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Manual bed leveling R2

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Redriche, Jul 13, 2017.

  1. Redriche

    Redriche Member

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    So when doing the bed calibration wizard the two thumb screws on the bottom back of the bed are completely loose and the back of the bed is not close enough to the hot end. The front of the bed I am able to adjust no problem. Is there a way to fix this? Or yet another damaged area of the printer due to UPS playing kickball during shipping?


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  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Post a picture?
     
  3. Redriche

    Redriche Member

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    Not at the moment.


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  4. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    sounds like you need to tighten all 3 of them and redo your z offset wizard. (the adjustments need to be adjustments). I dont have a R2 so I cant be of more help than that. Maybe with some pictures when you can?
     
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  5. Ed Ferguson

    Ed Ferguson Active Member

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    Redriche -

    My R2 front screws were loose when the printer arrived.

    Their purpose of course is to get the bed reasonably level enough for the IR Probe & software to do their magic and map the bed at the beginning of each print.

    I would first tighten all four screws, then run the "Bed Calibration" Wizard. This way you have maximum travel in the adjusters to work with. Unless something really got damaged, you should be able to level the bed manually.

    Next, run the "Z-Offset" wizard. This feeler gauge process gets the offset close enough to run the following step.

    Finally, run the "Fine Tune Offset" wizard. It prints a straight line. Use the up/down buttons to move the bed as needed. It then prints another line. Repeat adjustments until you have a semi-compressed line that sticks. I use the plastic stylus to nudge the printed line each time. If it's not sticking, jog the bed up slightly and test again. Don't over-compress; you just want enough to get the line to stick. When finished, press Save. My Fine Tune Offset ended up being -7.50
     
  6. Seamus

    Seamus Member

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    This may sound silly, but check the bed assembly for packing tape.

    I had a heck of a time getting my printer calibrated. It wasn't until I was running a test print, sitting down at the desk, that I looked over and saw a piece of packing tape still stuck to the bottom of the back of the Z stage assembly, that was not visible from the top with the stage lowered.

    I removed the tape, recalibrated, and it's worked beautifully ever since.
     
  7. Brandon Groves

    Brandon Groves New Member

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    I have the same problem, any time try to run the Bed Calibration Wizard, it only works on the front left and front right. When it moves to the back right or left adjustments, the extruder doesn't move down close enough to the bed. When i try to adjust the back screws, they run out of adjustment and the bed is still to far away from the extruder.

    I don't believe this is a problem with the printer, rather i think it is a software problem in the wizard, because i have no problem printing, the only issue is i can't get an accurate adjustment with the screws on the bed. I just have to guess at where they should be adjusted to.

    They way i guessed at it was, to loosen the screws all the way, then to just give them about one turn on each corner.

    I had to email support this morning to get a new bed pogo pin board and I included info on this problem as well.
     
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  8. Kilrah

    Kilrah Well-Known Member

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    Tighten the screws (nearly, no forcing) fully. Run the Z offset wizard (kind of a dummy run, no need to be precise, 1mm off is fine). THEN run the bed cal wizard, it will go a few mm below the known Z offset at which point you'lll have enough adjustment with the screws. Once that's done run a Z offset wizard again, for good this time.

    Use "manual" for the bed cal wizard, it's easy enough and you can go back and forth to any position freely which is much more convenient.
     
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  9. jwmueller

    jwmueller Active Member

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    Just got a printer back from repair and UPS had it upside down in the truck, so yay more bent rods and I can't level the bed for anything. No matter what height I try and set with the screws one corner just refuses to move with the screw.

    I can push it down, but then it moves straight back up. It is driving me bonkers! It is the corner that has the cable, so I think in some manner that is causing something to bind. I have played with the cable and the zip-tie with no luck.

    UPS is killing me with these bent rods, it is enough to cause the extruder to wobble up and down as it travels across the bed. So you can't get any consistent first layer adhesion. :( :( :(

    Edit - here is some bent rod video.
     
  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    If you want ideas post detailed pictures

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  11. jwmueller

    jwmueller Active Member

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    I just took apart the whole bed, and everything is mostly flat it does have some wobble to it when I put it on flat glass. The plastic X brace that holds the magnets is not perfect but close enough to not be any issue. I have it really close now, but it won't stay consistent just by moving from corner to corner it is then off again without touching the screws. My PEI is worse than I thought, lots of bubbles on a few corners, going to heat up the bed now and see if I can work all of them out.
     
  12. Kilrah

    Kilrah Well-Known Member

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    Note that since the bed is pretty rigid and with 4 corners you've got a redundant support point the screws will only make minor adjustments. You need to first make sure to adjust them so the bed doesn't rock, and then work from there with only relatively small deviations. If the bed rocks again once adjusted you need to correct those that don't touch anymore, and continue from there.
     
  13. JeffreyB

    JeffreyB Member

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    You may have run into what I had. When you turn the thumb nuts the bed doesn't move. I found that the hex heads of those long bolts are a little too small and will rotate in the plastic hex of the bed support that is supposed to keep them from turning. So the bolts just slip when you turn the thumb nuts.
     
  14. jwmueller

    jwmueller Active Member

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    I had no issues with it prior to the return shipping on the bed level, so just something odd with UPS I guess. Box was upside down in the truck and once I checked the inside boxes they were badly shifted and had pretty decent damage.

    I did check the nuts to make sure they were not spinning as I had that issue a few weeks back. Now just for more added fun the bed is timing out and giving me an error when trying to heat up to print the filament clips file (which has a bed temp of 90C).

    I did print two Benchy boats, one was the stock with a raft and the other was from Simplify3D at a higher resolution. Overall the surface finish is ok, much better than it was. Maybe the bent rods are in sync with each other? LOL Going to run one of my normal prints this morning to see how that turns out.
     
  15. DavidR

    DavidR Member

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    This has happened to me before and I know exactly what the issue is. It's not a software problem. A symmetrical issue can occur when instead of not being too high towards the back it comes in too low and drills into the bed. Note that during the entire bed calibration wizard the extruder itself stays at the same height (absolute, not relative to the bed)---it doesn't vary per corner.The height it goes to is determined by the current z-offset value. I spent a long time typing up the reason why this happens just now and decided its too difficult to articulate, instead I'll just mention how to solve this problem:

    The general source of the problem is that you are starting out with your bed too unlevel, with the rear screws starting out too near to their maximum amount and the front side of the bed too high up relative to the rear side of the bed. You don't want all four screws to appear equally screwed in---that guarantees the bed is unlevel.

    You can do two things (#1 is best with #2 only if it doesn't work):

    1.) Make sure all four screws have some tolerance (on the order of at least 3mm) going in both directions. Next try to visually level the bed (don't go by how far the screws are screwed in) by twisting the screws in a manner that maintains that tolerance (in general lowering the height of the rear corners and raising the height of the front ones will work). Run the z-offset wizard ( when fixing to do a bed calibration I will generally run mine to the point of slight resistance and then lower it by .05mm--this helps reduce the chances of it drilling into the bed during calibration if any of the other corners are heigher than that one). Try running bed calibration again.

    2.) Use manual controls to determine whichever corner is the lowest and use that corner to set the z-offset value. Then screw the other three corners to a point lower than that corner. Run the bed calibration wizard again and it will now start out a height closest to the corner having the least tolerance.
     
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  16. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    As always :) even the R1 days ... manual leveling is a really good first step.
    It is more difficult (or less obvious) on the R2 (and even worse on the C2) but needs to be done.
    Sure, you can use mesh or ubl and not do it, but frankly getting it as trammed as you can before it runs the automatic sampling is a win :)
     
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