Bed Leveling procedure

Support&troubleshooting
#1

Support Team,

I need to know why does the printer is unable to de correctly calibrated

I level the machine.

I level the bed, according to Quickguide.

When I turn on the printer the X,Y Axis moves to the center. And gently touches the build plate.

Then the XY is set to home(front left corner)

It touches again gently the buildplate.

Then it gets back to the center, touching again.

Finally when it starts printing the platform is lowered automatically and when it prints the frontier layer on the front left side it is significantly lower than waht was set manually it does't sticks can be very easily peeled off by hand.

Then the whole rest of the model is just a complete mess....

I'm printing a big object, and I bought this machine for that purpouse and to have the whole plate filled with models all of them in diffrent possitions and obviously some of them will be in the corners.

Why does the machine makes this check?

It's completly useless if we are leveling the platform manually, why the machine needs to check for Z height and nozzle distance.

The machine makes a slight correction and this is giving me a lot of problems I can't print like this and the printer is completly useless I need the whole 205x205x185 to be effective.

I own an UpMini and this problem usually appear in one corner, but yo can't compare the hardware and price this machine is 1/3 the price of the zortrax and mechanically simple and even fragile, the bed is lower from a side adn is where yo usually have problems.

Can I have an earlier Firmware versiobn installed? so that the machine overrides this check of height?

#2

The front left “check” you mention before printing does not do anything. On my printer it does not even touch the corner during that move. Currently there is only one single check and that’s the center contact. If you experience lift in that corner your platform is still not level enough or you may have a bulged plate. Check how straight the platform is and also make sure that your perf board has no plastic residue underneath.

Generally large prints tend to lift corners…it’s the nature of ABS…even with a perfectly calibrated bed. There are several things you can do to improve this…the forum has many topics were this was discussed… e.g. covering the sides to retain heat, using glue, sanding the platform, ABS slurry, redesigning the part with less straight sections, etc…

I don’t understand your question about the necessity of the z height check… Without it the printer would not know the relation between nozzle and platform and nothing would work. On the UP you tell the printer the distance via the software after manual calibration. That’s the great thing about the Zortrax… It does this automatically for you before every print… I like that much better.

#3

The front left "check" you mention before printing does not do anything. On my printer it does not even touch the corner during that move. Currently there is only one single check and that's the center contact. If you experience lift in that corner your platform is still not level enough or you may have a bulged plate. Check how straight the platform is and also make sure that your perf board has no plastic residue underneath.

Generally large prints tend to lift corners…it’s the nature of ABS…even with a perfectly calibrated bed. There are several things you can do to improve this…the forum has many topics were this was discussed… e.g. covering the sides to retain heat, using glue, sanding the platform, ABS slurry, redesigning the part with less straight sections, etc…

I don’t understand your question about the necessity of the z height check… Without it the printer would not know the relation between nozzle and platform and nothing would work. On the UP you tell the printer the distance via the software after manual calibration. That’s the great thing about the Zortrax… It does this automatically for you before every print… I like that much better.

I understand your point,

The thing is that the check tha machine does is overriding the manual set-up of the distance betweem the nozzle and the plate.

To succesfully print I need to adjust the screws on the fly, wich is not ok...

The platform is correctly leveled, belive me. Having The Up, the 400 Mc and the Objet gives me a nice aproach to level a platform. The 400 can fail to autocalibrate when this happens it has to be done manually but you enter the value of the z=0 how can I thust the Zortrax if it doen't even shows what is it measuring on the screen and there is no value.

Some procedures are missing on the firmware. If the Auto-z is still not ready they should give us a full manual setup.

I have read every thread on the forum regarding this. The problem is that the first layer is not sticking well because the machine is lowering the platform on their own overriding the manual distance given when its turned off.

#4

There is no manual setup of z height on the zortrax. The machine is off when you do the leveling…there is no distance stored during this procedure.

Again… The Zortrax works different than an UP. You cannot influence the z height manually in any way. The platform moves up, touches the nozzle, then sets the distance automatically and proceeds to printing. It does not matter at all where the platform was before and what you did before. The printer also does not distinguish between corners and the center (that may come later with the still pending 5 point calibration).

The only thing you have influence on manually is how level the platform is (=how parallel the platform is to the x and y axis). You can do that with a credit card, or without (like I do it) but this has no influence on the z height setting which the printer determines new before every single print.

When you do the leveling did you move the head to the center also? It’s not described in the QuickStart to move to the center but you should…I’m pretty sure you have a bulged center This causes issues in the corners because the reference for the automatic z height setting is the center only.

#5

Well then this machines is useless....

If the level procedure is only to do that, but there is no way to correct the z height then it doesn't matter if its leveled(unles it is pretty bad) print will never stick properly if it's not in the center(or lo a limited space of the plate)

I leveled the bed with a bullseye and with gages, measuring properly the distance at every point(and yes I checked the center) and its higher than the corners.

So to get proper corner distance the bed will get higher in the center.

If the platform is bowed up?

Changing it fot a new one doesn't assure its going to be ok if its a manufacture issue.

#6

That’s what I mean with bulged plate. Your center is probably bowed up which causes the z setting to be ok in the center but too large in the corners. Take the perf board off and check if the black aluminum platform is flat. If yes, then you just have to get the perf board flat on it by making sure there is not debris under it and by pre- bending the center down a little.

If your black aluminum base is bowed then you can either flatten it with milling or strategic bending (that’s what I did) or mail support and ask for a replacement. The base will never be 100% flat due to the heat cycling but of course there is a limit to what the raft can tolerate.

I’m not sure why you think the machine is useless … I owned an UP and it would have exactly the same problem if the platform is not flat since you normally set the z height in the center and if the edge would be low then the raft would not stick either. And if you would set the z height in the low corner then the nozzle would scrape in the center.

#7

Ok, so a fine tuning is needed I wasn't expecting that from a machine like this.

I also own an Up and it only lifts a little but very little from the front left cornerbut of course from a machine from that range price it's ok. I don't have problems in the other corners and raft stick very well to perfboard I always use the whole area getting asn many parts as it's possible.

I am going to do exactly the same with this machine a full printbed, but if the corners lift then I find it poor usable at it's full potential. I will try enclosure and I am checking the plate I have some ideas for making it work but I have that issue about the distance the machines checks automatically.

Thanks for the comments Andre!

#8

The up mini has a much smaller build plate… So obviously it’s much easier to get it flat and leveled. Also the parts are smaller and that’s why they lift less. And the mini is enclosed which helps, too.

So the fact that the mini still shows lifting considering all these advantages shows you how difficult it is to get ABS warping under control. It’s just the nature of the beast. There are many things you can do that help and there are several topics talking about that.

In regards to the price class… The regular up is in the same price range as the Zortrax and it’s not any better in regards to warping if you take the build size difference into account.

#9

Well then this machines is useless....

If the level procedure is only to do that, but there is no way to correct the z height then it doesn't matter if its leveled(unles it is pretty bad) print will never stick properly if it's not in the center(or lo a limited space of the plate)

I leveled the bed with a bullseye and with gages, measuring properly the distance at every point(and yes I checked the center) and its higher than the corners.

So to get proper corner distance the bed will get higher in the center.

If the platform is bowed up?

Changing it fot a new one doesn't assure its going to be ok if its a manufacture issue.

Well I wouldn't go as far as to say this machine is useless. I have printed numerous 200 by 190 parts since I got it last week. I have gone through 3 kg of filament in just over a week. Almost all of my prints are large prints. And I have not had a problem with lifting except the very first time, and that was simply because I did not level the platform. Now I level it by eye on all five points at least three times. I haven't even had to put on an enclosure or use glue either.

#10

I have solved the issue, but now the problem is that Z axis dimensions are incorrect, I 'm having deviations of 1mm on a 75 mm part wich is suppoused to measure 75.15 mm and it measures 75.16. The bed now is perfectly leveled, so well that the raft doesn't lift even a bit.

Even on a small part wich is suppoused to measure 17 mm  I get 17.3 mm anyone else having this issue?

#11

75.16 vs 75.15 is not 1mm…

I suppose this is a typo? 1mm at 75mm would be unacceptable for me.

What about x and y?

0.2 to 0.3 is normal in x and y due to shrinking during cool down…you can correct it in z suite in the advanced section.

Accuracy in general could be a bit better and this was already discussed in several other topics.

#12

Oh yeah a mistake. Nonimal size is 75.15 real size of the print is 76.15 sorry.

X and Y are in that range about .2 or 0.3 but with the offset it can be corrected a littl I've managed to get the exact size applying 0.05 outer contours. But I'm still having trouble onthe inside.

#13

Are the holes too small?

#14

The part is a L shape of 75.16 mm tall no holes.

The main problem is that I get 76.16 mm tall wich for me is a lot of deviation on Z axis.

#15

There must be something wrong. Let’s see what support says.

If you would print something with steps (imagine stairs)… How is the z distance from step to step? Is it OK?

#16

Printed a part 49.5mm tall. Only off .03mm on Z height.. (Version 1 with ball screw..) I'm thinking the calibration is off on the lead screw version. You should be able to hit better tolerances with screw depending on pitch..

#17

I will try the step procedure and let you know how it goes.Currently I'm with a large bed test that looks very good I just need to solve the Z issue...

#18

@ahntlia - could you upload this part? I'll print it and we can compare accuracy on Z

#19

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t0koltmut26d257/calibration.stl

The file is similar to the one used on the Up systems. I used it for proper leveling to check rafts stick well, and of course for general dimensions.

#20

I'll print it today, and upload photos.