Transcript:
Now you new to 3d printing. Maybe just bought your first under three or you gonna get one for Christmas. Let me show you how to level your bed. The most important thing you need to know when you’re getting started with 3d printing. I’ll show you an easy way to do it right here. A filmer Friday filament Friday is sponsored by my Patreon supporters. The most important thing you need to learn when you’re getting started with 3d printing is to get a level bed when your bed is level. That means the position between the bed and the nozzle is the same no matter where that nozzle is positioned. Now you can never get it exactly perfect because every bed has a low spot or a warped spot. No matter what, you use the stock bed. This is a flexible bed on the under 3 Pro I put a glass bed. Am I under 3 cuz? I like printing on glass and you tend to get a little more level. When you do use glass. But it’s the same technique, no matter which one you have and no matter which printer you have, although I’m going to show you here on an under 3 now what I’ve included in The description below are a link to a Thingiverse location where there’s two G code files. I recommend you download. One is a g-code file that will position the head at five different points on the bed, and then at each point, you slide a piece of paper underneath it and adjust your bed until that piece of paper hardly moves now. I like to use a filament Friday sticker because it gives me two levels of adjustment, one as a sticker. And then I peel off the backing and I have a second one slightly thinner for the second. Go around! If you want a couple of these stickers, there’s a address in the description below, send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I’ll send you two of them for free, so I use this to position it and to get that perfect distance. So let me run the first g-code, which positions the head and I’ll show you how it works and then after that, I’ll show you the g-code to print this test file, so you can get that perfect print all the way around, and then, you know, you’re ready to get your first prints going on your new under three or your existing under 3 download the files from Thingiverse on to your SD card and then run the chip under three bed level dodgy code. The machine will home itself and then moved to just above the first adjustment screw. Now you take your piece of paper or fill in a Friday sticker, slide it in under the nozzle and then adjust the bed until, oh, just a slight resistance on the sticker. Then you hit the button and it’ll move to the back corner. Then you do it again. Adjust the adjustment screw until that sticker or piece of paper barely slides out as you feel significant resistance. And then you do this at each corner. Press the button, it’ll automatically move and then you get all four corners when you press the button again, it’ll move to the center when it gets to the center, you can do the same thing. Rub the paper or sticker underneath it. But when you adjust it, you have to just all four wheels equally. Mine felt pretty good, so I left it now. When you press the button, it’s gonna go to the back corner, but I’m gonna use the back of the sticker, which is a lot thinner. And then I read just adichie. I was really close to the bed once. That was done the last time I hit the button. It’s done and it homes itself again. Now you want to start the square bed level test at G-code and make sure you had some. Pla loaded! Before you do this and it’ll start printing. It’s squares now. The trick is to rub your finger on the bed. See if you can knock it off, then. These are very thin lines, so it’s pretty easy to knock them off if it’s not sticking to the bed, so here, look at. I could knock that corner. So that corner needs to be moved closer to the nozzle. If you move a clockwise, it moves it closer to the nozzle. If you move a counter clockwise, it moves it away, so I just keep adjusting that until I get each corner right now. If I ever see it very dull or not printing at all, then I know I went too far, and it’s too close to the nozzle, but you just let it happen for each square. Keep checking it and you will slowly tune this guy right in once we get this done, then we can just remove them all and start over because now our bed should be adjusted properly, so just easily remove all the strings from the bed. Now you could just this is a flexible plate. You could just pull it off and peel them, but anytime you remove it, It can affect the bed level, so it’s best to leave it there, so we’re gonna run it again now that I’ve had everything adjusted and I can easily rub this and it’s not moving, so this is looking really good, so I let this run Until all The squares are printed, and then it’ll print multiple layers so once the first round of squares is printed. I stop the print. You can keep it going if you want, but I just stopped the print and then from there, I check it and this looks perfect. So now I’m gonna test it by printing an actual print. I’m gonna print a bench E, but only the first layer so prints the first layer I hit stop, and then I can look at this up close and you can see. I got it good because the lettering is coming out perfectly. It’s got all the spacing and I can easily read it. I’m take it off the bed. Look at that, It’s almost a perfect layer. I got some gaps around the edges, but that’s the slicing, because I didn’t do enough overlap and this is a square. This shows you the difference. I started out pretty good. Then I adjusted too close because it quit putting plastic down. There’s a gap then. I got it back to good. Then I adjusted it too far away. That’s why it’s sagging, and then I got adjusted good again, and then I printed another square and it’s perfect other than this lower left-hand corner That’s about as close. I’m gonna get so this thing is ready to print, so that’s an easy way to use the g-code to set up your machine and the g-code to run a test print. Now you don’t have to run that test print every time you get pretty good at that live adjust, and you can just do it with the print that you’re working on the print. You’re gonna make just like the bench, E? I could lay that pinchy down and then look at and say, now I need to tweak it. Stop the print, start it over again. Get that first layer, just right, just by tweaking the knobs and then let it run. But if you have a removable bed like this every time you remove it and put it back, you take the risk of throwing things off, and if you ever have to clean your nozzle or take that off for any reason, you’re gonna have to readjust the bed. So it’s good to have a technique to get it back into, and this is an easy way to do it, so that’s it for this week and I hope this helps you get started with 3d printing and get that first layer down just perfect. So if you like what I’m doing here, maybe check out some of these other videos that are popping up. People want to help support the channel. You can support me through Patreon if nothing else click on that. Shep logo. And if nothing else you’re going to be doing some shopping this Christmas season use my affiliate links are in the description below. It really helps. I’ll see you next time right here at filament Friday.