Easy adjustment of build platform

[simon 1]

Hi All, I made these a few days ago and although very simple, I find them extremely useful. Its so simple I feel a little embarrassed to start a thread, but they have helped so much, I thought I would share.

 

Its just a small plastic cap which press fits over the end of the adjustment screw with a pointer so I can easily see and adjust the rotation. I've found this makes levelling the bed while you're printing a first layer, ideally a brim, exceptionally easy. I can now accurately raise or lower the bed using all three screws by exactly the same amount. With a perfectly round thumb screw this is more difficult to judge. The screw thread is an M3 x 0.5mm pitch and using this, I can make accurate adjustments of 10th turn or finer and know that I've applied the same to each, keeping the bed level, or levelling it dynamically if required.

 

The other thing I did was mark the counter sink screw heads so they now bite into the aluminium. I have found that they can sometimes turn with the thumb screw resulting in no change of length. I did this using a side cutter and just pinched across the top and underside of the countersunk fixing. I does marks the top too, but this doesn't matter.

 

 

 

[takei-naodar 0]

Could you pls post the stl file? thx in advance for the great idea ^^

 

[simon 1]

Here's the Dropbox link.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11059439/UM2%20Bed%20Levelling%20Screw%20Cap.zip

You may have to scale up or down a little to get a press fit. I printed them in ABS, so PLA may need a tweak.

 

[aaronalai 2]

Cool idea! I'm glad you posted it. Have you thought about hosting it on YouMagine or Thingiverse?

 

[ian 32]

nice little upgrade :-)

Thanks !

Ian :-)

 

[takei-naodar 0]

With PLA they need to be Printed at a scaling of 0.97 in Y and X.

 

[takei-naodar 0]

Made a refined version of the Original.

Now has a hole for the screw ist not that pointy anymore and you can move it more easily.

Can be found here:

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/ultimaker-2-bed-leveling-screw-cap-v1-1

 

[gadgetfreak 7]

I've been thinking about this ever since I saw the UM2 the first time that the leveling knobs needs to be bigger...I just thought of designing my own ones a day ago and here you come and save me time and with the nice indicator as well...thanks!! I just wish there was room for a bigger height but since the platform homes down I guess that's not possible.