay.   I want a Fusion model with every screw just like the stock models.   This will take some time, it is not the top project right now.

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

If you're thinking of doing non FDM tools then the XL is not what you want. That machine is designed from the ground up for all FDM tools each with a Nextruder and nothing else. To go non fdm as in Pick and place, routing, etching, etc, you should go with the Jubilee or the E3D where it's thought of as an experimental platform. Not too sure how much support there is for it in the Voron TCs.

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Not sure what you're referring to. If it's about the pattern effect seen on the older MKIII extruders IMO it's likely either a motor controller issue or something in the way they developed their older extruder bodies. We've never seen the pattern effect on any of the NINE Bondtech feeders I have on a variety of machines none of which are Prusa's.