In this video we'll cover 3 common Myths and Misconceptions about 3D Printing! What misconceptions did you have about the technology when you started?
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Here's a myth to test: "If I'll watch it, it won't go bad"
Only the brave walk away without watching the first layer .
@@MakersMuse I don't watch the first layer because it always goes bad when I watch it but if I hit print and come back later it's fine
What about blind people?
This group of comments is absolutely hilarious! LOL
**laughs nervously*** you guys watch your stuff? I just hit print from the other room and check on it when it's done 👀👀👀
Biggest myth I used to believe: That I was too dumb for 3D printing. I had no experience with wiring, electricity, motors, electronics, robotics, CAD or 3D modeling, or computers (aside from just running Windows). I had no applicable skills to make me believe I could even try. But I bought a kit from Creality, put it all together myself, and have been 3D printing for about the last two years. In that time I've replaced, upgraded, or added to almost every component of the machine (often using parts the machine itself printed).
For me a 3d printr is like a baby, like my first son. I did not know what to do with him. After 3 months I was an expert in shit and diapers.
If every part of the machine is replaced by parts that were printed by the machine one at a time, is it still the same machine when nine if the original parts remain? 🤯
@@c0denam3b84 The Ship of Theseus.
you don't have to know anything about technology, nowadays you mostly just have to able to follow instructions. extelligence is coming on strong. now if we can just get rid of the gatekeeping ... I kinda get that school textbooks are made up of a lot of work and investments, but in Germany I would have to shell out thousands of euros just to get a "copy" (it is supposedly an abonnement) of the regulations regarding electric installation. and I'm certainly to lazy to go to the library
That's what I'm going through currently. I've got no real experience with engineering/computers or anything tech-related, but I'm thinking about getting into 3d printing. I am still a bit hesitant
My father, who used to work as an engineer for military branch of Boeing in the late 80s, brought home various 3D printed items from his work at that time. For demonstration the 3d items were all designed with features that couldn't be manufactured with the common slide mold. For example, they produced a rook chess test piece that had a complex spiral stair case inside that couldn't be reproduced by conventional methods. It was quite an impressive achievement for that era.
Skunkworks?
@@THPOOKY Skunkworks would be Lockheed Martin
@@steilkurbler4973 you're right, thank you!
a year ago I purchased an Elegoo Jupiter printer, the demo file supplied is quite possibly that same rook you mentioned, and yes no conventional milling or injection moulding can reproduce it. It sits on a shelf in my lounge a thing of beauty, in 1980 your jaw must have been dragging on the ground. During the 1950's and early 60's my father worked for an English firm called Plessey, he would occasionally tell us about things he made or saw that left me with smoke coming out of my ears, (the things that might be considered "sensitive" we weren't told until the 70's) Ah the perks of having a clever Dad. cheers
That's a neat trick, he must have had a time machine too. That file was created by the MIT students who brought you Formlabs. Around 2014, after they had the original Form1 with the birdcage model, the chess rook with the staircase in it was modeled to showcase the Form 1+. In fact if you find that model anywhere it's modeled right into it.
This video is the epitome of what people need when they search for advice! Straight to the point, no sponsors, back stories, no fluff. This worked perfectly in real time. No issues. Thank you!
Folded paper? I've never done that. I've always used paper but unfolded. It's always worked fine
I used to use a folded paper, but recently I discovered that an unfolded piece works much better too.
I’ve stopped using a sheet of paper, I just get the extruder jjjuuuuuuuuuuuuuuussssssst touching the bed, and then get an overly square print anyway because the printer only works with Chinese software...
I didn't think of feeler gauges, I've always used playing cards.
@@ataphelicopter5734 time for some Marlin flash and/or motherboard upgrade no?
I've always used a single piece of paper without folding too. Never had any troubles with that, though I'm also not fussy about it either.
You just made me realise that leveling the bed while not pre-heating is probably why my Z-heights have been mysteriously inconsistent. Thanks for the tips mate!
Same
It's been fun watching the first layer with my windows open lately. It's pretty crazy what only a 30F swing will do.
Not only that, you need to let it sit at temperature for a few minutes. Otherwise it may still be deforming while your measuring.
i could never do it with the bed on. with the petg i use at the moment i use like 70 C bed temps. just kills your fingerxs
The difference is massive. On my ender 3 with glass bed the clearance probably changes +-0.15mm, almost a full layer height difference. Update: my z limit switch was causing issues. There is some variation but not as large as I thought.
As a former engineer with tons of machine shop experience, I’ve always hated the term bed leveling. I level using a feeler gauge, but I take one more step. I place the nozzle directly over the center of the leveling screws. This eliminates any errors that might be introduced by being too far away from those fulcrum points.
Yeah. That always made the most sense to me.
I found some g code for the ender 3 that goes above each poiny
I was just doing the above the screws thing earlier, didn't have any paper or such tho..(I just put the thing together today, am still noob :o)
Wow wow amazing very very clever dint think of that idea but yeah come think of it your definitely right each point will make the build plate level 👍👍👍😎😎😎thanks
@@richardbrown9035 ok, boomer
Thank you so much for the bed leveling bit...I just got my 1st 3D printer and have been making really awesome spaghetti with it after leveling the bed with a sheet of paper about 17 times.
🤝
Dont fault the technique at your own incapability to build the printer with straight frame. Thousands of people are using the technique just fine and it doesn't work only because you and Maker's Muse couldn't make it work?
@@TheFryPo I really wish people weren't such fucking dicks.
If it's an ender 3 / pro / v2, get new springs, the orange stronger ones. That, or 3d print the spring guides for it. Your levelling isn't the problem if you went through 17 times in one single levelling go, it's the springs buckling or the mounting plate not staying at the right place on the screw. Could also be the cable connector at the back, since that one goes out of angle easily on the ender 3 v2 that I have (until I got the guides). If you're levelling 1 time, or even 2 times per level "session", then you're also unlevelling it. You have to remember that if one side goes up, the other goes down, ON BOTH AXES. Because of this you don't instantly reach level, you gradually move closer and closer to it, so you'll need to go at it about 4 or 5 times to get a decent result if you have to start with big adjustments. If you get new springs and the guides you'll at least have to do this much, much more rarely. For anyone else with an ender 3, get yourself the Jyers marlin firmware with manual mesh levelling (CHECK IF YOU HAVE A 4.2.2 OR 4.2.7 BOARD FIRST), and you won't really ever have to adjust the screws again. Make sure they never change (guides and fasten completely, go back 1 rotation, then kinda level it okay-ish) and then do the "create a new mesh" thing in the levelling menu. You'll use microsteps on the nozzle to reach level (which means no touching or pushing the bed, great!) and it creates a mesh for compensation, sort of the same as the BLTouch! You'll also have to make sure to add the correct starting GCode in your slicer to make sure the printer uses the mesh for it's prints, otherwise get ready for spaghetti. (make sure to adjust the endstop switch thing on the side tho since you fastened all the level screw thingies and might need to go lower than that thing allows)
@TheFryPo Well, first of all, I would give a little more thought to how you express yourself here. So there are several factors, on the one hand we are talking about a printer which costs about 250 dollars new. In this price range, it is hald often so that not all Tolleranzen adhered to. In the production it is also never possible to make everything perfect. The Ender3 V2 has a few problems. It is also a very big matter of luck. I have seen a couple who made out of the box everything great. Others had many problems, fortunately there are enough prepared files. When leveling make it so long until you have a passage at which you no longer have to adjust anything. It is a matter of practice. But there are also other factors, ev some glue. You can buy these for the printer or even a glue stick can work wonders. Otherwise you can also try to increase the temperature of the bed to 65 or even 70* This is no problem with PLA.
I never thought that I'd live to see the day when a major 3D printing Guru would assert the term "Tramming". Now I can rest.
I'm sorry I took so long 😩
Tom has been calling it Tramming for years.
@@MakersMuse You're forgiven. Thanks for forwarding your findings to us. =)
As a machinist I took it upon myself to design a bracket I can just attach a dial indicator to and tram my bed correctly. Kinda blew my mind a piece of paper was considered the “standard” when working in hundredths of a mm.
I'll have to get my printer sorted and do the same with the dial meter, I like that idea
Haven't seen a topic like this covered in years. A refresher from all the top creators would actually be awesome.
Did that already ;-)
Definitely, a lot of us are new to 3D printing and it's hard to get it right. I have two 3D printers, both Anycubic. One resin and the other filament. They both worked great straight out of the box, but soon as I bought new filament and resin I had to learn how to change all of the settings to get a decent print. That's why I'm here. There are a billion tweaks out there, not all of them work and not for all printers. I subscribe to maker's muse and others I like, to watch their earlier videos and get the basics of 3D printing. But some of the info is out of date, so it would be nice to have a bit an up to date refresher on the basics.
3D printing used to be called "Rapid prototyping" and I first saw it in use as early as 1997. Resin printing, basically. I think what created the media moment for 3D printing was the success of the open source movement around filament deposition. The RepRap project made it accessible to anybody, and that's what was the real sensation. This was around 2010, really, when things blew up.
That leveling tip is awesome! I just started with 3d printing and had a difficult time leveling the bed. I did had the feeling that it goes up a bit at the beginning and you confirmed that. I got a feeler gauge right away and the first layer is perfect now! Thank you so much for sharing!
I recommend using three feeler gauges: Your target initial clearance, the next thickest gauge, and the next thinnest gauge. Set the initial clearance with the target gauge and then use the other two gauges to confirm. The thinner gauge should slide under the nozzle without contact and the thicker gauge should hit the side of the nozzle.
Oh, I get it. At first I read "next thickest" as the thickest one you have, minus one. You mean, the next thinner guage from the final tramming height you're aiming for.
In firearms the two over/under gauges are called "Go" and "No-Go" gauges. If the bolt closes on the No-Go gauge(larger than spec) it is unsafe to fire since clearances have become to loose, and if it can't close on a Go gauge(smaller than spec) the clearances are too tight and could be equally unsafe to fire. If it closes on a Go gauge but does not close on a No-Go gauge(in between the to dimensions) then the firearm is within safe firing specifications.
How do you know what the target clearance should be?
@@endz0r The advantage of a feeler guage is that it has its clearance printed on its side. It doesn't matter which clearance you choose. It just matters that you know your clearance, and you move the z-axis to the right height. Say your feeler guage is exactly 0.45 milimeters. Then you move your z-axis to 0.45, and you keep adjusting the bed height until the nozzle rests on the guage without pushing or moving the bed down. When you're done "tramming" the bed, you know that if you move the z-axis to 0.1 mm, the nozzle is exactly 0.1 mm above the bed. Does that make sense?
You can slo use a strip of a beer/soda can if you do not have a gauge
The feeler gauge trick is genius and makes so much more sense than other bed levelling advice I have seen. Thank you!
It is great but I fucked up my bed earlier with paper trick and needed to buy a new one (it’s already scratched ) that’s what happens when you give a 14yo a ender 3max
Yeah, I'm excited to try it, I have to level my bed very often since I change nozzles a lot, (I print minis and large parts on the same printer)
I thought so as well. The funny thing is since we stopped tuning up cars with "points" I can't seem to find my set of feeler gauges.... Wow, i'm old. Edited to add... I bought my first printer an Anet A8 Plus back in November. Angus and many others haven't given very many points to Anet for many valid reasons. However, it's mine and I claim it. Over the course of the last six months I've grown to love it. At first, getting the bed right drove me APESSHIT. It seemed like I was constantly tweaking / adjusting it for damn near every print. However, knock on wood (i'm screwed now I'll have to adjust it), the last couple months it's been dead on in the sweet spot and my prints have been just amazing. I'm moving forward and building a core xy next complete with auto bed leveling. I'm stoked and can't wait to start the project!
@@Diesr Or a 40 year old. I'm a big supporter of letting that fourteen year old get in there. They learn the same as us old guys. We screw things up, we learn. Also, they are sharp as tacks. I believe they learn a hell of a lot quicker.
@@TheJacklwilliams I just picked up a feeler gauge at Harbor Freight for this exact purpose.
Also note that when you are leveling and using a piece of paper try and use a different part of the paper at each corner (and center) as the paper might get dented when you are feeling the distance (like writing with an empty pen). And also before you do feel for the nozzle height. You are heating the nozzle already and a tiny bit of filament might have already oozed out of the nozzle or starts to ooze out during the leveling giving tiny skewed results.
I don't know if it's the "right" answer, but I've been preheating my bed to printing temperature, and my nozzle to 70% of printing temp. It's hopefully close enough to get the thermal expansion close enough for levelling purposes, but not hot enough to let it drip.
His last point about bed leveling is very interesting. Based on this idea, you really don't need to go out and buy feeler gauges. You can just use any solid metric item (such as an Allen wrench or raw scrap metal) and hop the Z axis to the size of that item.
That whole bed leveling procedure makes me so increadibly happy that I bought a printer with auto bed leveling. Especially for someone new to 3d printing it just removes so much possibilities for error
It's really not that big of an issue. I do it once every time I change a nozzle. Then if you see a first layer going down thin, or thick you tweak it a bit, but once set it stays there.
All I do is manual level. Done it 100 times. The thought of adding a BL touch seems like too much effort for me now when this simple method works.
@@court2379 that's It. Bed leveling is something I do every other month, if much. All the time it's just some fine tuning between one job printing and another.
Anyone with great experience will tell you auto tramming your bed is faulty, and almost NEVER correct without some manual leveling first. I a printer with an auto leveler, but I always manually level it first, then allow the mesh.
trusted auto level once cost me a new bed on a 2hour old printer now manual set to make sure then auto level and watch the first layer just in case its 5min extra
I don't think I've EVER heard of using a folded paper for tramming. That would be absurd. Every tutorial I've seen says to use a single, thin sheet.
Ya I was gonna say I’ve never heard this in the 6 years I’ve been printing. I’ve also been using a sticky note that whole time and I’ve never had an issue.
i only fold over when printing with PETG as if i print too close to the bed it sticks TOO well and is difficult to remove.
Yea that's what I've done for 6 years now and if I notice the first layer looks a bit wrong I just tune it in offset settings. I think getting it perfect is more important when you do the whole bed manually, but I don't know why anyone still bothers with manual bed tramming when sensors are so cheap now.
@@user2C47 Is that even a thing? Mine just connects to the z axis endstop connector on my Ramps board and then you just configure it in settings.
@@user2C47 The inductive sensors are really cheap, i got a few of them a few years ago for an average of $1.60 each, though i imagine with shipping and all that it could be more expensive now. I tested them and they worked OK, but i don't use them now since i decided to print on glass. What i have now is just something i cobbled together from random junk i had, a micro 3.7g servo dangling a short leg with a mouse button switch. But then i have the pins on my board to wire a dozen pieces of extraneous equipment to it, so my situation is of course different. Anyway you connect ground of the sensor to ground (available on endstop connector), supply to 12V (splice from a fan or something), and the output via a diode to the active pin of the endstop connector. Diode points with the marked line towards the sensor! It will allow the sensor to pull down the board pin to ground (or nearly so well enough to read), but will not allow to pull it up beyond internal pull-up of the processor. A suitable diode type is standard small-signal diode, 1N4148. Silicon rectifier diodes shouldn't be used, because they're slower, and during switching can leak a high voltage spike. A Schottky diode can be fine, but might be an extra risk and there's no need in it at all, standard diode is good.
Another big one is that "automatic bed leveling" is a misnomer. The concept is more like "automatic topology adjustment", since it's not actually physically affecting the bed. An "ABL" probe is actually measuring the bed and adjusting the height of Z according to the topology of the surface, and as such it has an overall tolerance for how "slanted" the bed can be before it stops working altogether. ABL probes are not sufficient enough to correct major deficiencies in hardware, you still need to level your bed relative to the XY plane of motion for a probe to do its job effectively.
Agreed! It affects final model accuracy which isn't something often discussed .
I kinda doubt many people thought their bltouch was physically leveling their bed.
@@rayaguilar9085 I see it all the time. Folks think exactly this, and are flummoxed when it just won't work, to the point of taking it off. Even on a machine like the Ender 5 Plus which requires the bed leveling probe as the Z endstop.
Yep! And is especially important for larger print beds made from aluminum which have the tendency of being warped or dished slightly. I think the dual Z leveling is pretty cool and actually is more proper leveling
1. Re: "it's not auto bed leveling." On some specialty printers it is, they usually have 3 independent z lead screws that can actually tram the bed for you. 2. Re: "the topology adjustment method fails at certain angles." Tom showed it working at some pretty extreme angles in the past. Obviously the parts came out skewed, but he basically tilted the bed as far as it would go IIRC.
Thank you for teaching me how to use my feeler gauge correctly. I had been using an ultrathin feeler to get "0", but moving up 0.2mm on Z and using a 0.203mm feeler gauge immediately gave me a perfect first layer after having to replace my Z-home switch.
Skate's curse is the only 3d printing myth I believe in
What is that? haha
@@MakersMuse skate is this Legendary regular user on one large 3d printing discord community with 19 000 members. Legend has is that all his printers are cursed and that continued exposure to him in chat will get you exposed to skate's curse too. Print fails? Skate's curse. Printer not working? Skate's curse
@@MakersMuse even i know who skate is! He and his blue neko girl mk3s are cursed to wet-petg hell! xD ( you should really consider joining the community)
@@YunFuriku It's not a myth if it's real
Skate's curse fried 4 of my mainboards back to back .____.
A dedicated video on levelling the bed using the Feeler gauge would help a lot
You don't need a video. Follow the paper method. Go to an automotive store and pick up a feeler gauge set... it looks like a swiss army knife except with a bunch of flat sheets of steel. They should have metric and imperial thicknesses etched on them. Choose the one that matches say 0.25mm... adjust the head to touch it until there is a slight drag. Now you know where 0.25 above the bed is. Adjust the z stop in the software to be 0.25 lower so the printer knows where the bed actually is. Run the home command. Then lower the nozzle to Z = 0. The nozzle should just barely touch the bed. If the bed moves then the nozzle is too close. Adjust the Z stop or offset Done. If the nozzle is really far away then you didnt add the 0.25mm to the z stop value in software. If you do this check before printing then you wont drag your nozzle through the bed :p Note that your bed will have a certain amount of warping when cool and when heated it will be different so you might want to also try lifting the nozzle to your first layer height... say 0.3mm then move the nozzle all around the perimeter and through the y 0 axis to make sure your nozzle doesnt contact the bed. You can do this while cold and heated to verify it wont hit. A BLtouch and Bed visualizer plugin for octoprint gives a beautiful 3d mesh of your bed. It is not very flat. Even on a thick mirror it isnt very flat.
@@someguy2741 and don't forget visual inspecting. Printing a skirt can help a tonne
Been doing it with the feeler gauge for years. Works exactly the same way as paper. I use a .102mm one. Perfect 1st layers every time.
Or buy a bltouch
Does the printer really go to 0 on Z axis when leveling? I've found a configuration file on my BIQU B1 SD card that sets the leveling height to 0.2mm so I use the .2 gauge and the first layer comes out perfect.
For about a year i set my extruder height with a piece of paper, and i got weird stringey bottoms that i thought were "normal", then about a week ago I couldn't find a piece of paper handy so i did it just by feel and seeing how high it is, now i get perfectly flat bottoms and not a single print has yet failed
one thing that I have not seen online but found out myself through experience is levelling the bed by sight, I use an ender 3 with a glass bed and the best way I have found to level the bed is to preheat the bed and hot end, then auto home then move the nozzle over each adjustment knob, to level the bed I look at the print bed at a shallow angle, bring the bed up until it touches the nozzle and then back it off until I can just see light coming through the gap between the nozzle and the glass bed. I have found this to be much easier and more reliable to do than any other method of bed levelling so far and hope this helps!
many thanks for the video, you have been my first port of call for many years for help when things get messy, hang on in there your a great asset , cheers from NZ
Finally someone with a voice mentions feeler gauges. Too often I'm told they aren't necessary or even detrimental to proper first layer prints and I've been dumbfounded as to how a MORE accurate measure is LESS preferable. Thank you man. This has been eating me up for some time now.
I've been thinking about using them, but I feared that the feeler gauges might damage the bronze nozzle tips. Is that something we should be concerned about?
@@MohammadHassan-ud8iq use a brass feeler guage to avoid damage.
@@MohammadHassan-ud8iq If you don't smash and try to force the gauge into a gap that is too small there should be no problem. The gauge itself is thin and fragile. So there are chances that if you damage the nozzle you also damage the gauge by warping it. Just use all your tools with proper care and everything should be fine.
I think it's more down to the fact that a steel feeler gauge may well damage a brass nozzle eventually. But if the frame is true then one would hope you don't have to use the gauge very often...
@@christianbarnay2499 You can run a fine stone or sandpaper along the edges of the gauge just to remove any burrs or sharp edge that might scratch the brass. I'd be more concerned with tiny scratches on the nozzle flat causing stringing etc. than actual wear (glass is pretty damned hard and I've managed to accidentally run the nozzle low enough to the bed that it left brass tracks on the glass but the nozzle didn't suffer too badly! It's *even* wear)
I used to believe that I had the patience to wait for large 3D prints to complete :).
you really thought you would sit there 8 hours waiting for it to end?
for some reason my ender 3 v2 is magic compared to everyone else's. I maxed out all the max settings on the printer with jyers marlin firmware, set all the speed related, accelleration settings and jerk settings in the slicer to the highest number that makes any difference (about 150mm/s on everything except travel, which is 200), and now also run my prints at 200% speed in the tune menu, and for some reason my prints are turning out fantastic O.O the printer is literally on my desk, going so fast it sounds like a fucking vibrator and everything on my desk 100% agrees with me, and im not having any problems. I don't understand why on earth this is working at all, from what Ive read this is a recipe for monstrous spaghetti, but nope? Also, it's the stock ender 3 v2, no mods added yet, nothing, just the firmware. I did a 16 hour print yesterday in 3 hours and it's my best print yet Does anyone know whats up here?
@@liveen low standards or memeing XD
@@werdnaf well, with current knowledge, I had a shitton of ghosting on my prints, and small details usually wouldn't turn out very accurate. So mostly low standards. Outside of those two things though, yeah 100% legit, i bet anyone can do this as well if they're not doing tiny or super-detailed prints. A simple box for example can go from 5 hours to 20 minutes at no real cost, since, well, its a fucking box, who cares about ghosting haahah. I did lower my settings though since nowadays I do mostly print detailed things, and I'd also like to not have a vibrator for a desk
I started off using a feeler gauge, because of its theoretically better accuracy, but it was so fiddly actually trying to get the gauge level underneath the nozzle that I tried a single sheet of paper instead, and got more consistent results!
sir ive had my creality ender 3 s1 for 2 weeks and i have learned so much from your channel. you've spared me a lot of headache, and blown my mind many times. i have nearly achieved perfect prints thanks to things i've seen here. THANK YOU
I have never seen anyone use folded paper before, only a single layer. Isn't it obvious that if the nozzle is to far away that only one layer is needed?
Following 3d printing heavily for 8 years, this is the first time i have ever heard anyone talk about using "folded" paper to set the nozzle-to-bed clearance. A single sheet of standard paper used to measure the gap has worked flawlessly for me on every fdm printer i have ever used. Too many people dont realize that the single sheet thickness is meant to set the height when the nozzle and bed are COLD. The thickness of the sheet of paper is about perfect to compensate for the expansion of the nozzle\bed at printing temperatures. Setting the gap when the nozzle/bed are hot will result in too much clearence.
@@jasond9824 people just need to understand how much friction you need on the paper and you won't have issues
@@TheRattleSnake3145 How much friction do you need? I always struggle with that.
@@gavinsauer1608 for me and the brand of paper I use, when I push the paper away from me it's not enough friction to start crinkling the paper but I can still feel something.
@@jasond9824 yesss, I'm glad I'm not the only one who pointed that out - done cold becuase it's safer too! A feeler gauge is pointless for accuracy if it heats up with the bed/nozzle and expands - it's all just about being relatively correct!
Bud, you’re not supposed to fold the paper over at all. That’s why it’s too high….
Exactly my thought. I've never heard of folding the paper. Just use it unfolded! It's a lot thinner!
Yeah idk why he would fold it
still tho the method kinda sucks
Totally agree with the leveling. I use the paper as a first guide, doing it 3 times as when you adjust one side of the bed, the other points can go out of whack. Then I print a model and manually adjust while printing -like you do- to get the perfect height for the first layer. Don't forget that after a few prints, it may change height slightly, so every 3 or so prints check that it is still the right height by checking the brim is still nicely put down😃.
Great summary on ABS vs PLA. Filament has really advanced since you and I both started our channels. I’ve been experimenting with a feeler gauge technique but my paper then live adjust bed level video stills helps a lot of people get started so I don’t see it as a myth, just an option.
Always get me perfect first layers.
I do paper and then adjustment by eye during a test print and it works perfectly. It just takes a bit of experience to be able to know your machine and do it quickly.
I use a dial indicator to micro adjust the nozzle height after the initial paper. If all four corners 0 out then I tend to go with it and use a .2mm first layer.
While I agree that the paper technique work for "beginner", they will all come to the realization that it's a bad way to level the bed (just like he kind of explain) and we are printing and mostly all trying to get dimensionally perfect parts. So why not just use a professional Gauge tool kit exactly made for this instead of using a mere piece of paper that probably change more in height than my morning turds.
CHEP, your easy bed leveling video and the gcode you made to go along with it is one of the first things I direct people to when they are getting started with printing since so many people have a hard time tramming their beds properly. I run your bed level gcode before I start pretty much any print--taking that two minutes to make sure my bed is still trammed each time and make tiny adjustments saves me hours of frusteration later.
This was really interesting. I have had my 3D printer assembled from kit form for several months and found the levelling technique daunting. Thanks to you, i will now attempt to do it, hopefully properly. So huge thanks for the information, that is really clear.
You are a 3D printing Wizard. Learned a lot from you over the years. You're a really cool guy, thanks for the knowledge man!
The easiest way to make sure you are at the "1st layer" when leveling your bed is... To just start a print and then stop it, then level the bed. Also i use a single sheet of paper, do not fold it or the nozzle will be too far from the bed. Also i recommend using a mirror(ikea mirrors are awesome and cheap), clean it once with soapy water, dry it with paper towels AND NEVER TOUCH IT AGAIN and you will have amazing adhesion without needing to use any tape or glue. It will actually be stuck so hard that you will be able to take it off only after the bed completely cools down. Oh, one more advise. Sometimes the bed is not completely flat. You leveled all the corners but the middle seems to high/too low. In that case just make sure the middle is level and print in the middle only ;)
If you print in the middle only, your loosing a hell of a lot of build surface/space/plate what have you. Best to get the issue sorted and dial your machine in so it works consistently and as intended
Great video! We just did a whole video on another misconception: that most filament spools are recyclable. - Perry
Ayee
Protopasta comes on cardboard spools and makes their filament stateside
@@danielescobar7618 And they're just across town from us. That's exactly why we've partnered with them. - Perry
@@outofdarts I’m right in the neighborhood too! I have a few machines in my maker soace
They can be Upcycled, into a custom storage system. Though FULL Recycling would be a pipe-dream
I’ve used a .003 (three thousands of an inch) feeler gauge for years…(on glass beds) with PLA, and my bottom layers are “smooth as glass”, But like so many things in life, you have to develop a “feel” for the feeler gauges.
Great section on using the feeler gauge! I'm not familiar with the printer you were using but it looked like you lowered the Z axis (in the video) although you said raise it by the thickness of your gauge, and that's what makes sense.
Brilliant. I am new to 3D printers having had my Ender 3xs Pro [Banggood variety!] only about 10 days or so. I had no trouble levelling and I produced a good enough Benchy and some 20mm calibration cubes. I also printed a cover for the Ender display and it worked well. BUT then I came to print a little spacer just 21mm diameter with some 3mm holes in it. It was my design on Onshape and I spliced with Cura 4 .10. The little thing would hardly print at all in the centre of the bed and I messed about and stuffed up the level. Several levelling attempts were still no good so eventually I homed the nozzle, raised the Z by 0.1 and I used a 0.1 steel feeler to set the gap. As I type, the print is going well and is almost done. Many thanks, I like your approach. Keep up the good work. [I am 81 years young and trying to prove that you can teach a very old dog a few new tricks!!]
It's going to take a while before your mates stop looking at you weird when you say tramming. They're going to think you're traveling in Melbourne CBD on public transport.
Sydney has trams too, they call them light rail... Which they took out in the 70s and then a few years ago decided they had to tear up the entire CBD to bring it back... they LEVELED the CBD *badumtss*
@@jayinstandarddefinition I wondered that. Interesting
Nah, they'll think that you have a milling machine and adjusted it so that the bed is 90 degrees to the head. Machinist have used the term "tramming" for a while, way before 3D printers appeared.
@@kurtbilinski1723 Ah, yeah I remember that. Too bad none of my friends would know what I'm talking about. They probably imagine it means sniffing blow up the crack of a ho.
The tip on levelling the bed by offsetting Z and using a feeler gauge just gave me the easiest, fastest and best bed level I've done so far. Such a simple tip, but absolutely crucial information about the tip offset! THANKYOU GOOD SIR.
Wanna do it even faster? Use a dial indicator. Cheap ones work too. I think I'll make a video on this...
Just got into 3D printing recently and this video has been a massive help. Thank you.
your attitude and knowledge are sooo spot on- - its AWESOME how you still wanna learn-
Great video! I love the power of debunking myths. Also, you're quite right about the fact that only 3 points are needed to level a plane. In fact 4-points make it much more difficult and potentially worse (in my beginner's days, I used to over-tighten the screws so the bed actually started to warp slightly).
I often end up with one knob coming loose
I've always used a feeler gauge. They're cheap and sturdy, plus great for measuring things (like gaps) where you can't get calipers. A decent set should be in any makers toolset.
What kind of guage thickness should one use?
@@koentju3 I used a 5 thou (from AutoZone IIRC) from comments in this paper v guage vid kzhead.info/sun/bK56nKmKm2ZngYk/bejne.html
@@koentju3 depends upon your chosen material layer height, if your layer height is 0.2mm then a 0.2mm gauge will work. An even better solution would be 2 gauges, one at 0.19mm and the other at 0.21mm as a "Go - No Go" solution, where the 0.19 gauge should pass freely but the 0.21 gauge is blocked by the nozzle. This will get you within 0.01mm of your chosen height, easily close enough for FFF/FDM printing.
@@bss369 thank you bro, I'm heading to Harbor Freight ASAP.
@@thh420 Cheers, glad to help.
I still remember when I added auto bed levelling to my 3d printer. Best day in my 3d printing life. Manually levelling the damn thing wasn't only exhausting, it produced terrible results. It was a nightmare. Now I just stand there in awe watching that marvellous little device do its thing. Quick and perfect every single time.
same, i often didnt want to print something because i was too lazy to level my bed
New to 3d printing. Can that be added to any printer? How?
@@t.pisani8239 Pretty much every printer. You'll need a sensor such as bltouch; if your firmware doesn't support it, you'll need to install Marlin or similar.
I found it to be more of a pita to get working than it's worth. Takes me less than a minute to manually level.
@@collegestudent6071 How is it a pita? Just stick a inductive probe next to the hotend, set the z offset and away you go. It's much better not having to constantly check the bed hasn't moved or having to watch the first layer go down just to see if it's correct.
When I started my 3D Printing journey I discovered the metal of a Diet Coke can was the same thickness as a piece of paper. Advantages: It was always constant thickness and moisture proof, it did not tear if I got the build plate too close to the nozzle, I did not have to worry if I had a needed note on it, when I felt it was too marked up it was easily replaced. Thanks for all the great videos.
Has to be DIET Coke?
How about IPA?
FWIW, standard wall thicknesses in aluminum beverage cans in the states tend to hover between .0030” and .0035” plus a little for coating. BUT, it’s seldom the same thickness all the way around due to the challenges of maintaining alignment during manufacture it may be a touch over .004” in some places and barely .003” in others. It also gets thicker near the top and the bottom. I bet it works pretty well though. I’ve certainly used it for shims more than once.
Mate your tip about the z offset was bang on. I’ve never had a first layer go down so nicely
The feeler gauge methods works fantastically. My first layers are now a work of art. Thanks for this information.
I like how you level the bed. I've recently discovered a similar technique, where I heat the printer, auto home, then adjust each corner until I can actually feel the vibration of the hotend in the adjustment screw, signifying that the hotend is now touching the base plate. I can also ever so slightly hear the hum disappear when it touches, and I have had amazing results from it without the need for a feeler gauge I also no longer need to do a live adjustment for leveling. Just listen/feel for the nozzle touching the base plate
Same here: pre-heat PLA, change filament to actual color, Auto home, disable steppers, 4 corners and center with paper (unfolded), I feel the fans sucking at the paper = perfect Daily routine, 30s … Bought gauges: oily mess, 0.1 mm gauge is soo damn thin … no fun at all
I use a feeler gauge regularly at work and never thought to use it to adjust my bed. A Post-It note always does the job well :)
Angus, please add this video to your 3D Printing 101 playlist. I promote that playlist to my makerspace clients and require its viewing for my staff, and this needs to be there! Thanks for all you do for the community!
Thank you!!!! I bought the feeler gauge and your video was the first time I understood how it was supposed to be used :)
Bear in mind that most printers for personal use come with their own levelling card to use to set the printer. It’s possible that the printer OS has a feature that deducts this thickness from the set value. You can also set your slicer to print a single layer skirt around your print and after printing, measure the skirt thickness to check your adjustment. The skirt should be the thickness of your first layer.
The feeler gauge explanation is much appreciated.
Yeah bed leveling on a cold bed really messed me up. Not only because of heat expansion but also some beds will actual cup or bow (AKA Warp) at different temperatures (like mine does).
I've always measured my paper thickness and set the Z height to match it when using paper. I found early on that leaving Z at 0 and using paper didn't produce a good first layer. I very soon moved to a BL-Touch and haven't looked back. However I printed a dial gauge mount and use that every so often to tram the bed, which minimises the compensation needed.
G28, then G29. bl touch has bed levelling which you can use to estimate the compensation at each corner. Don't need the dial gauge anymore.
HOLY CRAP. I argued with almost the entirety of Facebook's "3d Printing" group that it was better to use feeler gauges over paper. Paper gets moist from handling it too long, paper gets affected by the heat from the nozzle and tears, paper won't knock out the oozing plastic as well as a feeler gauge, feeler gauge (with thickness of your first layer height... 0.2mm) is far more accurate/consistent than using a thin piece of paper as your "0.0mm", paper deforms (becomes thinner) if the nozzle digs in too low, etc etc. And you won't believe that nearly 100% of the members would scream and yell that feeler gauges is the "absolutely wrong way" of doing it... and the two or three guys who DID use feeler gauges wouldn't back me up on it.
I feel vindicated about the paper method, before I figured I was just bad at it. At some point, I decided to just print everything with a skirt and adjust the knobs while the skirt is printing, works every time.
I find that method to be the easiest, it's so simple, and can be done visually
not just that but the skirt helps a lot for me - I was getting issues with prints coming off the bed during printing and the skirts, while slightly annoying to trim, increase the contact area with the print bed and much reduce any such issues. A couple seconds with a knife is a lot less time than restarting a print several hours in because it didn't stick.
@@randommcranderson5155 hey buddy, your talking bout a brim I believe. A skirt isn't connected and is meant to prime. A brim is connected and has to be cut off after completing but is a major help in preventing warping. :P
I was about to say that my first ever exposure to the concept of 3D printing was in Small Soldiers, and right as I was about to post it, you mentioned the movie yourself :D
As an engineer who got their start in subtractive mfg, but now embraces additive even more this is great. Learning new things keeps us adaptive, creative an on the path towards building even more awesome! Go Makersmuse, you are wonderful communicator 🎉
I love the automatic bed leveling of my Prusa, it just makes first layers so much easier to get right, and I heard the latest sensor is even better 😃
I’m ordering a MK3S+ soon, super hyped for it
Just got my first printer today, this video has been the biggest help so far, subbed! Can't wait to learn more!
Hi! Thanks for another great video. I always learn so much when I see your videos pop up. I had one question about the feeler gauge. What thickness do you use for that? I think I would like to pick some up, but not sure which thickness I should start with. Should I use callipers to measure a piece of paper and use the gauge closest to that measurement? Thanks for your clarification. And thanks again for all the amazing content!
Thank you very much for the always amazing videos. However, relevant to bed leveling there is some points that quite mismatch with what I have always known and used. First: a sheet of paper is around 0.1 mm thick and that is why it is usually suggested to use, since it's an average distance that could be ok most of the time. But I never saw, nor used a FOLDED sheet of paper, because that would lead to a too high nozzle, which is what is reported in the video, and that was quite confusing. I have also used the feeler gauge of 0.1 mm quite often before ABL and it worked, but not so incredibly better compared to the unfolded sheet of paper. Nowadays, on modern machines anyway, probes, babystepping etc are making all the work much easier. Thanks for all this anyway, exceptional work during all years!
As a 53yo electronics tech but 3d noob I've been using a 0.12mm / .004" feeler gauge and feeling for the vibration as I move it back and forward a bit and it seems to give me great first layers. I did take a bit to work out in my mind how the adjustments on the bed alter the plate. Now I heard your explanation about it to do with the relationship to the frame it makes a lot more sense. I pictured the bed adjustments almost twisting the bed. Until then I was getting really confused doing a manual level before hitting the auto level button. I have to say I have an Ender 3 v2 Neo and whether it was that I made sure to follow all the instructions for once or I got lucky I've had an awesome experience so far with your's and Chep's help. Thanks heaps from New Zealand 👌🙏
This is the first video I've seen recommending an alternative bed levelling method and it's completely changed my 3d printing game!!
Setting bed height to zero rather than the thickness of the paper is a new one for me. Can not wait to try it.
Great video ! The part "No, you're not leveling : you're tramming" was spot-on. Funny enough, 2-3 years ago I've been "gently" bashed when saying the exact thing you did : "paper test is flawed, use feeler gauges instead". People never learn and, when they were struggling with their first layers, mine were consistent at every print without elephant foot artifact. I do use the smallest gauge I have to achieve this, which is 0.04 or 0.05 mm. Suggestion : do a "3D Printing myths : extrusion 101". Lots of misconceptions and misnomers on extruder styles and filament drive styles did spread over the years and these need to be addressed too (since not only end consumers are concerned : companies too). ;)
They're not tramming. Tramming measures the perpendicularity between a head and the table. There's no way you can measure that on a 3D printer. You turn the spindle around when you're tramming. 3D print heads don't rotate. Least ones attached correctly don't.
Yep, you're right. Can't see any other way to describe it, although it's approximate. 3D printing is approximative too, so ... well ... let's say it makes sense even if it's not totally true. :)
@@Lidocain777 the term is used as a convenience even if it isn't entirely accurate it conveys a specific meaning that is understood.
People saying "tramming" just gets on my nerves because 99% of 3d printers have no idea what tramming even means. Everyone knows it as levelling so just call it that.
When I was taught to use a piece of paper to set z offset on a mill/router, I was only taught to use a single thickness and then remove the 0.03".
Isn't that a little close? I know that .1mm is too far from the bed. I use a .063mm (.0025in) feeler gauge to level/tram my bed, it requires only a little adjusting while printing a calibration pattern on the bed.
What paper is 0.03" thick? A Post-It note is 0.0035"
@@1pcfred Apologies. My memory was faulty. Barring the bad numbers, the concept still holds. Single thickness and then remove the offset due to the thickness.
@@birdmun paper can certainly get you in the ballpark. Which for desktop 3D printing is close enough.
want to say your suggestion about feeler gauge is a godsend, I always have trouble about the first layer, either too close or too far and I always need to watch the print and fine tune it during printing. Then I buy a feeler gauge from amazon, $10, set the bed to 0.2mm, boom, one shot no problem prefect layer. If I need to print at 0.1mm, I can just offset the bed when start of the print and still getting prefect first layer, want to thank you for this video, you saved me tons of headache
THANK YOU SO MUCH for the bed leveling tip! So much better now!
Instead of using a regular thick folded paper, you can use a small piece of baking paper. It is only ~0.05mm and it is resistant to heat. This is my go-to method and it works great.
I use bible paper.
K
@@dodgyaz is it better than baking paper?
@@Pengquy Probably not but it has more edge.
I've found a single piece of 20lb printer paper works very well. A 24lb sheet is too thick - enough to actually matter. 20lb, my prints have good adhesion all the time (barring some other issue); 24lb, they don't.
I was always surprised that feeler gauges weren't used in 3D printing as they let you know exactly what the distance is, and they aren't a particularly expensive tool.
but it is a tool you cannot print XD
@@deimosmen I mean if you can dial in your printer enough you actually probably could!
because a piece of paper really is good enough, considering the thickness is pretty consistent. In 10 years I've not had a problem with it and it's what 99% of people use.
I print ABS as my primary material, I mainly make mechanical parts. My printer is set up pretty much exclusively for it. It's easy to overcome it's issues (other than the stink) and once dialed in, I find it better than other materials. Especially for post print workability. I love how I am easily able to fuse parts together, heat gun smooth, carve with a knife, drill, etc.. I like PLA and PETG too but I just keep coming back to ABS.
Glad to see you're still at it!
Started using this and hot damn, now I get my leveling perfect every time immediately and fast.
I level my bed while doing a square print that fills my casual print space at very low speed. If the printed line is not squished and won't come of when I swipe my finger over it, it's mostly fine xD
the print height makes so much more sense now it sounds so simple when it's explained but was so hard to understand without
Thank you for clearing up those myths. This video was very informative for some one such as myself that is still rather fresh at 3D printing. So, thank you thank you thank you!!!!
dont fold the piece of paper . most printer paper measures .003 thousands . that has been working for me . but i didnt know about setting the nozzle height before touching off the nozzle
Printer paper is typically .1mm or .0039"
@@Kyrazlan well i stand corrected, just grabbed my calipers and measured. i swear i remember in machine tool 101 they had us mic printer paper and it measured .003 but that was 15 years ago
I've never folded my paper for leveling.
Thank goodness you know how to level for the first layer, AND how to clearly explain the info by showing examples.
This is great! I don't have a 3d printer bu I do have a small CNC and this actually gave me a lot of ideas (especially the feeler gauge trick which I think can be great for setting the Z-axis)
I don't know who ever said to fold the paper. A piece of paper is about 0.1 mm thick which is plenty enough and folding it increases this thickness in sometimes an unpredictable amount.
actually you're wrong. u want 2mm not 1 which is why he folds it. a lot use shims and business cards. it's funny how much in denial people who print are. they act like they know everything and can't learn. well bed you're wrong
@@rmi2548 Why do I want 0.2mm? Not folding a paper worked very well for me, and ultimately we need a consistent thickness, not an exact thickness. When the distance is the same on all corners I can then calibrate the actual distance changing the Z offset. When I fold the paper, there's more amount of material that can be squished, making the measurement less precise.
From my experience, I found that whether level the print bed with paper or a feeler gauge biggest issue is the print bed never be perfectly flat, the edges are slightly be uplifted in most of the machine !
Replace the bed with a mirror. Even cheap plate mirrors are extremely flat. A downside is that it can be hard to get the print off the mirror until it cools completely.
Another Great Video I found in a forum where they were using a " Neoteck Electronic Digital Dial Indicator Gauge" attached with a 3d printed mount on the printhead. They say they are always right on and that it is very quick, easy, and precise.
I'm one of those people who waited ~10 years and avoided the home 3d printing products until now. This video is exactly why I've been waiting. I just want my printer to (mostly) work I don't want to deal with all this tweaking. I'm happy that I bought my printer now, this video is great, very helpful and a good learning, but I hope none of that will be needed from this generation of printers going forward
I've not heard about folding paper to set the nozzle height. With my first printer (a Makerbot in 2012) the instructions said to use a Postit note or a sheet of copy paper. I quickly discovered this advice was of little use for the height - ok for 'levelling' the plate, but hopeless for setting the first layer. We've come a long way since then. Perhaps if I'd folded the paper...
My makerbot in 2014 said to use a business card.
"Hideo Kodama" Wait what- oh different guy
I thought that too
Same. Still remember that part in MGS as a kid being utterly confused as to why Hideo was on my screen and I couldn’t see the game. Thought something was wrong
To level the bed, I use a feeler gauge and then print some single layer test squares and trim the Z on the controls. It’s really easy to see if it’s too far or too close and once it’s perfect, it stays pretty good for a long time.
Just add a brim to your parts and do the calibration on the fly while printing your parts!
This was helpful as I absorb all I can prior to purchasing a 3D printer. Re the feeler gauge: as soon as you said something about the leveling w paper I was screaming "feeler gauge". Especially folded paper will give crappy results. FYI: an inexpensive feeler gauge set at most automotive stores as they're used fir several tasks including gapping plugs. That for folks who might have a 3D printer and not mess w automotive stuff. Easily purchasable hopefully nearby w out waiting on shipping.
Interesting Note: FDM is still a trademark owned by Stratasys. If you want to create or develop your own 3D printer system, you'll avoid their lawyers if you call it an "fused filament fabrication" (FFF) machine.
Doesn't matter. It's used generically, and they haven't acted to protect the trademark, so it's legally a generic term. That's how trademarks work.
@@TrueThanny Sorry, you have been misinformed. It does not become generic because Stratasys hasn't enforced it. As long as they use and maintain their paperwork with the USPTO, they still "own" the trademark. It is up to Stratasys to file against others in court to "enforce" ownership rights. They can do so at any time as long as they use and maintain their mark with the USPTO. This is a handy guide to trademarks: www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/BasicFacts.pdf
Can't stress more the difference between "levelling" and "squareness" - noticing your X axis gantry is off by 0.5 degree after you printed a large gear is pain. On the other hand, if all the axes are perfectly perpendicular, levelling is only required very rarely or after changing/adding bed plates for different materials.
I spent hours making sure my printer frame was square when I was building it. It paid off in the end. I rarely need to make adjustments to the printer now when I start a print.
you are leveling your bed to the squareness of the frame. IE traming.
@@NZSpides Me too, but apparently the gantry was not screwed tightly enough and the end farther from the z-screw sagged a bit... just enough to make cylindrical stuff print off axis.
@@e_neko 😂 hate finding lose screws after a build.
@@LadyTea Just partly true. You level the bed to compensate for the offset to the Z home position. A well built frame technically could work with just adjusting the Z home sensor position given the bed is already set parallel to the XY plane. But while typical 3D printer beds are not designed rigid nor accurate enough for this, there are more screws to achive tramming too, in Z direction. But there aren't any in XY relation, so one still have to make it accurate partially. But why not just make it completely accurate? Non-squared frame will never give you dimensionally correct parts, which does matter when you use it for scientific purposes.
Love to see the new alloy polymers on the market, so nice to have better options without having to deal in ABS! On a glass bed I tram the nozzle and build plate (aka level the bed) by SOUND! The paper method was always troublesome. First make sure nozzle is very clean, then bring the nozzle directly over an adjustment screw, then down to 0.0. I then adjust the plate up to the nozzle until the vibration from the hot-end fan can be heard on the build plate, and back it off just until the sound stops, then very slightly until it sounds again. Repeat for every adjustment screw you have and back again. Remember to lift the hot end before moving and bring back to 0.0 for each point. This gives you an extreme true 0, and you may adjust your z-offset or first layer flow as needed, or back the screws off just until sound contact stops at your preference. A tube to your ear to the build plate can help you do this, much like a stethoscope. I also set my glass build plate onto the heated bed with a layer of silicone heat sink pad, no more clips warping the glass.
This helped me out a lot I had no idea about the squareness of the frame itself.
At work (large company) we've had an addative manufacturering group, mainly for prototyping, since the 90s. Recently got to see a million-dollar printer in use. Not exaggerating.
Seriously, thank you. I literally had given up on 3d printing, now I can do it much easier with my new Ender 3.
Awesome!
Very helpful. I'm just starting out and getting that first layer just right was quite the challenge. Kind of feels like a duh, for me on the bed paper trick; my dad is a machinist and CNC programmer, and I instantly thought, "why didn't I think of that?", and the answer is, I went into, "look it up mode" instead of really thinking about how this thing works. Thanks for the education.
Man. I've used feeler gauges for years working on cars. Never thought of it for 3D printer adjustment. But that makes so much sense!
Dang I feel smart now, I’ve been using a feeler gauge since I started 3D printing several years ago. I never could get good prints if I “leveled” with paper so I switched to a feeler gauge (0.15 mm) which made a huge positive difference.
what kind of printer? paper has worked fine for whole bed prints on my ender3v2 for over 500 prints now...
@@deimosmen It's a Powerspec-branded Wanhao Duplicator i3 from 5 years ago. Granted I was new to 3D printing so there were a lot of moving parts, figuratively speaking, as I was trying different filaments, temperatures, bed materials, software, and learning how to level the bed (among other things). I was also printing parts to improve the printer itself, so certainly switching to a feeler gauge wasn't the one thing that gave me success. It did give me reproducibility, however, because it's pretty obvious when you're at the desired height with a feeler gauge. The printer is still going and I know all its quirks so nowadays if a print fails it's most likely because I forgot I mucked with the slicer settings during a previous print.