Best method for 3D printer bed levelling
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2018
- Bed leveling doesn't have to be hard! Here's a quick and easy technique that will get you near perfect results. Works with any 3D printer!
Printing squares in each corner is much more reliable and you can get near perfect first layer after printing a batch or two. This is especially useful with manual levelling beds, but it also works great if you have a 3D printer with automatic bed levelling.
Octoprint CR-10 leveling plugin:
plugins.octoprint.org/plugins...
* Printable models *
Mini Trash Can:
www.thingiverse.com/thing:190...
Levelling knob:
www.thingiverse.com/thing:240...
Wedge jack:
www.thingiverse.com/thing:216...
Calibration squares (various sizes):
www.thingiverse.com/thing:278...
* Get in touch *
hobbyhoarder.net
/ hobbyhoarder
/ hobbyhoarder
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The "always clean with alcohol" tip deserves a thumbs up!
And so does your comment ;)
How I clean my insides too.
Unless you use buildtak
Never touch the glass print bed after cleaning. Body oils will reduce adhesion of the first layer.
If you have a glass bed, I strongly suggest to clean with dish soap before every big print and alcool between small prints and sometime with dish soap.
Thank you very much when people say “the nozzle should drag the paper” it’s a problem because drag is a generic term and everyone has a different idea what drag means like does drag mean that the nozzle is barley touching the paper or a lot etc thank you for actually showing it on camera
Thank you!
Yeah, that's why I've always hated the paper method, it's just not accurate enough for anything but a rough estimate. Even doing it myself, it's hard to be consistent with every corner. Printing the squares eliminates any guess work.
Yep, before this comment was made, I just yesterday started to under that I should start feeling resistance. I finally got a consistent 1st layer for the first time since owning a 3D printer.
@@HobbyHoarder lets not forget when people use "levelling paper"
like yeah, we all have some 3d printer levelling paper lying around.
Completely transformed my printer: I’ve had my printer for several years and have never really used it to its capabilities- just playing it safe printing simple objects in the middle of the bed. This video allowed me for the first time to make sure my printer bed is indeed level. I can’t wait to get started on the more complex things I’ve put off printing in the past.
The most accurate way to level a bed. I followed your tips and for the first time had more confidence in preparing for a print job. Thank you.
Thumbs up to all of the test examples you showed us. Thanks for helping
by far the best manual method I've found so far, thank you for the squares!
Thank you for this. I've had my nozzle too close to the bed, and your video helped me realize that. Your 60x60 square helped me dial my printer in nicely!
Glad it helped!
This was super handy. These squares made the whole job easyer for me.
I've seen A LOT of leveling tips'n tricks. Yours is simply the BEST!
Thank you for this technique, I recently bought two second hand 3D printers and even after following the usual "use a piece of paper" tutorials around could still not get a satisfactory result. After following your instructions I detected improvements after two iterations and significant ameliorations after a few more.
Great work, thanks again!
I'm very happy to hear that, great job!
this worked perfectly, I slowed down the print during the corners and was able to adjust the hight while watching with a flashlight. tyvm
That's wonderful, I'm happy to hear it helped!
Great Vidio great meathod. I used feeler guages to get accurate levels.
(Didnt like the paper meothod for all the reasons you gave) but after trying your squares I found that I was over a full turn to high the megacubic s has a great base so they stuck but I am geting a crease through the centre square. I know from feeler guages that it is .05 to 0.07mm higher than the edges.
Does that seem a lot? Any suggestions?
Finally true bed leveling. Took me a week to find this video.
Great process! Using this I was able make subtle adjustments (less than a quarter turn!) that had a significant effect on my print quality. Thanks for sharing this!
Yeah, it's really surprising seeing how such a small turn can affect the layer so much.
This is one of the best videos that I have found that explains common problems with bed levelling / first layers - thank you for sharing - awesome!
P.S - couldn't find a version of your test for the CR10 S4 so made the following: www.thingiverse.com/thing:3404473
Thank you Andy, I'm so glad it helped you out.
I'm probably buying my first 3D printer very soon, and this is very useful information, thanks for sharing.
I'm very happy to hear that. If you end up buying it (and you really should!), then I'd like to suggest my other video as well. How to calibrate everything: th-cam.com/video/qddYsbHawno/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for sharing, I just tried the bed levelling squares gcode and my printing improved so much, I can notice specially in the first layer. I had to print that pattern 6 times but it was worth it. Keep the good work up!
Thank you, always happy to see my videos helping others.
What a video, thanks for taking the time to make this. Amazing how simple something can be. I've used +-2 trees so far and was still struggling to level my bed. Thank you!
Nothing like hearing that I was able to help someone, thank you!
Helped me to figure out how much drag was needed for the paper. Very useful video, thanks.
I'm very happy to hear that!
Dude! This works perfectly. I ran it 4 times and saw noticeable improvement on each run until all 5 squares were perfect. Kudos
Always happy to hear that, thank you :)
@@HobbyHoarderSo I've just gone and got myself some mirror glass after your recommendation.. do you have any tips for changing the z height for the thickness of the new glass? Ideally I'd like to create a ' glass bed profile ' and a ' magnetic bed profile ' with the correct z height set for each. Thanks in advance
@@123benlambert Depends on your slicer, but Simplify3D has the Z-offset by default. In Cura, you have to install the Z offset plugin and then you can find it under Bed adhesion section.
Thanks, I was having trouble getting my Sovol SV-01 to print well until I came across this and now it's perfect. The levelling squares on Thingiverse work very well to level the bed. Thanks very much!
Happy to hear that!
I've tried to level my bed for 5 hours, but when I saw this video I got it instantly right. Thank you!
I love reading comments like this, I'm happy it helped.
I'm trying for days.. I'll try this method today! Hope!
Super helpful! Thanks for taking the time to make this video. Your samples and corresponding explanations are excellent! Thanks for helping out the 3D community.
Thank you Barry. Reading comments like this really makes everything worthwhile.
You are a lifesaver! I was using the paper method and I never got a good first layer. This helped me dial it in perfectly and now its almost impossible to get a print off without bed cooldown. Just like it should be!
Every comment like this brightens my day, thank you.
@@HobbyHoarder I kept thinking that it cant possibly be closer than the paper thickness. i was wrong. You helped me a lot. Im still tweaking it to get it perfect
I don't know how long you've had your printer, but the springs on new printers need some time to settle. Don't be surprised if you'll have to re-level it again in a few days. After a couple of weeks, the bed will become much more stable and you might have to level it only every few months.
@@HobbyHoarder I do notice my CR10s4 glass plate sags a little in the middle according to the calibration prints.
Yeah, that's quite common with the S4, it's just too big. Check the video description, I have a link there for wedge jack that you can put under the bed. You'll get a fifth adjustment point in the middle then and you can use it to raise the center just a little.
I like Rick’s idea of true level (Rick & Morty). Honestly, great vid and I appreciate the tips!
Loved that scene! Thank you, I'm really glad it helped.
I know this has over 300 comments but I wanted to jump in and add my thanks for making this video. I've been leveling my bed this way since I got my printer after I stumbled upon calibration squares on thingiverse and it has saved me hours of frustration. All new entrants to 3D printing should watch this video and learn this process for bed leveling. This is even better than automatic leveling because you are adjusting the actual finished product. I will often watch my printer during the first layer of prints and make minute adjustments to get that first layer perfect and my print quality has been consistently awesome using this method.
Thank you Christopher, it really means a lot. It always makes me happy reading how I've helped someone. And you're right, I prefer manual leveling as well. It's easier and works just as well as the auto leveling on my Prusa.
I can't Express my joy that you brought back to 3D printing again! :D Thank you SOOOOOOO much!!!!!!!
One of the best comments I've had yet, thank you :)
My god thank you so much you don’t know how much frustration I had with my bed because of leveling but this video truly helped me 👍
I'm really happy to hear it helped you out, thanks for dropping by!
This is the best explanation of first layer settings/results I have found thus far. Dozens of videos and websites did not help me as much as this video has. 👍 Well done and thank you.
Thank you, I love reading comments like this :)
Thanks for the video! It helped lots. And a special thanks for creating and making your Calibration square models available!!!
Thank you Shawn, it's really great to know my video helped you out.
Just as the title says, "Best Method". Agree 100%, best method! Thanks for sharing with us.
Holy crap, bro! Thank you! I am 2 days into 3d printing, and I wish I had this video 48 hours ago. Liked and Subscribed!
Happy to help and thank you for subscribing :)
This is great information, and very well put together. Thank you. Would love a series of videos that go into tweaking our printers just like this one.
Thank you, it's great to hear that.
Bed leveling was the hardest thing for me when I was starting out and I'm sure I'm not alone. If you have any other issues that are ticking you off, let me know and I might do a video about it.
This video may have actually saved my life. Thank you so much.
This is an excellent, practical very useful video for those of us just getting into 3d printing. It goes at a good pace, doesn't get too technical, not a lot of chit chat that has nothing to do with the subject at hand. This is a good example of what. youtube SHOULD be like.. Good job Mate!!
Thank you! I try really hard to make my videos as short as possible, it's always a pleasure hearing when someone notices :)
I like the printed squares, but they look very big. I recommend smaller squares, and then measure the thickness of each one with digital calipers. Compare with the first layer height. The threads on many adjustment screws are 0.5 mm pitch. So 1/5 of a turn moves the bed 0.1 mm. Very good to know, place five marks on each adjustment wheel. Turn 1/5 of a turn for error of 0.1 mm. Most printer firmware assumes the paper has zero thickness, yet it is 0.1 mm thick. So 1/5 turn after adjusting with paper will get you to zero. Thank you for making and sharing the excellent video. Very high quality.
Thank you very much sir! This is giving more tools for more precise calibration!
Thanks to your video now I know that I have to change the factory springs of my bed, they cost me a lot of PLA and time, your video is amazing!
Thank you Diego, I'm really happy to hear that :)
wow this is way way way way more helpful that any other video i looked at and I looked at loads when starting out I now use this method to do all my leveling.
Glad it helped!
Thank you, this though be a test print for every printer, just adjust the model to the max and use the adjustment knobs how they were meant to be used! Awesome job
Tysm! 3d printer bed leveling is such a pain and this way of leveling is much simpler.
I'm happy to hear that, thank you, good luck with your printing.
Thanks for the guide. Finally got my printers leveling absolutely dialed.
Wonderful to hear that :)
As a beginner and having troubles with my new Anycubic Chiron the video helped me a lot !! Thank you very much you saved my life and many others ;) Keep going !
I'm always very happy to hear that :)
Man, you should have to pay for this tip its helped me out so much thanks very much for this!
Hehe, keep me in mind if you win the lottery :D Seriously though, I'm really glad to hear that, it's why I've made the video in the first place.
Nice tips. I will use these the next time I go and print any pieces.
Saw many vids but only this one was fast and accurate enough. Thanks for helping me, buddy!
Happy to help and even happier to hear it worked out for you.
I just bought my first 3d printer an artillery genius, i was struggling a lot with the bed leveling paper method, your video is a masterclass
thank you so much
Greetings from Chile
PS: suscribed
Thank you, that really means a lot :) Happy to have someone from so far away!
You have saved me from so much pain! Thank you!!
Spent the last 3 days having printer problems. Immediately fixed my issue Great Video thank you!
I'm really happy to hear that, thank you for getting in touch!
Ok I’ve been going through all these tutorials for months using glue sticks and stuff and cleaning my glass bed with hot water and using a folded
post-it note but using the rubbing alcohol and single piece of paper is seriously genius thank you
Happy to hear it worked so well for you :)
Cleaned my bed with isopropyl alcohol yesterday then levelled it properly and I’ve never had a better print stick
Thank you for the squares & the video - spent days trying to level my Anycubic Mega S and the squares are really helping me.
That's wonderful to hear, I'm sure you'll get it set in no time!
Dude your printers are the most butter I have ever seen
I've never heard that expression before, what does it mean?
The idea with the mirror is so nice. Thank you!
Glad you like it!
Always do the space check directly above the leveling screws because that is the pivot point. Then do the spacing above the other three screws. Your bed will perfect as it can be without having to making the adjustments several times.
Thanks, I was wondering if that took effect or not.
THANK YOU DUDE YOU ARE AWESOME!! So helpful. Needed my nozzle closer to the bed.
Glad to hear it helped :)
Thank you so much for the awesome video! It helped me so much with leveling my bed which have a dip in the middle. I placed layers of aluminum foil beneath the dipped area.
Printer: ender 3 V2 with stock glass bed with upgraded bed springs.
Oh and thank you for making the test squares available.🙏
You're very much welcome :)
Great idea about the foil, that's what I always recommend as well.
Your post has made printing so much easier. Thank you.
Happy to hear that :)
Really great examples for the squares! Thank you
I'm always happy to hear that, thank you.
Exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much!
Thank you, I really appreciate it.
"Are you having issues with your prints because you can't level your bed? Just print this out!"
Bruh
print it out to find out what is too high and whats too low
@@igameidoresearchtoo6511 This is so true I wish I could give more than one "like" to this comment!!
Thx for your Video, it helped me as a 3d noob a lot! :)
Best method i have used yet thank u so much!
Thank you this is one of the only videos that actually helps level my CR 10 printer. Thank you very much!
I'm very happy to hear it helped you out, thank you :)
Good video! Thanks! And something you said that really helped me a lot.
If there are gaps, raise the bed.
If there is a rough texture, lower the bed.
I don't know if I've run across something as simplistic as that but with what you said and the calibration squares, it made more sense of the how to properly level your bed.
Thanks again!!
I'm very happy to hear that John, thank you for taking the time for commenting. I was so frustrated with bed leveling when I was starting out, but it really is simple once you know what to look for. Good luck with your printing hobby!
5:40 I always find it odd when I notice that someone's hands are a very different shape from my own, but today I learned it's even stranger noticing that someone has nearly identical hands
Hehe, out of hundreds of comments, you're the first one to mention my hands :D
Just got my first printer today, was not getting good results with the "paper" method. Downloaded this, printed and could instantly see the problem. Fixed and printing great. Thank you for this, this is so much easier to see exactly what is happening vs guessing "is there enough drag on this paper".
I'm happy to hear it helped you out! I'm sure you'll have a ton of fun with your new printer, it really feels like magic at times.
This was the best video, showing how to set your bed hight, i always had trouble with my printer, when i was only using the paper method
thank you
no, really, thank you so much, you saved 5 hours of googleing of my life, thanks
Yeah, I don't understand why the paper method gained so much traction, it's almost useless until you know how the first layer should look like (and then you don't need the paper any more).
I'm very happy to hear it helped you out, thank you!
@@HobbyHoarder i always had bad quality printing the benchmark boat
Forgot the name again
But yeah its weird the paper method is useless, you might even get better results eyeballing it
Benchy :)
Are you still having issues with it?
@@HobbyHoarder its ok but still not perfect
It's never perfect :) Let me know if I can help with anything.
Thank you!
Going to try this out
On all the bed leveling video's I have not seen 1 that first says to wind the bed down so theres spring tension on the bed springs , if you dont have tension the bed is free to move around and wobbly all over the place during printing and also this is why every time you bed level its showing different measurements.... Tip of the day brought to you by Tony Den cheers happy printing.... 👍😊
Yes, that's a very good point, thanks for adding it to the comments!
@@HobbyHoarder welcome mate Im new to the awesome 3d print world but have a bit of mechanical and engineering history so like to tinker... 👍
Thanks very much this video has helped me a lot as I have just bought a 2nd hand ender3v2 and it was way out... now I can tune it better and I'll clean the nozzle tomorrow and then print some test prints and see how it goes.
Good luck with your printer, come back if you have any issues with it.
Amazing video. Short, helpful, clear. Thank you!
Happy to hear that :)
Wish I would have clicked here first the other videos I saw were no good this one here helped me the best thank you so much
Happy to hear that :)
this method is very useful thank you very much for the work you've done
my printer worked fine with this method thank you
Thanks for the well produced video. It is really helpful.
Hey man! I almost understand and talk English, i'm from México and there's no a tutorial like this in ALL the spanish "leveling stuff", i come back here again to thank you! I have 6 months with my ender and even yesterday i have take about 20 mins to level correctly my Ender 3 Pro, today i wake up and watched this video and i level it in less than 2 minutes, it's very important to me to have a good leveling because i make dog plates, Thank you very muhc my friend :D i subbed and i'm watching your videos :D
Greetings to Mexico! I'm very happy to hear my video helped you out, thank you for letting me know.
I hope you've seen it already, but a while ago, someone was kind enough to provide Spanish subtitles for this video. I hope that will make it easier to understand, I know I don't have the best English accent :)
Hope this saves me from hours of wasted time and returning it to the store
Thanks a lot for the tutorial. Your thingie works great btw... Bed is finally level and ready ;)
Kevin Van den Langenbergh I'm very happy to hear that, thank you.
I just use this technique and wow! thank you!
I'm very happy to hear it worked for you!
Thank you so much! You've saved me so much time & excessive efforts. God bless you! 😭❤️
Thank you, I'm very happy to hear that :)
@@HobbyHoarder You were the only one that explained the needed resistance from the paper & nozzle clearly. Most of the guides I've watched, they always kept on just saying "slight resistance" without showing how "slight" should it be.
Hey man , it was a really nice video to fix the 3d printer .
Thanks a lot and good luck .
Happy to hear that, thank you.
I found this video very clear and concise. Thank you. I am trying to get a BL touch on an Anet A8 running Marlin 1.1.8 to auto level. I hope you will do a video on that topic. Thanks.
Thank you, it's really great to hear that. I've been thinking of installing the BLTouch on my CR-10 as well, so it's likely that I'll do a video about it this year.
Great video, you explained it perfectly, thank you. 👍👍👍
Hi, Great video. I am new to 3D printing and like you said there are a lot of ways to bed leveling. I still have not gotten a successful print, if it prints at all. I will try the way you just showed. Thank you again for a great video.
Jose Sanchez Thank you and good luck. Come back if you'll still have issues and I'll try to help as much as I can.
this is the best video on the internet!
Hehe, that's the best compliment I've gotten on any of my videos!
Best video on leveling the bed!!! Subbed and liked
Bro sounds like Strongbad. I love it.
Oh thats an amazing method thank you! Because this thing with paper is like not verry precise!
First time user of a ender 5 it worked mint 20 minutes to assemble. Less then 5 minutes to heat up and go
Lovely video. Very helpful and you actually showed examples.
This is a great tutorial. Thank you for putting it up. I have used a single line for checking my bed levelling. I may switch to your method as it gives a guide how to interpret the results. Can you mention more about getting PLA to stick to the mirror - you mentioned a special coating? I currently UHU stick on my glass bed as I can't get it to stick without.
Thank you, very appreciated. I meant that the mirror's surface is already good enough, you don't have to put anything else on there. I only use a bit of glue stick if I'm printing a really large object that might warp at the edges. Otherwise, you can print directly on the mirror. Note however that mirrors work much better than just plain glass.
@@HobbyHoarder is this due to some thermal reflection mechanic do you think? most mirrors I know of are glass surface.
Maybe because transparent glass is manufactured to higher tolerance ranges and cut from larger sheets knowing that the level surface is not the manufacturing or usage intent, but in mirrors maybe a very level surface is required to not introduce distortion in the reflection?
@@kevin-bf4ww Yeah, I've since learned that there's no special coating on the mirror, it's simply flatter, which I guess creates more "suction" so to say.
Thanks for this. Really helped me get started.
Great to hear!
Thanks for this. Very useful, although I reckon I will get one of those auto leveling mods/upgrades at some point :)
subbed :D
Thank you, happy to hear that.
When I first got my CR-10, I was certain I'll be upgrading to auto-leveling soon. Surprisingly though, the manually leveled bed has been very reliable. I've now been printing for months without having to adjust the bed at all. I've actually had a lot more issues with prusa's leveling probe, because it was affected by heat and would give off different readings.
this guy right here!!! THANK YOU
I have found you have to adjust the bed by only lowering the bed with anyone of the knobs. If you raise use the knobs to raise the bed, it doesn't hold that position, there's slop or backlash on the knobs. If the bed needes to go higher, I need to raise the bed ABOVE where it will end up and then crank it down with the knob(s). It is like tuning a guitar, you don't ease the tuning key, you have to tighten it for it to keep the tension. Same on the Enders... This is the benefit of running with a BLTouch. On the stock machine the bed is relative to a fixed item, the Z switch. With the BLTouch the bed is relative to the BLTouch probe. I ease my knobs so the bed starts as high as it can go. Then whenever I run the test print, I only lower the bed with the knobs. Eventually (after many prints) you may have tightened all the way down and you have to start over by easing the bed to the highest level again. This way, when I run these bed level test prints, I only bring the bed down under tension. This has worked really we for me.
This is the first video since March (when I bought my first and only 3D printer) that I should have seen BEFORE starting printing with it. It has an Ultrabase bed so I would like to avoid swapping it with a mere mirror. The problem is that my Ultrabase glass is warped like hell. The center is so low that even if I set the corners, what I print will never stick to the center of the bed. I will put some aluminium foil sheets in the middle and try to work on this square methodology. Thanks a lot!
Yep, alu foil in the middle is probably your best bet. I've had to stack a few on my CR10, but it worked great then.
If it's really bad though, then installing leveling probe might be worth it. I'm not a big fan of BLTouch, it takes forever to probe. I ended up buying a flex steel sheet, then you can use something like EZABL or one of the many clones. Works great if you don't have a glass bed.
@@HobbyHoarder thanks for your answer. I shall give it a try!
Best video so far
Definitely a subscriber now!
I am definitely going to buy a glass or mirror bed for my printer
surprisingly a better way to level my bed
Loved the videos, thank you for all the information. Quick question, when should I use Auto Home? only when I'm about to level the bed? Noob question but I havent found anything on it for my Creality CR-10S
Thank you, I'm always happy to hear that.
Generally, you rarely have to use the auto home option. You might have noticed that the Auto home is performed before every print, so there's really no need to do it manually. Even when you're levelling the bed and if you're using the squares, it will do the auto home routine before it starts printing them.