Bed levelling and inconsistent print quality

Ender Series Creality Ender-3 V2
1

Desperately looking for help before I scrap my printer!

I have an Ender 3 V2 with a number of modifications, spec is as follows:

  1. Main board is version 4.2.2
  2. Bed springs and thumb wheel adjsuters upgraded
  3. Creality SPrite Pro Extruder added
  4. BLTouch
  5. Creality textured PEI build plate
  6. Latest version of Klipper installed (on Raspberry Pi 3B)
  7. Latest version of Fluidd and Moonraker installed
  8. KAMP installed

This is the procedure I follow to level the bed and set the Z offset:

  1. Using the SCREW_TILT_CALCULATE macro to manually level the build plate with the 4 screws
  2. Use the PROBE_CALIBRATE macro to set the initial z offset using a 0.04mm feeler gauge
  3. Print a single layer test print at the centre of the build plate and use the controls in Fluidd until I get what looks like the best first layer and save the settings
  4. Perform a bed mesh calibrate (global not yet using KAMP)
  5. Print the single layer test print in the centre of the build plate again.
  6. Print the single layer test print in the front left corner of the build plate.

After step 6 is where things go pear shaped and the test print in the front left of the build plate fails completely. Then when I try the test print in the centre of the build plate again it works but the final print is nowhere near as good as it was during setup.

I cannot get any consistency between prints or between different areas of the build plate. I use a small test print in various locations on the build plate as I cannot get a standard test print that covers the entire build plate to build! It invariable fails away from the centre.

I have repeatedly performed the manual bed levelling ( even using a dial indicator) and I am confident that it is as level as it possible could be!

I have spent the last 3 or 4 days trying to get this to work but have failed miserably! I have checked the printer over and gone back through the assembly instructions to make sure everything is installed and adjusted correctly. I have had mixed success with this printer previously but had not used it for several months and this issue started when I came to use it again and decided to re-calibrate it again as it had been idle for so long!

I’m at the stage now where I am seriously contemplating binning it and giving up on 3D printing so, can anyone help me here. Am I doing something wrong or am I missing something? I’m about as frustrated as I could possibly get with this now. What and why are things changing between prints? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated

1 Like
2

well, here is my lvl’ing steps. for my ender 3 v2. and the upgrades installed.

upgrades

duel z axis with belt

upgraded to yellow bed springs

went to a direct drive system using the FDM stepper

all metal filament feeder

4.2.7 MB

side rail counter sunk LED lighting

heat sinks on all the stepper motors

currently building the cable drag chain as i can. in between other prints.

it took me a few weeks to finally get this thing dialed in properly. but once i did its been a screaming demon ever since., great consistency with the longest print time so fare of 3 1/2 days without issue.

the biggest concern is making sure both sides of the gantry are even and lvl. make sure both extruded columns are the same length. otherwise one side will track up or down by about 0.05mm. enough to knock off any lvling attempt. then make sure the gantry itself is lvl on both sides at its lowest point of travel and highest point. adjust tension and drive screws to make sure nothing binds. and also the wheels of the gantry need to be snug not tight. the bracket connecting the drive screws to the gantry. those 4 screws need to be just loose enough to allow for horizontal movement but no vertical movement. next is the fun part

bed lvling

  1. screw all four corners of the bed all the way down. till the springs are completely compressed. doing two corners at a time raise the bed till you have released roughly half of the spring tension. and start the pretemp on the bed to 60c. save the offset.

    2. autohome followed by z-axis offset (set the offset with either a feeler gauge of piece of standard notebook paper). 0.02mm is my starting offset. which if you followed my instructions so fare should give you around a -1.45 offset. what we want is to be right in the middle so there is plenty of wiggle room in either direction for the tramming process.

    3. with the bed roughly lvl and in the middle of its adjustment range and your z-offset set open the tramming wizard and run it at least 5 to 7 times. i run it till i get 0.0 in all 4 corners but tolerance is to have 4 corners within 0.3mm to each other. you can do this manually if you wish by disabling the steppers and manually moving the print head just after finishing your z offset to all four corners and using a feeler gauge or paper and adjust using the wheels under the bed till you feel drag on whatever your using. if your using paper it will be enough drag to make it feel like the print head is skipping across the top of the paper but wont bunch up the paper when when pushed under the head and leaves no marks on the paper.

  2. at this point the bed is as lvl as possible without going to extreme measures and purely unnecessary lvl’s of tweeker precision that only exists in there minds.. since perfection isnt real.. it only exists to drive smart ppl insane. lolz its time to build the bed mesh.

    5. automesh is where the touch sensor will take a probing of several spots on the bed and record the difference allowing the firmware to make Realtime adjustments to the printhead on the fly ensuring a lvl print from one side to the other and front to back. allowing for very high lvls of precision. the more probing spots you use the better the mesh grid will be. minimum of 5x5 points is required/recommended for best results.

printing settings will vary a bit depending on the type of bed you have and the material your using. for me

hotend temp with PLA + is 215 on the first layer then drops to 210 with a bed temp of 60 using a glass textured bed from creality. i do use a standard adhesion promotion spray to make sure everything stays in place without warping. thats it in a nutshell. i will most likely make a thread that will have some standard settings and adjustments for the ender 3 v2 that will help improve your results and make post printing clean up mush easier.