Makerfarm Calibration Thread of Grand Proportions

[gmay3]

2. Slic3r Extrusion Multiplier Calibration
Guide: http://reprap.org/wiki/Calibration
Calibration items: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5573 - 20mm box

So you calibrated the extruder E steps as described above. That process made sure that you tuned the motor to run through the length of filament you asked it to. In my experience, I have been able to get it pretty close but not perfect, but fear not, this is what we're going to do next, fine tune the filament coming out of the nozzle.

So what you are going to do is slice this 20mm box with 100% rectilinear infill. (I printed mine at 0.2mm layer thickness) This is basically a extrusion volume test, since you are filling the whole box up with plastic, there's no room for extra plastic to go like there would be if you were using a 10 percent infill or so. What this test does is print a solid box, so when the print is done you will know that the printer is extruding too much if the top of the box is domed upward. If the box is domed downward you are extruding too little. If the box is flat on top then you are calibrated!

The adjustment to make is in Slic3r to calibrate this parameter is "Extrusion Multiplier". This is probably set at a default value of 1. When I printed this with "Extrusion Multiplier" set to 1, my box I had extruded too much plastic and was domed on top. I changed the Extrusion Multiplier to 0.9, resliced the box, and was able to get a perfect flat top on my box.

If you guys have any questions let me know!
gmay3