Whether it’s your first time using a brand new 3D printer, or you find that your prints are getting uneven or, worse, not sticking, you need to level the print bed. Entry-level 3D printers, including those that go with the best 3D printer, often do without luxuries such as color screens, direct drives and probes for automatic bed leveling. Don’t worry, it is not difficult to learn how to level a 3D printer bed. it just takes a little practice.
“Leveling the bed” is a bit of a misnomer. We’re actually “tramming” the print surface: make sure the nozzle is at the same height above the bed at every point on the X and Y axes.
Level is a simple, if not precise, word that anyone can understand.
The biggest problem with manually leveling a 3D printer bed is finding the right distance between the nozzle and the printing surface. Too far and your prints won’t stick. Too close and you will damage the printing surface.
Fortunately for those of us stuck with manually leveling the 3D printer bed, we don’t need to be laser accurate. We’re dealing with fractions of a millimeter, so it’ll get us damn close to the quality we’re looking for.
When do you need to level a 3D printer bed?
- After assembly and before your first print.
- After changing the nozzle, make sure that the nozzle remains the correct distance from the bed.
- Weekly. Even the best printer can no longer be calibrated while in use, so check your levels occasionally.
- After a failed print. Does the print not stick? You might not be on the level.
What you need to align your 3D printer bed
- A piece of paper: This is used to measure the distance between your nozzle and the build bed. Computer paper is a good choice, but so is a piece of junk mail or a post-it note.
- Filament: Load your printer with PLA to do a test print. PLA is a commonly used filament and it sticks without a fuss. We use Domestic PLA + Orange for this article.
- Isopropyl alcohol: Before leveling, clean the printing surface. Filament never sticks well to a dirty bed.
- Paper towel: For cleaning the bed.
- Slicer app: You’ll need to slice your test print – any slicer will do. We like to use Ultimaker Cura.
- Test print at bed height: There are several files online, We’ll be using this one from Thingiverse. It’s the size of an Ender 3. You can size this one to fit in the bed of your printer, or you can look for a test made for your particular machine.
- Your 3D printer: In this article we will use a Creality Ender 3 Pro FDM 3D printer. The four point print bed is similar to many of the popular 3D printers on the market today, including the Elegoo Neptune 2.
Prepare your printer
1. Clean the bed. Lightly scrub the print surface with isopropyl alcohol and a paper towel to remove fingerprints and filament debris.
2. Preheat printer and bed to its normal operating temperature. At PLA, we heat the printer to 200 ° at the nozzle and 60 ° at the bed. Wait at least 5 to 10 minutes for the printer to absorb the heat.
Some experts consider it unnecessary to preheat the bed as the possibility of thermal expansion is very small. We prefer to level the bed in the same conditions that we use when printing.
3. The printer at home. This will put it in the 0,0,0 position.
4th Check your printer controls for an option Called bed leveling, level corners or bed tramming. This option will move the printer around the four corners of the bed as you adjust the springs underneath.
Some Ender 3 models come with leveling aids installed. You need to select “Disable Steppers” which will turn off the stepper motors and allow you to push the printhead by hand.
Note: Our Ender 3 Pro has been updated to the Marlin 2 firmware which added a bed tramming routine.
5. Slide the printhead (or let the printer do it) to the first corner, more or less centered above the adjustment knob under the bed. Slide a sheet of paper under the nozzle.
6th Use the adjustment knob under the bed to raise or lower the nozzle until it barely touches the paper.
Do this for all four corners and the center. Then do it again. Leveling the bed is a balancing act where adjusting one corner can throw off the opposite corner.
Perform a test print
1. Load a test print at bed level in your slicer of choice. Since we’re using a Creality Ender 3 Pro, we’re using one from Thingiverse called “Ender 3 bed level“. If your printer has a larger or smaller printing area, adjust the x and y coordinates accordingly.
2. Reduce the Z height to 0.4 inches for a single-layer test print.
3. Clean the bed with isopropyl alcohol and a paper towel.
4th Execute the print.
Diagnosing the results
- Nozzle is too close. If your nozzle is too close to the bed, it will plow through the filament, creating a rough, uneven surface. You can have thin spots where the plastic is pushed into the bed surface. It can be difficult to remove.
- The nozzle is too far. If your nozzle is too far from the bed, there will be gaps between the filament lines. The plastic lines appear rounded and cannot stick to the bed at all.
- Nozzle is just right. When the nozzle is the perfect distance from the bed, it will appear slightly squashed or slightly flattened. Lines will merge with one another with a uniform appearance. There will be very little roughness.
If the test print squares appear too far or too close to the nozzle, make the necessary adjustments and run the test print again.
3D printer bed leveling aids
It can be difficult to get a perfect first layer with manual 3D printer bed leveling. Here are a few things to try before you give up and buy one BL touch auto sensorthat can be used for automatic leveling on an Ender 3 style 3D printer.
- Clean the bed. A sparkling clean bed is extremely important for bed adhesion. Even a few fingerprints can add enough grease to keep a print from sticking.
- Use a raft. Your slicer can put a chunky first layer down to help large or delicate prints stick. The downside is that you will have a rough surface on the underside of your print. Rafts can be found under Build Plate Adhesion in Cura and under Support Material in PrusaSlicer. Other slicers have their raft options in other menus.
- Use glue stick. A washable disappearing glue stick – the purple variety – from the children’s handicrafts course is a perfect glue helper. It lays down a sticky layer that helps the filament grip the surface. Wipe the glue lightly all over the bed, then wash off and reapply after 3 or 4 prints. The brand doesn’t matter, so you can stock up on the next back to school sale.
- Shim the bed. Warped beds are unfortunately common with cheap printers. If your bed seems lower or higher in the middle – and you have a removable printing surface – you can put aluminum foil, masking tape or even a post-it note under the bed.
Put the bed underneath
1. Remove the printing surface.
2. Place a steel ruler or similar ruler on the bed and shine with a flashlight behind.
3. Notice how big the gap is and cut off a piece of foil or tape about this size.
4th Put it on the printer bed and look for gaps with the ruler.
5. Layer up extra film or tape until the bed is mostly flat.
6th Replace the mattress base and level the bed.
