How to Calibrate the 3D Printer (Bed Levelling)

Calibration is one of the crucial steps to get an accurate 3D print. Many high-end printers have auto-bed levelling feature but many, especially Indian made printers lack this feature.

Although it needs to be done at once, unless you are continuously travelling with the 3D printer, it becomes too tricky for beginners to get it done at one go. This often results in poor first layer of prints.

Here, in this instructable, we will cover the entire calibration process along with pointers that will ease out the calibration process for you.

Material:

• Laptop with Cura software
• 3D printer
• USB cable (A-B)

Step 1: Open Cura on Your Laptop

Cura is a slicing software used to generate gcode. It also has a bed levelling wizard which will help us in calibration process.

Open Cura on your laptop.

You will see on the title bar "Expert" option. Cick on it. The popup shows list of option select "Run bed levelling wizard"

Connect the laptop to the 3d printer with the help of USB cable.

Then you will see the popup as shown in an image, Select "connect to the printer".

Step 2: Adjust Front Left Screw

In case the nozzle is touching your print bed or is very near to it, use the 'Down' command to bring the bed down.

Otherwise, the nozzle will scratch your bed.

Click on the "Resume" option, the nozzle of 3d printer moves to the front left side.

Adjust your front left wingnut of the printer bed, so the nozzle can touch the bed.

To ease this process, we will be using a 80 gsm sheet of paper and slide in between the nozzle and print bed.

Now, as you tighten the wingnut, keep moving the sheet of paper slightly to and fro.

The sweet spot is when you are able to move the sheet of paper with one hand but you can feel some friction as well.

Step 3: Adjust Remaining Screws

Similarly, adjust the remaining 3 wingnut of the printer.

Ensure that friction should be there between the nozzle and white paper and try to achieve the sweet spot as nearly as possible.

Step 4: Final Step

After adjusting wingnut on all the four sides, click on "resume", the printer now starts heating.

When heating is completed, the 3d printer will start printing along the boundary of the bed.

Checkpoint : This print is a checkpoint for you to make sure if the calibration is done properly or not. Now you will have three cases :

Case 1 : If the printed boundary sticks completely to the bed (Check by manually sliding your hand over it, it shouldn't come out), then your calibration is complete.

Case 2 : If the printed boundary comes out as soon as it is being printed, then it means that layer isn't able to stick to it implying that the bed & nozzle are more far away than required.

Repeat the calibration steps again.

Case 3 : In some cases, the print will stick from one or two sides but not from other sides, in such cases, it is recommended to repeat the calibration process. A quick time saving hack is to place your printable object towards the side where the print was good.