Can't get it to print entirely flat
Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 8:41 pm
I've had this problem since I first built my machine. For those that don't know its a custom build, frame is all birch plywood, and the extrusions I got from McMaster in an 8ft length, which I divided into thirds. Ever since I first finished it and calibrated it I haven't been able to get it to print entirely flat across the whole build plate. I've spent around 30 hours working on leveling it, not counting the hours reading on the internet on what could be the culprit. I've followed Gene's build guide, the minow blog, Pilot's posts on this forum, several google groups posts, MSURunner's calibration video (which got me the furthest along), and I've tried both Repetier and Marlin auto leveling systems.
I know the build is good, Ive checked 10s of times with a large framing square to see if the extrusions were perpendicular to the bed (just checked now even), everything is nice and tight. I've got the TL CF arms, so they are very accurate.
Part of MSURunner's calibration routine involved printing a tower offset calibration, which I can't do because of the Kraken's nozzles not being in the center. Ive tried screwing with the tower rotation tweaks, which helped a little, but it was still around +/- 0.1-.2mm.
I don't exactly know how adjusting the tower rotation/offsets affect the motion of the effector in relation to the bed, so I'm hesitant to mess with these values any more than I have. The only things I can think of that might help are the tower rotations/offsets, or possibly the birch panels being slightly warped in some way, causing nonsense. I'd prefer to not have to change to melamine, more for the sake that my printer is one of a kind in its current state than the part of rebuilding it (the birch looks reaaaal nice), but if I really have to to get better effector motion I can deal with doing without the eye candy.
I know the build is good, Ive checked 10s of times with a large framing square to see if the extrusions were perpendicular to the bed (just checked now even), everything is nice and tight. I've got the TL CF arms, so they are very accurate.
Part of MSURunner's calibration routine involved printing a tower offset calibration, which I can't do because of the Kraken's nozzles not being in the center. Ive tried screwing with the tower rotation tweaks, which helped a little, but it was still around +/- 0.1-.2mm.
I don't exactly know how adjusting the tower rotation/offsets affect the motion of the effector in relation to the bed, so I'm hesitant to mess with these values any more than I have. The only things I can think of that might help are the tower rotations/offsets, or possibly the birch panels being slightly warped in some way, causing nonsense. I'd prefer to not have to change to melamine, more for the sake that my printer is one of a kind in its current state than the part of rebuilding it (the birch looks reaaaal nice), but if I really have to to get better effector motion I can deal with doing without the eye candy.