Even though it has to be done at once, unless you're regularly traveling with the 3D printer, it turns into too tricky for beginners to get it done at one go. This often results in poor first layers of prints. One of the essential aspects when starting 3D printing is to level the 3D printer bed correctly. Without a correct leveling, our impressions will not come out well and will end up getting frustrated with the machine.
 |
Essentials When Leveling Your 3D Printer Bed
Before we start printing our parts, let's make sure that the 3D printer is well leveled, everything works properly.
The first thing we’ll do is to take our printer to homing, make it auto home, and then we will do a disable steppers, which will allow us to freely move the y-axis (the bed) and the Z-axis (the head with the nozzle).
Auto Home and Disable Steppers to Level the Bed
For this, we are going to check 5 calibration points of our warm bed. It can be done by leveling the warm bed two times since when calibrating the first time, we can misadjust other points.
The Correct Distance Between Mouthpiece and Bed
It is imperative to calibrate each point by measuring the distance between the nozzle and the print bed. When passing the layer between the mouthpiece and the base, it should rub lightly. In summary, the optimal distance should be approximately 0.15mm.
We emphasize that it is an approximate measurement, but we can trust the size of the sheet when it comes to leveling the impression bed.
Remember that if the layer height of the first layer is 0.2mm, the distance between the nozzle and the base should be 0.1 - 0.2mm.
Prepare the Printing Surface
Before you start leveling or printing, there are a few things you should consider:
Clean the hotbed thoroughly: If there are traces of printing, probably the wrong calibers, to clean the hotbed properly, you can use a cleaner such as printable.
Clean the nozzle: check that there are no traces of filament in the nose. Remember that when leveling, we are doing it at a distance between the nozzle and a hotbed of 0.1 -0.2mm, so the remains of 3D printer filament in the nozzle can give us wrong measurements.
Cold or hot leveling: You are not likely to notice too much differences, but when printing, both the nozzle and the heated bed will be at high temperatures, this could expand metals (heat grows materials), for We recommend leveling the hotbed with the print temperatures.
PLA temperatures if you are going to print PLA Filament
Preheat for PETG if you are going to print PETG Filament
Symptoms of Poor Base Leveling
Once we
press the print button, our 3D printer will do a homing; that is, it will go to
its initial coordinate point.
When it reaches the optimum printing temperature, the first layer will start printing.
This first layer should look good, or else our impression probably won't go beyond this first layer.
We can also recognize a wrong first-layer impression if it looks like these issues:
- Poor print base calibration
- False impression due to poor calibration
- Does not adhere to the base
- Poor adherence to the heated plate, probably due to excess height. Simplify 3D font
- Poor leveling can lead to nozzle jams or nozzle.
Other symptoms that you can find to know that there is a lousy calibration are:
The first layer is barely visible or very thin: this indicates that the Z height is set too low, creating a minimal gap between the nozzle and the base. The filament cannot flow smoothly, and it will probably end up with issues.
Nozzle scrapes print base - This also indicates that the nozzle is too close to the bottom (Print Bed).
The filament does not adhere to the surface: the nozzle is probably too far from the base.
The filament comes out like spaghetti: in this case, the nozzle is very, very separated from the hotbed. The bed must be leveled by bringing it closer to the mouthpiece.
Perfectly Level Appearance
A good leveling must leave a clean first layer, correctly adhered to between the sheets, and glued to the heated base.
How to Calibrate the 3D Printer Bed
Depending on your 3D printer, we will calibrate the base in one way or another. Generally, we find three types of calibration systems: manual, semi-automatic, and automatic or auto-leveling,
- Manual Leveling System
The cheapest 3D printers usually bring a manual calibration system, which is the case, for example, of the Creality Ender-3 V2.
 |
| Creality Ender-3 V2 High Precision 3D Printer Upgraded Version |
In these cases, you will find leveling wheels, which you must move to one side or the other to level the base of the 3D printer.
Do it as we have mentioned before, in the five reference points and two times.
- Semi-Automatic Leveling Systems
These types of 3D printers are more comfortable to level. The 3D printer itself will mark the points where you must pass the sheet to measure the distance between the nose and the hotbed, to achieve perfect leveling.
At each point, you must move the wheels on the bottom of the heated bed.
- Automatic Leveling System
It is the best option to worry about everything; a 3D printer with a self-leveling system like the Creality Ender-3 V2 will avoid your problems and worries. It will only have to be calibrated once; the rest of the time, it will be done by itself before printing.
Bonus! Trick to level the 3D printer bed
This trick is handy when you level your bed. In this way, you will be at the GOD level of the 3D printer base leveling.
It consists of making a previous calibration, and start printing.
During the first coat, lower the print speed and watch. Reducing the rate too much will give you time to level each area of the heated base as printing progresses.
Before the first coat is finished, you will have a perfect leveling, and you can bring your 3D printer back to average speed.
What do you think? Has it served you? We hope so! If you have doubts, remember that you can leave them in the comments, we're always available to serve you.
#stayhealthy #stayhome #covid19 #corona #coronavirus #3dprint #3dprinting
No comments:
Post a Comment