Hi,
I am new to 3D printing but have recently assembled a KITTAZ and have two successful printouts under my belt.
I have already learned that bed leveling is the bane of 3D printing and that the TAZ 4 is no exception.
I have seen videos that boast inductive sensors to leverage a Marlin firmware feature but requires the print bed be metal and not glass. I am looking for a technique that uses endstop switches. This is a feature that I desperately want to implement but will not undertake without guidance. Guidance from the company I bought the printer from would be ideal but at this point I will settle for less.
I know there is a link somewhere on the Lulzbot website that talks about auto bed leveling but am unable to find it. Curiously the search feature on the main website fails me. Any feedback is most appreciated.
I think this is “newb” concern that you’ll quickly grow out of. We did the same thing with our TAZ4 when we got it. Serious concern about bed leveling to the point of near exhaustion.
Now, the only time we check bed level is when we strip the old PET sheet off glass and replace it with a new sheet.
We’ve gotten to the point where that’s happening maybe once a month. We print almost every day too.
Honestly, the paper “feeler gauge” adjustment works.
I did move to using a dial caliper on a printed holder to get glass level, but we still use the one sheet of paper the do the z height.
As a newb we all tend to way over-think the bed-level. After a while it becomes far less stressful and fairly easy to manage.
You’ve stated you’ve had success printing. The more you print the better you’ll get, even without auto-bed leveling.
Youtube review says some of their TAZs were stable, some needed leveling repeatedly. Maybe for a casual hobbyist with small objectives and a month to print, it’s okay.
Learning curves can be painful. And I am feeling the pain. I do understand what ‘edLink’ is saying. It sounds like once leveling is dialed in, it’s not something you need to worry much about thereafter…can hardly wait.
The problem I am seeing and the reason I suspect a firmware based approach will help is that my print bed has a concave down bow in the center. No matter how consistent my corners are to each other the center of my bed is always lower.
I came from a printer with auto-level. And while it is convenient, there is tuning associated.
Working with the TAZ5 the last few weeks and I can say there is a slight learning curve, but its easy to overcome. Here’s what I’ve found:
Get a dial gauge and print one of the holders. This quantitatively evaluates the levelness of your bed with respect to the extruder mount or rods. It nice to know you’re .15 off and as you adjust see it go to .000.
The business card is good, but a set of feeler gauges would probably be more accurate to adjust Z-stop.
Z-Offset g-code setting has been really good to me. I was used to adjust M212 for an off-set of the probe. Setting a Z-offset through the slicer software is very precise… of course, it doesn’t negate setting the Z-stop properly.
To be honest, the PEI is really good with adhesion of ABS. Once you’ve got a decent first layer squash, its almost foolproof. I’ve gone a week so far without having to touch the bed…
Yes, I found a post on “Bed leveling using a digital indicator” by Wolfie, thanks. I have just ordered a digital guage by iGaging on Amazon. Still, what seems to be a simple concern for some is a headache for me. It seems to me my print bed is warped. If so, barring a new bed, the firmware solution is the answer. The digital depth guage approach should confirm the above.
BTW I found the post I was looking for, it came up in a search on “bed leveling” but not “auto bed leveling”…strange.
It is, “Auto bed probing and compensation with G29 Development” by “1013”.
That’s the same dial guage I bought also. Works great! I was pretty convinced my bed was warped also… but after a check with the dial gauge it suddenly became flat.
I couldn’t buy a consistent config pattern on this bed to save my life. So I stripped off the PEI and tried to level the bed on bare glass. It worked, confirming that the glass was without defect. I then fastened a thinner (0.03" vs. 0.06") PEI sheet with binder clips to test on. Again, it leveled and test printed with consistent lines like a champ. I am so not needing auto bed leveling
From my limited experience, I might say that the thicker sheets of PEI, above 0.04" say, may be problematic. They tend to have a slight bend in them which will not straighten to acceptable tolerances even when glued to glass with 468MP adhesive.
