Sometimes prints will have issues only at a specific height. The symptoms may be poor fill at a specific height, layer shift that always occurs at a certain Z, or something else that seems to consistently occur at a certain height.

When this happens, I start looking at, and around, the lead screws for Z. I look at the motors, the screws themselves, and the bearings. When I inspect the lead screws, I make sure there are no physical issues, such as nicks or dings in the screw itself and that the lead screw isn’t bent in that location.

If the sides of a calibration cube are a little bowed, there are a couple of things that I would look at.

  • e-steps/rotation distance (Klipper): if your extruder is extruding too much material, the material has to go somewhere.
  • calibrate Z: same thing as above, if your z steps are off, you might not be moving up as much as you think you are. The extruder is calibrated to extrude a certain amount of material. If you end up extruding more material, it needs to go somewhere
  • pressure advance: your nozzle may be oozing a little bit and causing your sides to become bowed