This page serves as a companion for this video: 3D printer calibration revolutionised - Step by step to better print quality
It has received a major update to bring it up to V2 which is explained in this video: 3D printer calibration site V2 - Still free and better than ever!
- - + +It aims to make calibrating your 3D printer as easy as possible. If you find it helps you and you would like to say thank you, here is a donation link: PayPal.me
Special thanks to my Patrons for suggesting this video, helping define the contents and testing/proofing.
Watch the videos and then work through each tab. I have created a custom gcode generator to assist in making testing towers. This used to be a laborious process and beyond the skills of many users. Other times pre-sliced gcode was used from the internet, but it is impossible to have gcode available for every printer configuration. Until now!
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@It would be easy to use the techniques elsewhere on this page to try and fix problems that were actually caused by a problem with the physical components, so we will eliminate this possibility first.
Many of these procedures are covered in this video: Complete beginner's guide to 3D printing - Assembly, tour, slicing, levelling and first prints
- +Move around the machine and check all fasteners. Crucial ones include those on the print head gantry such as those that hold the hot end on.
Check all fans are spinning freely. This includes but is not limited to: mainboard cooling fan, heat sink fan, part cooling fan, PSU fan. It can be hard to diagose if a fan is performing at less than full capacity. It may be easier to simply replace than repair if you suspect a fan is failing.
Another suitable video for seeing some of these procedures is here:
- +Instructions on how to setup terminal software can be found here.
PID autotuning is quick and easy, and relates to the most potentially dangerous components of your 3D printer: the heaters. It makes sense to do it as a first step. This procedure is covered in this video: Two easy fixes for 3D printer temperature swings
- +In Marlin, this is a very straightforward process using M303.
It is not essential, but you may prefer to start this process with the hot end at room temperature. In a terminal, enter the following to tune the hot end:
M303 E0 S200 U1@@ -224,14 +224,14 @@
If the nozzle is too close, there will not be enough room for the extruded filament to take the correct shape, and it will be forced to squeeze outwards. In minor cases, the extruded line will be wider than necessary and produce elephant's foot. Prints like this may be quite hard to remove from the bed.
In extreme cases, there will be no way for the filament to exit the nozzle, at best causing extruder stepper motor skipping, and even potentially even jamming the extruder/hot end.
The contents of this page are shown in detail in the following video:
- +There are many techniques available, but a common one is to move the nozzle to the various corners of the bed, turning the levelling knobs until a standard piece of office paper can just fit between the bed and nozzle. A 0.1mm feeler gauge can be used, but make sure it doesn't have any oil on it that will contaminate the bed surface. Typically, this procedure is done with the bed at printing temperature (essential), and the nozzle close to printing temperature - just cool enough to prevent filament oozing out (optional).
It is common to follow up with a first layer calibration print, and 'live level' the bed by continuing to adjust the knobs when the print is under way.
This process is depicted in detail in the video above, and a gcode generator is provided at the bottom of the page to generate a suitable test print.
Auto bed levelling automates the procedure to some extent. A sensor such as a BLtouch, EZABL, strain gauge or peizo transducer is used to probe the bed in a grid formation. At each location, it measures the vertical height, building up an array of stored values, called a mesh. Manual mesh bed levelling can also be used to probe such a grid, but is still a manual process and hence not considered 'automatic'. Here is a visual representation of a probed mesh, shown with the Bed level visualizer Octprint plugin:
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During printing, the firmware will reference the mesh and compensate for an angled and/or warped bed by raising and lowering the nozzle using Z axis movement. This means the nozzle can travel up and down to match the contours of the bed, ensuring a good first layer.
If the printer's bed is perfectly flat, it is reasonable to claim ABL is not needed. Some users may still prefer it for the added convenience. In the event that the bed is warped (very common), it can be impossible to get a good first layer without ABL or manual mesh bed levelling. An example of this situation is shown in the video above.
It's worth noting that you can compensate for a warped bed in other ways, such as shimming the lower portions with a thin and flexible material. You can also use a glass/mirror plate over the top, which are typically quite flat. The downside of this is a longer time required to reach printing tempratures and additional load on the Y stepper (on an i3/'bed slinger' style printer) that may require lower print speed/acceleration.
@@ -244,13 +244,13 @@The following picture shows Z offset for a BLtouch. You can clearly see the vertical difference between the probing point (tip of BLtouch) and the tip of the nozzle.
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If BABYSTEP_ZPROBE_OFFSET is enabled in Marlin, setting the Z offset can easily be done as the first layer goes down. Don't forget to save to EEPROM afterwards. Newer versions of Marlin also have a Z offset wizard that can be included when you compile. I have a dedicated video for this:
- +Another advantage of some ABL systems is that once the Z offset is set, you can interchange build surfaces of various thicknesses, with no changes needed for a successful first layer. Assuming the probe is triggered the same way on the bed surface, the Z offset is applied to this trigger point and the first layer height should be the same. On a manually levelled bed, the four corner knobs would need to be turned in unison to raise or lower the bed in accounting for thickness of the new build surface.
The following form will create a series of five squares that you can use to live level your bed or set the Z offset. It is quick to print and features one square in the middle of the bed, with four others in the corners. You can use these to turn the levelling knobs in each corner until they are consistent, or ensure your ABL system is working if you have one in place.
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