Like the title suggests, I’m diving into calibration and wondering how often it’s necessary. If a person sticks to a well respected filament brand, my assumption is you can rely on its consistency and only spend the time to calibrate once, save the profile and you’re set.
Sound logic or should a person be calibrating every new spool regardless?
I haven’t calibrated any filament.
I look at like this, does it work, yes, no calibration required.
If I have profile that works for a specific type, manufacturer, and color, I would use it again until it failed to produce the results I want. Sometimes manufacturers do change ingredients, and Bambu has been known to change suppliers, so recalibration becomes necessary.
I do calibrate all new-to-me filaments, because I have found changing manufacturer or color can make a difference for a particular type of material. I prefer to take the time to calibrate and know I’m using the optimum settings to start with rather than have a poor result and need to re-print. The Generic profiles are a good place to start, but usually calibration can make at least small improvements.
I started calibrating filaments maybe last week. Yesterday, I got a new one - Panchroma Starlight PLA from Polymaker. Calibration went completely wrong, it seems the bed did not even heat up and the pattern mostly didn’t stick down - PEI plate was cold a minute after the attempted print.
I used the defaults for it and started a print anyway, and that all worked fine. So not sure what happened there.
Appreciate all the input.
I’m really struggling with print quality lately. I just got the printer a couple of kinda ago and everything was brilliant out of the gate. As of late I’m noticing big defects in my prints and terrible stringing.
I’m going down the drying rabbit hole but I’m not sure it’s helping. Changed the hot end thinking there might be build up and am now going through the calibration. Fingers crossed.
I don’t see a reason not to use the calibration option when switching filament brands, and even when switching filament types within the same brand. The option is there to maintain a baseline quality that you can rely on, at least in my experience. I love being able to pick the profile of a filament that I’ve calibrated, if only for the sake of consistency, etc. It is the same principle as an inkjet printer when you go through the maintenance routine. Just recently, I started having problems with my first layers sticking to my textured build plate. Two nights ago, I was trying to print something that had previously printed perfectly. All of a sudden, the first layer would not adhere, at all, to the plate, and I keep the build plate spotless. I eventually gave up on it, and went on to a much less demanding project. Different filament (PLA+), but same manufacturer. Same problem! Not wanting to start pulling stuff apart, I decided to go through the thorough calibration process that I did upon my initial setup when I first took it out of the box. Takes 15 to 17 minutes, but boy, it was totally worth it! It was a Christmas miracle, as the problem was totally solved! Apparently these things do go out of whack over time, and they need re-calibration. I would NEVER have thought things could get so upside down so quickly, until I experienced it first hand. Anyway, my point is, calibration routines serve a purpose. Do your machine, and yourself a solid, and have a calibration party!
This question comes up from time to time and it’s always a great topic.
To answer your question: Is it necessary? That depends on you and it depends on the application. Are you printing for aesthetics or for functional parts? Or both?
If I were to map out the decision matrix, it might look like this:
As someone who has long advocated against participating in the filament industry hype, I’ve consistently promoted mastering calibration in many of my posts. My primary motivation is to avoid being held hostage by overpriced filament manufacturers, especially when there’s ample evidence that many products come off the same production lines, with only labels and pricing distinguishing them. In other words, “an educated consumer is the enemy of marketers.”
What’s the key difference between a $20 spool of PLA and an $11 spool? Customer education and calibration.
That said, I’ll admit that I sometimes get lazy and use an uncalibrated profile for prints I just want to finish quickly. It’s the classic trade-off: getting it done right versus getting it done right now.
I also enjoy the challenge of getting a $10 spool to perform as well as, or even better than, the factory-calibrated profiles of a $25 spool. For me, it’s not just about saving money—it’s about the thrill of ‘beating the game.’
The answer is “maybe”.
You have no way to tell by looking at the spool if the filament is identical to the last one. You’d like to think it is. And manufacturers would like you to think it is. But there are going to be batch to batch variations in the formulation. And if the manufacturer has more than one filament extruder, there will be variations from machine to machine.
Whether these variations amount to enough change that a new calibration is warranted can only be determined by printing. So print. Watch the first layer (where over and under extrusion is most easily noticed). If it doesn’t look “clean”, kill the print, clear the plate and do the tuning…
I tend to buy my multi-color filaments from the same manufacturer, and then calibrate one and try to use that calibration for all the other colors I bought. Doesn’t always work. I think the additives used for some of the colors have an effect on flow.
But the rule can really be applied universally. Get a filament, try it with some preexisting preset. If it needs calibration, use that as the starting point. If it doesn’t need calibration, print it. 
I can hear myself 2 months ago - wow these printers have come a long way, just turn it on and you’re ready to go!
I don’t mind running through the calibration, it only takes a few minutes and it’s my mission to find the best quality possible. Quick question, after going through the flow dynamics and flow rate calibration, are both of the new settings saved to the same profile? After each it prompts you to save. If I save both to the same profile, are both new settings saved or do I need a different profile for each calibration setting?
Now I just need to figure out the damn stringing, it’s driving me absolutely nuts!
Sometimes calibration is necessary to get desired effects, like translucency, or even mild levels of transparency, finicky filaments, etc.
I remember reading a post/article or watching a YouTube video that advocated certain calibrations by manufacturer and filament type, and other calibrations by color within the manufacturer/type grouping. Does anyone else recall hearing about that, or do you follow that guideline as well? which calibrations are appropriate for manufacturer and type, and which per color?
Thanks, great topic.
I’m of the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” school.
Admittedly, I’m probably spending money that I might not need to spend but to date, sticking with Bambu filament I have not seen a need to calibrate.
Once I get this rewinder done, that may change but so far, I’m happy with my results
Well, I’ve just pulled myself out from the YouTube rabbit hole. It could have been hours but feels like days!
I’ve seen retraction tests, VRF tests, heat tower tests that require modifying gcode. Can anyone recommend a good set of “do these four calibration tests”. I’m no where near ready to pull the engine, I’ve just figured out how to open the hood!
For context, I just tried my first PETG print and holy ■■■■; 5 minutes in I had a complete spaghetti mess.
Found it again:
at the end he explains that he calibrates Pressure Advance by filament type and Extrusion Multiplier by filament brand and type.
Did you dry your PETG? Stringing can be caused by having too much moisture in your filament. And PETG is one of the worst for that.
I’ve starting drying all of my filament then immediately transferring them to sealed containers with dessicant. I use an S2 but I’m not sure I’m happy with it. I’ll be taking the next step and implementing Mzip’s air dryer to see if that helps.
Bit of research and I’ve answered my own questions.
Thanks again!
