Extruder calibration hell

[Lukephos 0]

I've been trying all afternoon to calibrate the extruder and I am getting nowhere with it. Skipping past a lot of setting wrong E values and it even retracting at seemingly random values, I found Extruder Calibration - Ultimaker 3D printers - Ultimaker Community of 3D Printing Experts in which someone mentions the default E value being E866. I tried that, and it more or less worked... but it also ground away HARD at the material. It was trying to push through more than it could feed, which makes me think easing tension isn't the right answer. At this point I have no idea what to do and others I've talked to aren't really sure what's happening either. Any help would be appriciated.

 

Edit: To clarify, it seems like across the range of settings I either don't extrude enough or it grinds up the filament from trying to move more than it can. I tried E866 again and it didn't get close this time.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Lukephos

[tinkergnome 920]

The linked thread is referring to an "Ultimaker Original" printer from 2013 (with plywood frame).

But you use an "UM2+" tag for this question.

 

So.... let me ask first:  what kind of printer?
 

Default e-steps value for the genuine UM2+ assembly (feeder and motor) is 369

Have you modified the printer? Why do you have a need for calibrating?

 

[Lukephos 0]

56 minutes ago, tinkergnome said:

The linked thread is referring to an "Ultimaker Original" printer from 2013 (with plywood frame).

But you use an "UM2+" tag for this question.

 

So.... let me ask first:  what kind of printer?
 

Default e-steps value for the genuine UM2+ assembly (feeder and motor) is 369

Have you modified the printer? Why do you have a need for calibrating?

 

Ah, oops I seem to have asked in the wrong place. Generally the printer's not had the best time so I'm trying to tune it back into where it should be and following tutorials that meant calibrating the extruder. I know it had previously been messed with anyways.

[gr5 1,933]

Are you embarrassed about the printer type?  It's okay - it doesn't have to be an ultimaker printer to post in this forum.  What type of printer do you have?  Have you modified the feeder?

[gr5 1,933]

I like to calibrate by putting the filament half way down the bowden, telling the printer to move a specified amount (say 100mm) and then measuring how far it moved.  Then adjust by the ratio of the error.

 

But the factory default values are spot on.  I mean perfect.  No need to calibrate.

[Lukephos 0]

I've not modified it, no. It is an Ultimaker 2+ as tagged. I think I was having issues yesterday because I hadn't taken out the bowden tube so it was going into the nozzle, which might not have been hot enough to move as much as I was asking it to. I factory reset to E369 and ran G1 E100 F100 again and it overshoot pretty far. It's being a bit inconsistent about this honestly. I'm retracting and testing the same section repeatidly but it doesn't look like it's getting dug into from doing that so should be fine.

[gr5 1,933]

You don't want the nozzle involved when calibrating the extruder.  Do it such that the filament never reaches the nozzle.  The default steps/mm should be perfect (369 according to tinkergnome).

 

By the way, I recommend you use tinkerGnome version of Marlin which lets you set the steps/mm easily in the menu system and has other great features:

https://github.com/TinkerGnome/Ultimaker2Marlin/releases