According the the wiki, you’re supposed to tighten the three screws until they are flush with the bottom bracket. I’d say “flush” is relative and added to the fact that there are also slight machining/assembling differences, the starting points when running the gcode will always vary a bit. They should all be higher/lower than point A however, otherwise leveling would be truly difficult.
Let’s say point A = 0, and you end up with 0,1, 0,25 and 0.15 for b,c and d respectively. The gcode starts at point C, and you adjust down approximately 1mm(piece of paper?) and you end up at 0,15. Wouldn’t you then calibrate based on a slight offset from the fixed corner?
Why doesn’t the gcode ever stop at point A, to give you a reference? I don’t know if there’s anything I’m missing, but I’m getting better results by manually leveling it with a water level, and running the 7 minute level calibration afterwards.
I’d highly appreciate any input! I’m using the bambu a1.
Yes. I’ve had some issues with bed not being leveled. I’ve checked both with a water level, and the first layer issues I’ve had are consistent with bed leveling issues.
I want the bed as level as I can, so that the A1 should have as little work compensating as as possible.
Can you describe your issues or provide a picture? I ask as often bed adhesion problems are misidentified as bed leveling problems.
Understand that a “level” bed doesn’t mean that the bed is level in reference to a water level. If the rest of the printer isn’t level or square, leveling the bed via a water level will actually make things worse. The important part is that the bed is referenced to the nozzle and gantry correctly.
A slightly out of “level” bed won’t add printing time or wear to your printer. Manually leveling a bed was important back when printers couldn’t auto level. Now it isn’t really much of a concern and is a trap for new people to 3d printing.
I don’t have a picture right now, sorry. The main reason I know that it’s a leveling issue, is because when doing a first layer print, the issue is clearly confined to one specific corner. And I’ve seen doesens of the exacty same issue.
I’ll also mention that I’ve tried raising the z-offset step by step, which resulted in the bad corner being fixed, but oposite side of the plate now has issues, it’s definitely leveling then?
Yeah, I know it’s not perfect using a water level, but it stands on a workbench that is leveleled.
Is there a way to completely turn off autoleveling, in a way that lets me move the extruder around while doing the tramming? That way I can reference the static corner.
Yeah, and it works pretty good now. But since I should be able to do it following the tramming video on the wiki, I guess I must have been doing something wrong.
First, you have no real reference point using that method. Secondly, the accuracy of a water level would not be that great.
After I disassemble a heatbed, and before I saw the wiki g-code, (with power off) I just manually lowered the nozzle to the static corner and then manually moved things around to do the other corners. I did this like 3 times because moving one corner can affect the others. It worked fine.
I have modified the g-code in the same way to start on the fixed corner.
Else with my not flat bed,it doesn’t work.
The center is 0.2 mm lower than the 4 corners. So when I have tried bambulab bed tramming, the nozzle hit the corners that are higher than center !
For Bambulab support, it is normal to get a gap of 0.2-0.25 mm between center and corners !
Not good at all for layer under 0.2 mm. Auto compensation isn’t magic !
I wonder if you could use a square of thin steel shim stock in the center under the plate to even it out a bit. I bought some from Amazon for another project. It came in an assortment
“Assortment of 6” wide by 12" long sheets contains 1 each of the following thicknesses: 0.001", 0.0015", 0.002", 0.003", 0.004", 0.005", 0.006", 0.007", 0.008", 0.010", 0.012", and 0.015" *Made from a full hard, cold rolled, low carbon 1008-1010 steel"
I’ve found that “dimple in the middle” (or it’s inverse) type leveling problems are usually the plate’s fault, not the bed. So it is simplest to put some tape on the underside of the bed in a pattern that mitigates the issue. To resolve a shallow spot in the middle, try an asterisk * pattern with a couple overlaps in the middle. For a high spot in the middle, apply lots of tape to the entire outer sides and it will rise the whole thing.
Don’t use tape that has a slippery other side (clear school tape, etc) or your plate is liable to shift. And if you really hate yourself you can use double sided tape and REALLY stick that sucker to the magnetic bed lol.
Or you can replace the plate, but I aint doin that until the surface is destroyed
The reason I suggested the shim stock above is because it is metal, I would think it would transfer the heat more evenly than a tape or other type of shim…
I don’t tram by their wiki…
You will need a dial gauge and a magnetic base or some other secure attachment to the x rail or head.
Home machine and move Z to a height you can set your gauge on the raw bed (home with plate on, remove after) Don’t hit the home button once gauge is on or you can break things. Home is nice way to lock the axis from drifting. You can also lock the axis with braces or some other gizmo.
Loosen the securing bolts on the screen side like the wiki shows.
Bottom out all 3 screws. Then loosen by 7 turns each.
Set your dial gauge to 0 on the by the pocket with out the screw.
Move the bed and see how far each pocket is off.
If it is more the .040"/1mm… Do the following; if not skip to 9.
Loosen your Z belt.
Jump the cogs for right and left to get it under .020"/.5mm.
Tighten belt back up. (make sure belt is sitting in cogs.
Re-zero your dial on the screw-less pocket.
Move to each pocket, adjust the screw until its “0” on the gauge.
Do this 3 to 4 times (should be within .004"/.1mm (can usually get it much tighter).
Lock screws.
Remove gauge and put plate back on.
Re-home machine.
Do the auto bed level under the calibration menu.
This is the only true method from tramming and will reduce or eliminate the mesh warping that “auto leveling” would create with a bed out of tram. Also “almost touching” is never an acceptable level for tramming.
If you can’t use the dial gauge method. Yet you know how to lash valves; just use your .015"/.4mm feeler gauge and do it just like valves or piston ring gaps. That method you will have to home the tool head on the raw bed not the plate.Tolerance will be a little more then a gauge (if you can do the gauge correctly), but still far superior to the wiki way.
A little update on the tramming. I did a last try with the gcode the other day, and managed to at least print a pretty clean 0.2mm full surface. Yesterday I got an indicator gauge and I managed to get the static corner and all adjustable corners to within ~0.01 (measured right next to the adjustment screws)
However, there are larger discrepancies, especially at the outmost edges. Did a quick survey before bed yesterday, and from the lowest to the highest point there was approximately 0.5mm difference, with a maximum deviation of ~0.3mm from “0”(fixed corner).
How much is the auto bed leveling able to compensate for, and what’s considered a bed replenishment situation?
For me 0.5 mm is too much !
On mine I have a gap of around 0.2-0.25 mm between corners and center, I have found it is also too much.
Don’t forget you can print layer at 0.08 mm.
Auto bed leveing can compensate a little but it isn’t magic, the deviation of 0.5 mm will always here on your first layers. Your bottom surface will be bent all the time.
It confirms that Bamublab doesn’t make flat bed.
