I purchased an Ender 3S1 about two weeks ago now, and it seems like I’m having to level the bed after almost every single print.
The prints themselves are turning out fine, I just don’t know how to get my bed to stay level.
I purchased these as I thought they were supposed to help keep the bed in place
have you made sure your adjustment knobs are as tight as possible?
I found that if I tightened all my knobs to max I could, then leveled by loosening some and adjusting the z offset, it would stay there for much longer.
Especially with those rubber-ish things. They seem to have a lot more expansion and contraction than the higher end springs.
I’ll give this a shot, I was under the impression that you start with them as uncompressed as possible
Something I had happen to me: make sure there isn’t a cable or something bumping the adjuster wheels as the print bed moves back and forth.
It might depend on how you’re taking off the prints from the plate
That’s what I was wondering, it’s a pretty large print taking up most of the build plate. Since the bed is magnetic it takes a little bit of work to get it off
It could be a lot of things. Temperature is a big one, are you letting the bed heat up completely for a consistent amount of time before each print, could heat be impacting your measurements, some things measure different when heated a bit? You probably aren’t printing enclosed, but my voron for example expands upwards almost an entire layer over the first hour of printing. Is there an intermittent air flow that could be impacting how hot your bed really is? Have you verified there is no slop or backlash in your z lead screws and connections? I had decent results on my sidewinder using POM anti backlash nuts. Same for the stability of your measuring tool. Have you checked that it’s not z tilt from turning off the motors between prints?
The bed is completely heating before each print, I just about always let it preheat and do something else before I start the print
It is not enclosed, would that make that much of a difference? I’m talking like one print turns out great for the entire duration and then I go to print again and the first layer won’t even stick.
Not sure what you’re even asking with the other questions about slop, backlash, and z tilt. Will have to look into those
I ran into this with my e3v2 a LOT. Are you heating up the bed and nozzle before you level? You may have answered that and I missed it. Also, I’m not sure how well those silicon things work, I did the “yellow springs” and then make them all equally tight, then level by loosening. Another thing to check- is your build surface flat? Check when cold and hot. My glass bed wound up warping up near the middle ever so slightly and that would be enough to make a batch of moms spaghetti. I was able to get it working well for a while, then it somehow shit its pants into the silicone sock and mucked up the whole hotend with nice black pla+.
I am heating before I level, I’ve spent many many hours on it today and finally got something
Depending on how it goes when this print finishes I might switch back to the springs
Getting bl touch was the best thing that happened to my ender 3. And didnt take long to install either. 100% worth it.
The S1 comes with a CR Touch already installed, still have the problem
That’s really strange. I run 6 Ender-3 S1 printers at work and tend to only level them if there is an issue or we change build plates… maybe once a month at most, and we print a lot. I did go through the process of leveling with the knobs and sliding a piece of paper under the nozzle to get it just right, but when they print well, all is good.
My old prusa i3 style printer would lose sync between two Z motors after turning off steppers. I fixed it by mounting breaks simmilar to this
I have an Ender 3 Pro and bed leveling was the bane of my life. I’ve more or less conquered it by using heavier springs that keep their compression and not going too tight on each corner. I also use Klipper and a BL Touch to generate a bed mesh to compensate if one corner is higher than the others.
