Bed leveling how to get the bed really level

[janet-t 3]

I've had some issues getting large prints out of the UM2. From what I can see is the bed not level enough. And I cannot get it better. I was being helped by the UM support but when I mentioned that I bought the printer in Amsterdam I had to go back to Amsterdam and they don't respond until now. However I don't have a leveled bed and the UM support won't help me due to their policy. Now I have a printer that is not working like it should and is far from plug and play for larger prints. Can someone be so kind to help me out??? I've a quite expensive printer and it is not working consuming a lot of filament and time.

The problem is: either they don’t stick to the plate or one part

is squeezed into it and the other part is loose from the bed. Or the

measurements are not correct due to bed leveling.

The main issue is between the back right corner (standing in front of

the UM2) and in the middle part of the front left corner, seems like

there is a part on the glass plate in the front left corner that is

higher, or just don’t get the leveling nice. However the glass

plate is flat when I lay it on the table.

I have been using the paper method for leveling. Is there another guide or a possibility

to tweak the first layer of the print to get it smooth on the plate

and get great results. However the UM support team is also mentioning

something about calibration of the z-axis, perhaps due to transport

damage, well there was and is no issue of such a kind and the

body/outside of the UM2 is really stable and square, not like I’ve

found on the UM forum that there is a lot of difference between the

legs of the UM2 body. Can somebody please help me out????

[janet-t 3]

 

The main issue is on the front left side, mention that the photo is taken from the back of the printer.

[tommyph1208 55]

It's really hard to see in the picture, but to me it actually looks fine?

What I'll often do is to simply babysit the first layer, turning the leveling screws as the printer is printing... Typically I'll use 2-3 lines of skirt as well, so once the printer starts to print the actual model, the bed is leveled nicely all around... That of course only works if the bed is actually plain... If not you would have to compensate constantly while the printhead moves around on the first few layers... After that, you should be fine even if it is a bit uneven (after some layers the unevenness will flatten out).. Not really an optimal solution though.

[eldrick 65]

Use a metal feeler gauge instead of paper, it's much more consistent. .075mm should do the trick.

[neotko 1,417]

Check this post and if this it's the problem make photos and ask amsterdam to fix it (but it can be fixed with the propper tools).

https://ultimaker.com/en/community/view/10335-glass-plate-not-flat

[janet-t 3]

Thanks for all your answers, you forum guys are so nice to help me out, wish that the UM support would be so kind to, really frustrates that when you are nearly there they send you to the reseller.......I'll give the possible options a try and I'll get back with an answer if I find out how to get it right.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Guest

[janet-t 3]

It's really hard to see in the picture, but to me it actually looks fine?

What I'll often do is to simply babysit the first layer, turning the leveling screws as the printer is printing... Typically I'll use 2-3 lines of skirt as well, so once the printer starts to print the actual model, the bed is leveled nicely all around... That of course only works if the bed is actually plain... If not you would have to compensate constantly while the printhead moves around on the first few layers... After that, you should be fine even if it is a bit uneven (after some layers the unevenness will flatten out).. Not really an optimal solution though.

 

Thanks I shall baby sit for the first layer, hope this will help.

[janet-t 3]

Use a metal feeler gauge instead of paper, it's much more consistent. .075mm should do the trick.

 

That's a great idea, but I don't have any, have to find and buy one, Thanks a lot!

[janet-t 3]

Check this post and if this it's the problem make photos and ask amsterdam to fix it (but it can be fixed with the propper tools).

https://ultimaker.com/en/community/view/10335-glass-plate-not-flat

 

thanks for sharing this post, could be another hint of the issue. From what I see are the screws sinked in the plate, I'll try and measure them, to find out if that could be the case.

[neotko 1,417]

If you remove the glass and touch them you will fell if they are mote 'in' the table or the head it's above.

On my umo+ (preassembled) the bed was banana and I had to bend it manually (a bit brute force) that left a gap on the frontal side of the glass of 0.05 (gauge feller) and I corrected it manually to an ok 0.02. The bed heats nice and now when moving the head stays at all times level. In you case if it's some of this causes the warranty should cover it.

[janet-t 3]

If you remove the glass and touch them you will fell if they are mote 'in' the table or the head it's above.

On my umo+ (preassembled) the bed was banana and I had to bend it manually (a bit brute force) that left a gap on the frontal side of the glass of 0.05 (gauge feller) and I corrected it manually to an ok 0.02. The bed heats nice and now when moving the head stays at all times level. In you case if it's some of this causes the warranty should cover it.

 

My glass is level on a flat surface, and the bed looks level but I'll give it a try see if the bed without the glass is level too. Thanks for your thoughts

[eldrick 65]

 

Use a metal feeler gauge instead of paper, it's much more consistent. .075mm should do the trick.

 

That's a great idea, but I don't have any, have to find and buy one, Thanks a lot!

 

Any auto parts place will have one.

[janet-t 3]

Dear All, good news, I nailed it!!!!

This is what I did.

First I used my iPhone with a carpenter surface level tool to check whether or not the bed was level, and it was within 0,1º on all directions. That's quite level isn't it?

Than thanks to Eldrick I used a metal feeler gauge to determine the right distance between the nozzle and the bed in the bedleveling procedure on my Ultimaker.

In the first round I used the 1 mm thick metal feeler gauge and at all the points the nozzle and the bed had a distance of 1 mm, than in the second round I used the 0.8 mm thick metal feeler gauge to determine the right distance between the nozzle and the bed. On all the three points I could slide the feeler between the nozzle and the bed no, touching but no resistance. And than printed the same file again, and it is really square and evenly printed on all sides. So from what I saw during the leveling routine it when using paper you tend to bring the nozzle too close to the bed and that is where the trouble started. Many thanks to Eldrick and I hope that Ultimaker put two feelers instead of the glue in the package when buying an Ultimaker. This saves a lot of time and money and some frustration....

[neotko 1,417]

Remember that having the bed level with a carpenters tools isn't accurate because the shafts where the head moves could not have the same level. That's why the gauge feller it's a must for precise calibration to check the correlation between the head and the bed.

[Kaminoan 0]

Would someone confirm the sizes of the Feeler Gauges? I get the 1mm gauge, but what is the size replacement for the paper card? When I measure the card it is 0.15mm, which wasn't mentioned here at all.

I just bought my first 3D printer, a UM3, and I am constantly fighting a bed leveling issue. I am a total novice. My PLA just doesn't want to stick to the bed and will have little raised lines in the brim. If I have a brim of 7mm, as suggested in Cura, I get waffling in the brim and it will release from the bed and stick to my print head. So I use a 3mm brim and that works better, but I don't get a smooth edge to the brim print and it will still release on occasion from the bed. I constantly manually level and then on occasion use the auto level option and it still doesn't really get better. I want to print really small items and push the resolution Z layering down as far as I can get it, but do occasionally print larger item. Am I doing something wrong being a novice? I work in microscopy at work and get critical stage leveling, but this is just driving me crazy. One of the reasons I bought the UM3 was I thought it would minimize these sorts of issues. Please help!

[Gigi 43]

Credit card 0.8mm

CD 1.1mm

UM card 0.2 mm

[neotko 1,417]

UM3 firmware assumes 0.15 gap when doing manual calibration.

Anyway if is so hard to get an all flat maybe you have a bed glass curved:

https://ultimaker.com/en/community/35694-warped-glass-on-the-um3