Tag: 3dprint

Symptoms of a poor bed level include:

  • print not sticking to the bed
  • nozzle scraping bed
  • thin or see-through first layer

When I get this, there are a couple of things that I check. First I check the printer mechanically:

  • Disable any BLTouch probing
  • Level the bed using a paper or feeler gage
  • Create mesh bed level manually
  • If troubleshooting, run a test print.
  • Enable BLTouch probing
  • Create automatic bed level
  • Run test print

From following these steps, you should be able to accurately diagnose where the problem with your bed level lies. Address accordingly.

When working with a bed level, sometimes you find that your bed is level but it is not flat. Mine, for example, is raised in the center. Because of this, it is impossible to use a standard bed level procedure. You need to use a mesh bed level. This feature doesn’t come enabled on all printers, I had to update my firmware to be able to do a mesh bed level. How a mesh bed level works is it breaks the bed down into smaller “tiles.” On mine, the tiles are approximately 60mm x 60mm. This allows the compensation to follow the contour of the bed instead of assuming that the bed is perfectly flat. As I always say, don’t try to solve a mechanical problem with software. Level your bed first, as best as you can. Then incorporate the mesh bed level. Make sure that you heat up your bed for 15-30 minutes before you do the mesh bed level so that your bed will take the shape it will be in while printing. Store your bed level profile and make sure that you activate it before you start printing. I typically do a new mesh bed level in the summer, in the winter, and anytime that something significant changes on my printer.

So, what’s a good amount of deviation for a mesh bed level? A good general rule of thumb is 0.1mm. If you can get your deviation at 0.1mm or better, then (for hobby purposes) you are doing pretty good.

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Mesh Fade

I recently saw a question on a forum about a warped bed. The question had to do with whether or not the top of the part would also be warped because it follows the bed shape. You can avoid this in Klipper by implementing mesh fade in your bed mesh block. Below is a complete bed mesh block, the last 2 lines are the significant ones to implement mesh fade. Fade_start tells Klipper to start expanding or contracting layers, starting at 1mm height to start to normalize everything. Fade_end tells Klipper that the fade should be complete by a height of 10mm. So, at 10mm and upwards, the top of the part should be flat even though the bottom of the part will follow the bed’s contour.

[bed_mesh]
speed: 120
horizontal_move_z: 5
mesh_min: 35, 6 
mesh_max: 240, 198 
probe_count: 5, 3 
fade_start: 1 
fade_end: 10