In the past several months, whether in the New Matter store, the MOD-t Printer Tool, or Cura, we’ve encountered reports from some MOD-t users who are intermittently experiencing an irritating issue known as “layer shifting” when attempting to print larger objects. Layer shifting most often occurs when a print design is taller than 3 inches or is utilizing the full range of either the X, Y, or Z axes, though it can also sometimes occur on smaller print jobs as well. The resulting prints will appear as though the print tray has “shifted” out of position during the job, and may look something like this:

Postmodern art? Perhaps. Usable prints? Not so much.

After looking into the issue, our engineering team has concluded that this problem can be effectively addressed by attaching a small modification to your MOD-t’s print tray. This simple modification, which we’ve nicknamed “MOD-skis”, lock the build tray into position on the pinion rods that guide it and should mitigate, if not completely eliminate the layer shifting and skipping seen by some users. The best part is, this modification can actually be printed at home on your own MOD-t!

Figure 1: No MOD-ski installed

Figure 2: MOD-ski Installed

To print the “MOD-skis”, please visit www.newmatter.com/lockbars

There you will find the print file for the “MOD-skis” as well as the installation instructions.

To give you a better idea of the results this modification can provide, have a look at this “before” picture sent by one of our users who experienced layer shifting on a larger “pineapple” file:

Now, compare that with this “after” photo, which was accomplished with the help of the MOD-skis!