Hello everybody!!! New guy on the fourm!!!

Hi everyone! I was looking around for a decent place forum and stumbled across you guys. I wanted a place to meet like minded people and learn as much as possible.

I've wanted a printer for a long time and finally pulled the trigger 5 days ago. I ended up going with the CR-10S. I set it up and started printing straight away.

My thoughts so far:

Everybody's first nightmare... Bed leveling, What an annoyance to say the least.. I started with the preloaded dog to test everything out. picked up the worlds cheapest hairspray AquaNet and started the print. Came out great! at this point I felt I was ready for the big leagues. I was mistaken. One of my main reasons for getting a 3d printer was for printing guns and gun parts. With the length of pistol frames I quickly learned all was not "Good in the hood". I fought with leveling the build plate for HOURS to no avail. Finally, I stopped trying to level all 5 points on the build plate and adjusted the model to where I thought I had the best chance of adhesion and went back to the printer and ONLY leveled where the model was going to be printed. I managed to make this work after 3 failures and finally got something I think is a solid product.

What I've got out of watching 100's of "Bed Leveling" YouTube videos:

I reached the conclusion that either I'm stupid or my printer is about as far off "True" and something could get. All the videos tell you the same info if you don't have any "Auto" function. Set printer to home and move the hot end to the 5 locations "4 corners and center" and adjust accordingly. there are many things to consider here outside of the 4 adjustment knobs under the build plate. First off, what the printer is sitting on. I'm using a 4 foot folding plastic table from Walmart. I love these and use them all the time. My computer desk is one and I have 4 out in my shop when I work on cars. These ARE NOT LEVEL by any means, and are not flat across the top but that's what I got. Lets call this "level issue 1". Setting up the printer out of the box I noticed the bottom part "Frame and build plate Y axis" was not flat on one corner and did not touch the ground on the floor or the table I put it on. I had to stuff some old bills I found in the mail under the foot to stop it from rocking. The gantry, "X axis" is another issue I noticed but as to what issues that brings if any have yet to be determined. I grabber a level and put it on the X axis bar the hotend rides across. was not level. Again watching videos didn't tell me much out side of going into the gcode to make adjustments, witch is outside of my available skills at the moment.. (Remember 5 days in here) Interestingly noone talks about loosing the screw bar on one of the Z steppers and holding one side and moving the other and then locking it down. I tried this on my own and got "Meh" results. I might get something thick and heavy to set the printer on like concrete or something. Then there is the last piece to this puzzle the glass build plate and metal heat plate under. While I think this is going to be one of the main issues to address, I can't really tell you yet because I haven't got a glass plate yet. I've herd the cheep mirrors and anything from the hardware store will work I haven't gone and seen what I can get yet. Online there is something called "Borosilicate galss" I'm not even sure that's what to go with I read it warps under long use so I'll prob just pick up some samples from HomeDepot and try some things out later today.

With all that being said I did still end up with a decent print but I tried a different file and got adhering issues again from the opposite side of the build plate this time. again the "leveling" deal is getting old fast and what I DO NOT WANT is to have to start a print, stop a print readjust, reheat nozzle, and bed try again and pray. If this has to be done EVERYTIME I want to print something I'm gonna lose my mind. I did order the BLtouch sensor that will be in this week sometime so I will get back to you guys and let you know if that helps at all.

Another thing I think I'm going to want for quality of life is a Raspberry Pi and Octiprint. From what I've seen that could save me a HUGE headache from having to stop prints and set up again. Stopping in the middle of a print halts everything and shuts off the heat to the nozzle and bed. You have to turn the nozzle and bed back on in the menu and that is a total PAIN IN THE PRINTER when you only have one shitty clicky knob to navigate with. (I envy the pro owners) Then in most cases you have to prep the glass again.

Anyway I'm glad to be here and I'll stop rambling, I just wanted to get my thoughts out while they were fresh in my mind. Hope to meet some cool people. I hope this helps anyone new that stumbles across this and feel free to jump in, maybe we can help eachother out! Any vets with advice please don't be shy!

cheap chinese printers are notorious for having un-flat beds.
No amount of bed levelling can compensate for a non-flat bed.

You have 2 main options.
1) replace with a flat bed - glass is good - as long as it's from a decent supplier. Cheap glass can be as unflat as cheap aluminium.
Personally I like aluminium beds - but then I do a,ot of work for a local engineering company who specialise in aluminium products - so I don't pay for my aluminium ;-)

2) install a multipoint bed 'levelling' system.
Basically a sensor topographically maps the bed and adjusts the z axis during printing. It DOES NOT make the bd level. but it will improve orints.

Not sure what board the cr10s ships with these days - but you should be able to add a 3.5 inch
touch screen for about $30.

Not plug and play and you will need to change the settings in the firmware - but having had just about every cheapo screen and button/knob combination going - I can recommend the touchscreen route :-)

The best option is an actually flat bed.
And then replace the levelling knobs with printed knobs that have a nylock locking nut in side. Thatw ay once the bed is level it will STAY level. Otherwise, it's surprising how quickly and often the bed will go out of true.

The 'stop mid print' issue is one that can be adjusted from withing the control panel - there should be a section that sets the behaviour when I print is stopped. Ie: you can tell it to keep the heaters running.
Also in the slicer you can insert or remove the ending g-code that shuts the heater off and keep it running betweem prints.

If you are doing a lot of small prints, or testing settings for different filaments - that can save a fair bit of time.

I'm always amazed at just how fast the temperatures drop - but then this time of year my workshop is around 12-15c anyway :-)

I think I went through your whole post lol
but if I missed anything, let us know :-)

Knobs with nylon nuts... That's the kind of advice I'm here for! That's an amazing suggestion. Not only are they not as tight as I would like them to be, the diameter is on the small side for me. Totally adding that to the "To do list"

Touch screen is also a great idea I didn't think of, guessing the pro screen can be retrofitted to the 10s. I'll have to look into that as well.

I went out to my hardware store to get a piece of glass but none of the 15 year old employees knew how to run the glass cutter lol. I ordered that Borosilicate Glass off Amazon should be here tomorrow. I did get a nice piece of 12x12 marble floor tile that's surprisingly flat but is also very heavy and thick. I don't want to stress out the steppers so I'll prob just wait for the glass to come in.

My Bltouch does come in today so I'm ready to get setup and update the firmware. I think with that and a decent bed I think I'll be in much better standings. the glass that came with this cr-10s has a divot on one side that looks like Tiger Woods tee'd off
of it.

But again happy to be here and thanks for the reply! Already getting some great ideas to try out!

Bear in mind that you don't just want a flat surface - you also want a thermally conductive one :-)

Marble is not very thermally conductive. Unless you get something about 2 mm thick and smooth both sides - that could work.

But there is a reason either glass or aluminium is usually used.

A straightedge across the bed will show any dips or hills. Mine was low in the center so I put a thin 100x100mm piece of paper under the mat.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Axl_Myk

A straightedge across the bed will show any dips or hills. Mine was low in the center so I put a thin 100x100mm piece of paper under the mat.

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Mine had a few dips to say the least lol. I just got piece of Borosilicate glass today fingers crossed!!