Cannot get a consistent first layer distance.
I've been running into this issue for a while, trying to calibrate my first layer using the first layer test. I'll run it, adjust/babystep until I have a value that I like, and save it. Then, when I run the same test again, same gcode, the print will start further away from the bed again. I never had issues with this on Klipper before. I've included my printer.cfg. Please ask any other questions you think will be relevant.
14 Replies
Your offset seems to have saved well, did you try again without the filament-specific custom gcode?
if that doesn't fix it - check if your Z-probe is securely mounted. Wouldn't be the first where the probe moves a little because it's not fully attached
ratty-blushOP•12mo ago
I tried re-running it, it seems like it's not overwriting, but I think I'm still to close with the PETG I'm running, as after a couple of lines it seems like it gets clogged.
Filament loves to stick to the end of this nozzle.
I'm gonna work on it more tonight when I'm done with work.
ratty-blushOP•12mo ago
I tried doing a calibration with pla instead of PETG yesterday and I got a good offset dialed in pretty quickly, and then it eventually got too close to the bed again. I think I need to work on my mesh.
ratty-blushOP•12mo ago
Ignore the bottom right corner, I just peeled it off before thinking to take this photo
Make sure you run Z-Tilt before you do a mesh
and make sure the mesh is actually active while printing 🙂
If the mesh is active, you should see this icon. Name can be different for you
ratty-blushOP•12mo ago
I really appreciate all your help on this Steef. I'll test some of this later
no problem, let's get the bed Z-Tilt and Mesh correct first. Then we look at the nozzle offset
You should do it like this:
1. Heat up bed to print temperature, leave it there for ~10 minutes
2. Run homing
3. Run Z-Tilt
4. Check the nozzle offset with some paper, adjust if needed.
5. Run bed mesh, save mesh and restart. Let us know how the mesh looks 🙂
6. try to print a part, check if the bed mesh is active during printing.
Let me know how it goes
ratty-blushOP•12mo ago
ratty-blushOP•12mo ago
Gonna try to do some calibration prints now.
ratty-blushOP•12mo ago
Well, it's using the mesh so that's good. We'll see if that same issue happens
ratty-blushOP•12mo ago
These are much better than I was getting before. I think I might increase the number of probe points for the bed, but otherwise I think I'm okay with these results. Now that I've got the first layer down, I can do some further calibration. Thanks so much for your help, Steef
That mesh does not look bad at all, you can probably improve it a little by fixing your frame alignment - but this seems great so far 🙂
It looks like you are a little too close to your bed, or maybe over extruding a little - but those are things you can look at now
have fun!
p.s. is this PLA? PLA on the textured rat rig plate can be a bit tricky
ratty-blushOP•12mo ago
The orange is PLA and the blue stuff is PETG that's definitely stuck. I'm thinking about getting a PEX sheet from WhamBam, had one on my ender 3 and loved it. And yes, I agree that I'm probably still a little close to the bed. I'll be doing some finer adjustments