Bed Leveling Assist Tool - Ender 3

cults3d

Currently only designed for Ender 3 / CR-10 printers, this innovative accessory makes leveling your print bed a more visually engaging experience. Like most ingenious inventions, this tool was conceived by accident while attempting something else. I discovered that a helpful device to aid in bed leveling had been inadvertently created. I never found the "paper method" appealing due to its requirement for constant movement of the printhead and reliance on feel to level the bed. Using this tool provides a visual representation of your adjustments, combined with a tactile response. Note: This tool won't determine the correct height for the bed; it will only verify if it's level. Additional steps are necessary to achieve accurate leveling. Note: If you don't fully secure the paper to the print bed, acknowledge that it may bend and warp as you move further away from its original position. I find slight variations in line quality acceptable; extruded plastic is more forgiving than a pen or marker when it comes to print surface/levelness. You might need an M3x6 screw, depending on your writing tool of choice. The photo of the bed leveling test was taken immediately after using the Bed Leveling Assist Tool. As skirts were printing, I made live adjustments by running my finger over the skirt when the printhead was out of the way and adjusting the bed corner up or down based on whether the skirt seemed too tall or too flat. Once skirts finished printing, I stopped live-tuning and let the printer print squares. I only printed the leveling test once to demonstrate its effectiveness. It showed that my bed is slightly warped but not significantly enough to affect prints. The top left corner of the bottom left square was a little thinner than it should be, while the center square was perfect, along with the bottom right square. The top left square seemed like the bottom right corner was low and had some scarring. The top right corner was fine except for the bottom right corner of that square; it got too thin and had heavy scarring. USING THE TOOL: Step 1: Install a pen or other writing instrument in the large hole, with the tip pointing downwards. I find that a marker-pen works best with this method. Step 2: Next, install the tool on the x-carriage by sliding it onto the open area to the left of the hotend housing. Step 3: Adjust the pen in the tool so that its tip is below your printer's nozzle tip. Step 4: Secure the pen in place with an M3 screw if needed. Be cautious not to damage the pen when tightening the screw. Step 5: Affix a piece of paper to your print bed using clips or tape to keep it flat. Step 6: Position your printhead above the paper in any corner you choose. Once done, use the printer (or your slicing/control software) to begin lowering the height of the printhead until the pen tip touches the paper. Make adjustments by 0.1mm when close to the paper. Carefully move the x-carriage back and forth in that corner to see if you can draw a line. Raise or lower the printhead by 0.1mm if the line is too heavy or too thin. Step 7: Once happy with the lines drawn in the chosen corner, slowly move your printhead by hand (while the Z-axis is engaged) to different corners, making adjustments to the bed leveling knobs until you can draw uniform lines anywhere on the print bed. You're done! Now you should have a very well leveled print bed. Remove the tool from the x-carriage and recover your writing tool if desired. Now... The good news is that your bed should be perfectly level already, allowing you to make uniform adjustments to all leveling knobs to raise or lower the bed by the correct amount. The bad news is that you may need to adjust the print bed depending on how far away your nozzle is.