How to Set your Nozzle Height and Level your Bed - 3D Printing 101 Video Lecture | What is 3D Printing: Basic Knowledge - IT & Software

correct nozzle height and bed leveling
are the two most important factors in 3d
printing if you don't get these right it
spells the difference between this and
this so you might be wondering why I
haven't talked about this idea on this
channel before
well that's because seemingly every
different 3d printer on the market does
this differently and talking about how
it works on my up Mini would have only
helped you so much but step four today
and I have a couple of more printers at
my command
so in this video I'll show you seven
different ways you can set your nozzle
height and bed level on seven different
machines let's get into it
oh yes hello and welcome back to another
3d printing 101 here on makers views so
why is nozzle height and bed levels so
important for your 3d printing success
well basically your first layer is the
most important layer of the entire 3d
print and if your nozzle height is too
far away from the bed it's obviously not
going to stick and similarly if it's too
close you'll get filament grinding the
machine won't be able to extrude
properly and you'll get other kinds of
failures so getting that nozzle height
correct is of critical importance
general practice is to set the nozzle
height slightly below your layer height
so for example if you're printing at 200
micron you might want to try to set your
nozzle height at 150 micron away from
the bed but really you can just pretty
much guess using a business card or
other thin piece of card or even a piece
of paper folded over itself a few times
as long as you get a distance that's not
too far and not too close you're going
to be okay similarly bed level is
equally as important although your
nozzle height may be correct in one area
if your bed is not level the other side
of the bed may be completely wrong so
different manufacturers tackle this
problem in different ways and we're
going to go through the most simplest to
the most complicated in this guide and
far the simplest end is the fabricator
mini this is the smallest 3d printer
that I use it's also the cheapest and it
has the most simplest method for setting
your nozzle height there is a tiny screw
which you can change to offset the
homing distance for the z-axis it's as
simple as that it's a bit of a trial and
error approach but it's certainly
economical so by adjusting the screw you
can adjust where the machine senses the
Zed home position at zero and then by
doing so you can set a good nozzle
height but how do you level the bed in
the fabricated mini well you don't
basically this machine has no way to
level a bed apart from some hacky
methods of putting bits of paper
underneath various screws in the bed
assembly but the thing is this machine
is so small that you don't really need
to level a bed because at its size
you're unlikely to have a bed that's at
a level now there has been some
complaints in the market of people
getting fabricated minis where the beds
have been bowed and this is a problem
you can't really solve this
without getting a new bed but in my case
this machine has never needed to have
any better adjustment other than the
nozzle height and once that's set it's
pretty much good to go so let's move on
to the up meeting ah yes so this is the
up mini from tier time this is the first
3d printer I ever got and I still use it
all the time as a fantastic little
machine for a really good price and the
way you do the nozzle height is actually
completely different to most other
printers on the market it is a software
driven nozzle height method so you go
into the software and essentially raise
the bed up by a certain amount entering
specific amounts into the console and
then much you're happy you click set
nozzle height the machine will remember
what you have set even if you unplug it
and take it to a different computer and
then that is your new nozzle height so
the good thing about this is you can
really precisely fine-tune it by
entering those precise numbers but what
about bed leveling well this is where
the up minis price point kind of made
you lose a few features there is no way
of manually leveling the bed on the up
mini it's actually done through software
through software compensation so you do
this by going through the software's bed
leveling routine and you choose one of
nine points and adjust it to soup using
a small spacer card and in doing this
the software will know to automatically
adjust that first layer to suit but you
must print with a raft that's the only
gotcha
with this method if you try to print
roughness you can't use the software bed
leveling method you need to have some
way of manually living the bed now you
can get the up minis bed and tweak it to
be level using some kind of barbaric
methods but ultimately again similarly
to the fabricated mini most of these up
mini machines have a bed so small that
bed leveling isn't really much of a
concern so let's move on to something a
little bit bigger so this is the cocoon
create which is a rebrand of the one Hal
duplicated a 3 version too so you'll
notice on the bed there are four points
each of these points have a
spring-loaded wingnut which you can
tighten or loosen to change the height
of the bed so to level your bed it's
actually quite a manual affair you need
to home your device and set everything
to zero and tighten these screws down
quite a bit to make sure there's no
collisions and then basically turn the
stepper motors off and move it around on
the bed
to work out where those optimal Heights
are and you do this by setting a piece
of card like a spacer card business
cards work well and then pretty much
move it around point to point until
you're happy with it it's a very manual
process but it seems to work quite well
there's a few improvements you can do to
the one how I three such as printing
thumb screws instead of the wing nuts
that it comes with to make it a little
bit easier but really it is quite a
manual process but it is a low-cost
machine so you get what you pay for
next we have guided bed leveling so
similar to the one highway 3 the craft
book plus has spring-loaded screws which
you adjust and tighten to change the bed
level and the nozzle height however
differently to the WAM highway through
this is a guided process using a built
in bed level and nozzle height routine
so it basically steps you through each
step of the way moving the head around
each time to the exact points that you
want to adjust and this really does help
because the craft book plus like a
couple of other printers has only three
points of adjustment rather than four on
the one how I three so this can be quite
daunting and confusing to adjust because
you're adjusting a bed with four
directions with only three points so
machines like the up plus 2 or the
MakerBot 2x use this kind of system so
having a guided bed level system built
into the machine really helps you to
dial it in if it's your first time take
it slow triple check it and make sure
it's right
do a small print and if you're happy
continue onto your larger prints alright
now we're really moving up the food
chain so this is the up box which has
automatic bed level and nozzle height
calibration so what does that mean well
basically when you set your nozzle
height on the up box there is a touch
plate at the back of the bed so as the
bed will slowly raise up it will touch
that touch plate onto the nozzle and it
will work out quite accurately where the
nozzle height is now you do need to be
careful as some things like DAGs are
plastic on the end of the nozzle which
may harden and incorrectly set that
nozzle height so I do still recommend
using a manual adjustment to just really
check but in terms of usability
automatic adjustment is awesome in terms
of bed level the up box actually has two
options you can level it like I said on
the craft lot plus using multiple points
underneath the bed or you can use the
software offsets which actually it will
do automatically using a little touch
probe that drops down with a server
and touches on various points onto the
bed I'll then take these offset values
and work out where the bed is and then
so when it lays down that first layer
it'll be exactly right no matter how
unlevel the bed may be darling in a bed
that large manually can be really tricky
especially with only three adjustment
points so I am quite glad that the
machine includes this but you'd expect
it at the price point the up box that
next to this lineup we have the C e l
which is one of the smartest 3d printers
I've ever worked with so in terms of
automatic calibration it does it all it
has automatic nozzle height an automatic
bed level and it does this before every
print which is a good way to make the
printer kind of foolproof in something
like a classroom environment something
that I do quite respect in terms of how
it does it the actual entire nozzle
assembly tilt backwards as it presses
into the bed and by doing so it actually
breaks contact with the top rail which
is a conductive sensor essentially so
the whole head is a switch and it moves
around point by point to work out where
the bed is and then it will use its
automatic offsets and calibration to
then adjust the first layer to suit so
in terms of manual adjustment there
pretty much is none in the row box it
does all of it by itself you can work
out some fine-tuning like that level of
the z-axis but in terms of working out
the nozzle height it does it all pretty
much by itself which is cool and finally
we have the cubic on single now I don't
have a cubic on single here to show you
because unfortunately I only have ever
had a learning unit but in terms of
automatic calibration the cubic on
single has the best method I have ever
seen it has a motorized platform that
will mechanically level itself so a lot
of these machines will use software to
software level and it's not ideal
because the plate is still not
completely flat whereas the cubic on has
mechanical leveling which is really
really cool and you'd expect so from a
machine that costs four and a half
thousand Australian dollars so I have
shown you in this video there's many
different ways you can set your nozzle
height and level your bed but the most
critical thing is that you do it no
matter what method you use because a
nozzle height that is incorrect will
lead to failed prints there's no doubt
about it so whether it's adjusting a
tiny screw like in the case of the
fabricated mini or
of having an entire bed that
mechanically levels itself in the case
of the cubic on as long as you get that
level correct you're going to get great
prints off your machine no matter what
price point you choose so thank you very
much guys for watching this video I hope
you found it useful you want to see
future 3d printing videos on makers news
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catch you later guys bye