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UM2 Z-axis not leveled.


bshady3

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Posted · UM2 Z-axis not leveled.

Hello All

 

I have been trying to fix a bed leveling issue with my UM2. All 3 points of the bed are all at very different heights and when I try to adjust the screws to get those 3 points leveled it throws the 2 back corners (where there are no screws) off being leveled.

3 possible sources of this error:

1) glass is bent 

2) heated bed is bent

3) aluminum carriage (Z-axis) is not leveled.

 

Since #3 is what everything attaches to I wanted to test that first. Long behold it was totally not straight. When I brought the build plate all the way up (with the heated bed and glass removed) all 3 points had different heights from the nozzle to the bed. Look at the 3 pictures.

 

Is this normal or a fix for this?

 

Thank you all for the help in advanced.

IMG_20190423_103004.jpg

IMG_20190423_103157.jpg

IMG_20190423_103041.jpg

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    Posted · UM2 Z-axis not leveled.

    #3 could be split into:

    1) gantry is bent

    2) frame is bent causing gantry to be bent

    3) plate is not perpendicular to vertical rods

    4) vertical rods are not perpendicular to frame

     

    So our friend neotko had an issue he called "banana".  One might call it "saddle".  Where you can get any 3 points of the print bed level but to get 4 points level you can't because the bed is shaped somewhat like a sadle or potato chip.  We'll call that "banana" here.

     

    The most common cause for severe banana is shipping - DHL and other's seem to manage to put an immense amount of weight onto opposite corners of the printer such that it is no longer a cube but trapezoidal.

     

    A bent frame will give you a banana gantry.

     

    I'd check that first.  Does the printer sit flat on a table?  Or does it rock?  If the frame has banana then you need to loosen a lot of the frame screws and push it back into position and retighten.  On extremely rare occasions back in the UMO days there were some "bad" frames where the wood shifted during cutting.  Now all frames go through quality control.  It's possible to order just one side of the frame. 

     

    The base plate that you show as bent shouldn't matter as it connects to the heated bed through 3 points.  You can't transfer "banana" through 3 points.  You can just adjust the 3 screws to make the bed "level" with the gantry.

     

    The glass that comes with many UM2's (and even worse I think with UM3's) tends to be thicker in the center.  But by only 1mm at the most and the amount of force to bend it flat is very small.  Maybe an ounce.  When I saw some banana in my glass - I "fixed" it by bending the rear 2 corners of the heated bed upwards firmly until a metal straight edge (a ruler) showed it to be level.  Only after I was done did I realize that I could have damaged my heated bed - I had forgotten that the other side was a PCB heater.  But it worked really well for me on my UM3.

     

    You can probably get a flatter glass from fbrc8.com.  Measure the error very carefully and ask fbrc8 if you can do better with one of their glass beds for UM2.

     

    The process for making tempered glass makes it thicker in the center.  You could buy ordinary window glass from your local glass place (any town that has buildings with windows has lots of glass places).  You'd be amazed how cheaply you can get a piece of glass of the correct thickness and dimensions and ground smooth to remove sharp edges (probably $10).  The only problem with non-tempered glass is that if it breaks the pieces are very sharp - tempered glass is designed to shatter into thousands of pieces if it breaks and it's not as dangerous.

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    Posted · UM2 Z-axis not leveled.
     
     
     
    9 hours ago, gr5 said:

    I'd check that first.  Does the printer sit flat on a table?  Or does it rock?  If the frame has banana then you need to loosen a lot of the frame screws and push it back into position and retighten.  On extremely rare occasions back in the UMO days there were some "bad" frames where the wood shifted during cutting.  Now all frames go through quality control.  It's possible to order just one side of the frame. 

     

    The base plate that you show as bent shouldn't matter as it connects to the heated bed through 3 points.  You can't transfer "banana" through 3 points.  You can just adjust the 3 screws to make the bed "level" with the gantry.

    Yes! it does rock! when I loosen the screws I should just tap it with a mallet to knock it into shape or do I need to remove the screws to do that?

    The frame has tabs that click into each other so it looks like hitting them with a hammer might break them.

     

    Thank you

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