Quick Calibration Prints

thingiverse

Many of the calibration pieces on Thingiverse consume excessive amounts of time and filament, which is why I created some for personal use and decided to share them with others who might find them useful. Best results are achieved by following this order. Flow calibration: Print in vase mode or spiral outer contour to ensure a single line thickness and minimize warping from being too close or far from the build plate. Take several width measurements, then average them. Divide the slicer width by the measured width to calculate the flowrate multiplier. 1st layer calibration / z-height calibration: Start with 0.2mm and increase by 0.1mm increments until you reach a height of 1mm. Use 0.2mm for the first layer height and 0.1mm for your slicer settings. Adjust the build plate until it prints properly. Some printer firmware has an override for z-height. XY calibration: This piece is designed to be long enough that some errors are minimized. On a perfect print, you should see multiples of ten. Measure and compensate for some error. I measured each notch's width and recorded the error (for example, 0.43 measured - 0.4 ideal = 0.03 error). Then, subtract half of the first notch's error from the second measurement (110.07 - 0.02/2 = 110.045), then divide by the ideal and multiply by 100% (0.045 / 110 * 100% = 0.409%). Discard any high or low measurements and average them. Adjust your steps per mm accordingly by multiplying by x = 1/(1 - 0.00409). Z calibration: This piece should work like the XY calibration but mine had essentially no error, so I didn't use it. It's designed to be printed in vase mode (which may require a substantial brim).