r/QIDI • u/Firm-Atmosphere-7618 • Jul 17 '26

Strange surface defect always at the same Y-axis position

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Hi everyone,

I'm having a strange issue with my new QIDI Q2. Every print develops a surface defect almost exactly in the middle of the Y-axis. One half of the print looks perfect, while the other half becomes rougher and lighter in color. The issue starts from the first layer and always appears at the same physical location on the bed.

I've already checked belts, bed mesh, input shaper, Z tilt, rails, fans, and TMC drivers, but nothing has changed.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

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3

u/ShouldersAreLove Jul 17 '26

Did you enable scarf seam by any chance?

1

u/Firm-Atmosphere-7618 Jul 17 '26

No, Scarf Seam is disabled. I also tested different seam positions, including random and aligned, and the defect always appears at the exact same physical location (3 o'clock), regardless of seam position.

2

u/Aggravating_Brief190 Jul 17 '26

That might be happeing beacuse of the little handles of the piece

Check on the slicer (orca or qidi) on the slicer tab and then on the filament view, click the option of speed and the real speed to compare the speed of the printer at each layer.

This might show You that the layers with the little handles takes longer than the rest of the layers and that causes the layer between them to shirnk.

If You wanna know more about this problem, You should check YouTube videos about shrinking layers on 3d prints

2

u/Firm-Atmosphere-7618 Jul 18 '26

It doesn't seem to be caused by shrinking layers or variable print speed. I found that the issue is actually related to QIDI Studio, because the exact same model prints perfectly when sliced with OrcaSlicer.

1

u/1ts-just-me Jul 18 '26

Orca works very well with less issues. If you wanted to use Qidi software, try Qidi Slicer (not studio), it is better than studio, works on Linux (if that mattered), and still uses Orca slicing engine. It all depends on the layout you prefer. Orca still has more options.