Hello, that is a question that is not easy to answer, because the answer has a large component of perception, but I am going to try.
The z-axis of the printer or, in other words, the axis of vertical movement of the extruder must be calibrated with a precision of 0.2 mm, which is the height at which the nozzle must be from the bed.
In the printer menu select “Machine leveling” then in the next menu enter “Calibrate Z” and click “Start”. This will bring the extruder block to the center of the bed leaving it at a medium height.
After this, you have to put an uncrumpled 80g sheet of paper on the bed and, pressing the nozzle down and nozzle up buttons, move the head until it presses the sheet without impeding its movement and press the “Accept” button, which will save the position and will reboot the system.
This step will have defined the relative height of the nozzle with respect to the bed.
calibración de las esquinas
The next step is to level the corners, so that they are all the same level.
To do this, you must enter the menu “Machine leveling” and press “Level bed”, in the menu the button in the lower left corner appears, which will take the extruder block to said corner.
Then you have to press the button in the lower left corner of the screen and put a piece of paper under the nozzle and using the wheel in its corner, adjust the nozzle until the piece of paper comes into contact with it without impeding its movement, the idea is that the nozzle is at the height of the sheet. Here it is important that the resistance of the foil is as similar as possible to that applied by the foil in the z calibration, since if there is a large difference the system will not be able to compensate for it automatically. Once this is done, we must press the “adjust screws” button on the screen, so the printer will take the level of the lower left corner as a reference and show the difference between the rest of the corners and this one.
Then we must adjust the wheels in the direction indicated by each corner. CW means clockwise CCW means counterclockwise, the figure displayed is in the format of minutes:seconds and every 00:60 or 1:00 is a complete revolution of the wheel.
Every time a modification is made, it is necessary to press the “Adjust screws” button again to recalculate the position of the bed. A deviation less than 00:02 is acceptable, although it is advisable to leave all values at 0.
It is advisable to adjust the 3 wheels taking into account that the movement of one will affect the other 2. That is, if one of the corners has a large difference, first you must adjust that until the 3 corners have approximate values and then you must adjust all at the same time.
Calculo de la inclinación de la cama
At this point you must return to the calibration window and press the bed tilt button. This will perform multiple probes in each of the corners of the bed. This step is to apply the deviation in tilt to the mesh that we will generate in the next step so that the printer can compensate it automatically.
The admitted limit is 0.02mm, if you are not able to enter that range, an error will appear. It is not important, you simply have to repeat the calculation process. If the error is repeated several times, it is because the deviation between the height of the z axis and that of the corners is excessive. In this case, the calibrations must be repeated again, trying to ensure that the pressure of the nozzle on the sheet is similar in both cases. Tilting the surface on which the printer stands could also prevent calibration.
Once the process is finished, press accept and the printer will restart. After restarting, the bed and extruder must be reheated.
Mesh generation
Once we reach this point, the calibration will be done. So all that remains is to generate the mesh of the bed, which is the map of the position of the bed with respect to the printer so that clipper knows where each coordinate of the printer is.
Press “Bed mesh” On that screen press “Calibrate” (in the upper right corner) and wait for it to finish. Press accept and wait for it to restart.
Vibration calibration
The printer tends to vibrate while operating which affects the quality of the surfaces to some extent. To avoid this, you can configure automatic compensation and to do this you must use the accelerometer that is included (check the manual to identify it, along with its cable and its screw (m3x16), it only comes in a bag)
It is necessary to make 2 measurements, the z-axis and the x-axis. To measure the z axis you have to screw the accelerometer to the back of the plastic extruder cover (it can be removed at the cost of losing the LED lighting but gaining a much better view of the print, but that is a personal decision ), for which the screw must be removed and replaced with the accelerometer screw, which is longer. For the x axis you have to remove one of the screws from the bed connector and screw the accelerometer in its place with its own screw. At the end of the measurements, the accelerometer must be removed and everything left as it was. It is important to respect the correct position of the accelerometer as it appears in the images in the manual.
Once the accelerometer is adjusted and connected, you must enter the settings/resonance correction/ section, wait for it to detect the sensor that is connected and press autocalibration. Now we have to select the axis where we have the sensor connected and wait for the process to finish. Important: It is necessary to choose the correct axis, since if we choose one that does not have the sensor or both, the printer (clipper) will remain blocked.
The procedure consists of vibrating the specific shaft at a series of predetermined frequencies and lasts a few minutes.
After completing the measurement, save, turn off the printer, connect the sensor to the other axis and repeat the procedure.
Note: It is important to leave the screws as they were or vibrations will occur during printing.
I include this part in the manual because the calibration is visually noticeable in the surface quality of the pieces.
First layer test print
Print a bed leveling test (anything works, the USB printer includes one or for example Prusa Mini First Layer Calibration Tool by KazaYuri - Thingiverse) The result must be clean and with marked print textures. If the layers come off or separate, you have to raise the bed, if there are scratches, marks or ironing, you have to lower the bed. To do this, during printing you have to press “Fine adjustment” and raise or lower it. I recommend doing it while printing and observing the result. When it seems to have improved, repeat the test as many times as necessary until the impression looks good. When you finish printing or cancel it, the printer gives us the option to save changes in the Z axis. Save the changes and wait for it to restart. If there is a big difference between the center and the corners, two things can be done:
- Repeat the calibration process from the beginning, trying to ensure that the resistance of the sheet in the center and in the lower left corner is similar.
- adjust the center perfectly by repeating the calibration tests, and manually adjust the sides and corners with the wheels, repeating the test until the result is perfect.
There is no best solution, both methods have a high component that depends on the user’s perception and therefore arbitrary.
If you have read this far I hope it has helped you, after this you are left with the configuration of the laminator that you choose, I am now fighting (and losing) with the retractions and the damn hairs
Greetings