yeah that was my next thought. spindle looks perfect so then i thought it might be a bent spider arm or something. but spinning with the chainring off and something right next to the spider arms for reference looks like the spider is fine too. the chainring worked 10 hours ago so i don't think it's that. boggles the mind!
if i hold my finger next to the teeth of the spinning chainring so they are just barely touching, the teeth pull away from my finger about a mm for about a 1/3 of the rotation. and by 'away' i mean toward the center of the ring not sideways.
i'm going to try another chainring just to rule that out. thanks for the suggestions.