Thank you soooo much for making this video. I am assembling my first ever 3D printer today, the Ender3 V2 All of the videos I was watching to help assemble all said the same thing, "At this point, make sure the X gantry and the top bar are parallel and measure the same from one side to the other. Ok, now moving on......" NONE of them addressed what to do if you had 3mm of difference from one side to the other. I disassembled, tweaked A and B screws, reassembled, remeasured..... three times. Then I discovered this video. Eureka! I used the top bar method. 1) I cut two identical 3" blocks off of a 1x4 PVC board I had in the garage. (ANY two identical objects such as the CD cases he used will suffice, but narrower objects let you grasp both bars with one hand and hold them together. 2) I placed one piece on top of the X gantry and raised it up until it was touching the top bar. 3) While holding the two bars against the block, I drilled TWO holes using the existing access holes as a guide. 4) I loosened all four of the screws (A,B,C, & D). 5) Then I pulled the X gantry and top bar tight against the two blocks with one hand while tightening the four screws with the other. BOOM!! Within ten minutes, I had the two bars parallel and exactly the same distance.
You just saved my sanity! I have been trying to find a way to level the X axis for a couple days. It was literally the two right side screws…I just started crying with joy! Thank you thank you thank you!!!
This is one of the best technical channels on RUclips. Author actually explaines and teaches the viewers, with a lot of details and deep explanation. Thank you so much.
This video should be on the SD Card of every Ender 3 sold with Creality naturally paying you handsomely for your efforts! You nailed it with this! It is obligatory viewing! :-)
Great information. This video has been the most helpful to me. Started troubleshooting my Ender 3 v2 after after consistent print problems where right side of bed would be about 1-2 mm too high leading to nozzle touching (and sometimes scraping) bed. Leveled bed using every possible method (and bl-touch with jyers extended firmware). Nothing worked on bed leveling so I backed up and looked at gantry levelness. It was off...dummy side off by 1.5 mm. Great! Readjusted eccentric nuts, tightened this, loosened that...still off. So I backed up again and checked z rails (vertical left and right extrusions of frame). They are the exact same size and not bent. Put them back on the "legs" and measured inside distance between them from bottom (near legs) and compared to the inside distance to top (horizantal bar on top of frame) and it was off by 1.5 mm! I mention all that to say this. I found a manufacturing problem not mentioned anywhere that I can find on youtube, creality, forums, social media. I'm putting it here to help anyone else who may have tried everything to no avail. It took me a week to figure this out. My vertical left and right z rails were not perfectly square because of high center in "leg" extrusion. So, creality creates the base in the form of an H. The two legs are connected to perpendicular extrusion by way of 8 screws (4 on each side). When those 4 holes were drilled into the "legs" during manufacturing it warped the extrusion making the middle a bit high center. When I put z rail (or anything flat) on top of the leg above those screw holes, it didn't lay perfectly flat...there was an ever so slight wiggle from left to right. This occurred on both sides. There was enough wiggle to produce up to a 2mm difference from bottom to top. Hope this makes sense. My solution was to shim (ever so slight) both z rails where the connect to legs. I've seen this before, but that was to compensate for uneven lengths. Same solution applies to compensate a high center problem on legs where the z rail connects. this was very frustrating for me and I hope it might save someone else some time. Thanks for your video!
I was beginning to think that I was the only person out of the thousands of Creality owners to notice that the eccentrics on the x-gantry fight against each other! I had never seen anyone on RUclips discuss the issue until this video. Nice job explaining the issue and fixes. BTW, you don't have to remove the electronics cover to do the level-to-the-legs method. You can place the spacers on the legs just in front of the vertical posts. I use a couple of wooden blocks for this. You may have to remove the control panel to get the needed space.
Same here. I figured out the hard way, by failing a bunch of prints when I tried to ignore it. Kind of have to align them each in isolation and then once more as a pair to really dial those wheels into a nice snug but not overly snug fit.
I'm late to the party as usual, but your video has been more helpful than any I've seen. You came up with the same solution I did, which is to drill access holes in the verticals. This is a really shitty design, but anytime cost is the object, this is what you get. I've spent 2 days trying to get my Sovol SV04 mechanics aligned properly. I had to shim the verticals out by 1mm to match the wheel width and get everything square. I still don't have 6 wheel contact. Out comes the drill! Thanks for showing me am not quite as crazy as everybody says I am.
Unless I have it wrong, you drilled a hole to access the B bolt but refer to is as the A bolt throughout the video (25:40). Drilling out the B bolt puts a hole in the channel of the extrusion but for A it would interfere with where the rollers meet the extrusion. Using B as the fulcrum makes sense but I think I'll have to use A and drill for access to B (which is what it looks like you do in the video; but, it's not what you're saying). Anyway, great video and it's been helpful
Thanks a bunch Alex for your work. I have the E3pro sitting in the box for a while waiting for a proper vid like yours to explain the nooks and crannies of this printer. Outstanding work.
Add a 0:00 marker to the start of your time index to add those makers to the videos timeline. This is how it works AFAIK. I once had a video up with that for a few days before the line line markers showed up.
I know this is from a long time ago, I just got this 3d printer for Christmas but the motor side the part I have to connect the bar where A is, the the like screws are backwards. The nuts are in front instead of in the back. I don’t know if I explain that well but I don’t know what to do and I don’t think it was said in the video unless I didn’t pay attention well enough.
Huh. The 8 screws affixing the left and right base extrusions parallel to Y-axis... Turns out they were overtightened to heck from the factory, which made the extrusions bow, so my left and righr Z-axis extrusions never sat flush. No wonder I've never been able to get everything square! Thankfully it seems that having backed them off a little bit, the bowing has gone away. But now I'm worried the screws won't stay tight because their locking washers are now entirely flat. Suggestions? New locking washers? A metric ton of thread locker?
Recipe for success... Take the absolute best ender 3 calibration tutorial, Add in a good amount (but not too much) of comedic relief, sprinkle some clear editing and top it all off with great visual aids and BAM. you have this masterpiece. For real... If you're having issues with what seams like incurable whacky prints, follow this video BEFORE you throw your ender out the window and/or kill it with fire 😂
This is awesome information. I have a weird situation where, when I level my bed, the left and right sides of the bed are fine but the center of the bed is low. Mind you, I have a flat glass bed surface installed. Is it possible that my x-axis is bent in a slight inverted "U" shape? Is there anything else it could be? HELP!!!!!
Did you confuse A and B in the tutorial? Because surely A is the fulcrum as B is the only one I can tighten when achieving level thru our newly drilled hole?
I use bubble leveler to level my X gantry. You can also check if it has changed. It is accurate enough for this job, just remember to not level it towards the ground but use the top bar to get the reference point. If you use some kind of liquid glue for bed adhesion, it is good idea to actually make the printer be level in reference to earth too, that way the glue won't pool up in one corner. I use DIY magic goo (IPA100%, glue stick dissolved to the point of saturation, add 5% more IPA and pour it thru a mesh to remove all the non-dissolved glue particles, store in a jar large enough that you can store a brush inside the jar, use the brush to spread the goo).
You made the hole to access screw B (because a hole to access screw A would be more complicated, probably needing a full disassembly and a drill press), but you also said to use it as fulcrum. Any problem in using screw A as fulcrum and tightening screw B through a hole?
My printer came and I assembled it and on of the corners were WAY off level could this affect my print even if I propped it with an appropriately sized object? I can't seem to get it to print properly even after hours of hand tuing the thing
Another interesting thing is the position of eccentric nut. When adjusting wheel, You can have nut "looking" up or down. This affects where wheel touching rail, relative to other two. I noticed this when tried to align X and had one of outer wheels little more loose than others. So, I made them "looking" same way and now all 6 wheels seems to be tight.
I always do the eccentric nuts before bolting them to the x-axis extrusion. This way all 6 wheel touch and are equally tensioned without being pulled or pushed unevenly or loaded by weight. I tighten B screw first dont bother adding the hot end as that adds weight. I square the X extrusion to the leg that's on the same side as B. Then tighten A and B fully. Next I slide back on the hot end. Then slide on the passive set of wheel on the other leg. I support only the Z motor side of the X gantry without the z motor or z rod installed. Similar to the CD case but the support is resting inline with the leg so it'snot touching the x-axus extrusion which might cause it to go out of alignment. Now you can move the passive block with the C and D screws as needed to get the scews on, but don't tighten the screws. Next install the top bar. With the top bar tightened you can tighten the C and D screws on the passive block. I've assembled 2 printers with this method and it not only keeps everything square and evenly gapped but it also resolved binding with the Z rod since The Z rod is installed last instead of before the x gantry.
Most of the shims I see in Thinkiverse move the motor further towards the back to make the threaded rod parallel to the vertical strut when viewed from the side. Instead of a front-to-back problem addressed by these solutions, I have a left-to-right problem. When viewed from the back, my threaded rod is slanted towards the right. To make my threaded rod parallel to the vertical strut when viewed from back to front, the z-axis motor needs to be moved in around 2mm towards the center of the printer. A motor mounting bracket with oval screw holes may work, but I haven't been able to locate one to print. Do you have a recommendation to correct this alignment problem in my printer?
I noticed that in my z axis, there's a difference of 0.3mm from the bottom to the top, there's no way to ajust it to run well. I will need to drill a little bit to the side to make the bolts to be in the right position. And use steel wool to fill the gap.
Alex - love your vids - no nonsense - have an issue with my ender3 - put a direct drive ontop of swiss hot end - prints great until 3/4s or so then flares out a line or 3 then prints on normaly....any ideas ?tightened everything up etc no joy........thank you
Thank you for making such great videos. I checked my first ender with these methods, and found it perfect. Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe its because I perfectly flushed the x-axis brackets to the extruded aluminum with my patented calibrated left thumb. I eye-balled the alignment of the lead screw to the left inside edge of the extrusion to make it as close to plumb as I could manage too.
Why not reverse the a and b screwing orientation? The v slot on the gantry(?) is unused and you could still get to the nuts with a wrench (provided ones at least). If anyone has any ideas i'd like to hear them out. Heck maybe this has been done. I just got inyo 3d printing and adjusting the ender 3 max is a similar pain.
I have an S1 Pro, and it just shifted all the prints backwards on the plate about 2 inches overnight. Same Programs I've been using for over a year, suddenly are completely out of center. I don't even know where to begin, because it homes itself all the time. Just moves back until it hits the limit switch. I'm very confused. Everyone who writes about this online references the slicer. But it's not the Slicer. I haven't changed the G-Code. It's exactly the same.
My Ender 3 had the bracket for the z rod collar improperly bent and also drilled waaaaaay out of any possible alignment with the stepper motor (Would have had to make a mount with a 1/8th" offset.) Ended up having to preform percussive maintenance and aggressive drilling.
I do not think my "search-fu" is strong in finding the precise CAD model files used in this video... Can you direct me to them? I may have missed them when searching the comments, so if you need to point me to a link in one of them (that has not been taken down), that would be awesome. :)
I have some Problems with my X axis Belt on my Ender 3. When the head runs left the belt goes towards the Steppermotor. When the head runs right the belt runs away from the Steppermotor and scrubs the rail. The results are vibrationlines all over my prints. What could be the source of this problem?
I used 6mm x 10mm slot nuts on both sides of the gantry. I also when I aligned it . I have 2 z-axis screws. I removed them and setup my ends to roll free .This is with out the extruder on it. I set it up first on the left side without the right. I used spacer I made to set the height. Once I got it straight I added the other bar and rechecked. Then reassembled, Also use med thread locker. Once I Got it all together. I put the extruder back on. The slot nuts on the right allows you to keep all wheels in contact.
Would love to see what you can do similar for the alignment of an Ender 5. I have one of those and the box frame makes it difficult to do a lot of the alignment. There’s too many constraints with the existing screw holes to get perfect alignment (in my experience) so I’m often trying to split the difference to get the imperfections symmetrical across the axis in question . Anyways, good stuff.
whats the margin of error you accept for left to right?. My printer has a .5mm deviation from left to right. i cant seem to get it closer. Awesome guide by the way. i also wondered why they not simply put a hole in the z-rail :D
Have you ever noticed the hole in the right side is in the correct position if it were on the left? I feel like this is a design flaw and that hole was supposed to be on the left specifically for this purpose. My solution was to square the right side first then flip it upside down and use that existing hole to tighten the left side square while I’m thinking, “This must be a mistake?”.
Very useful info for tuning and aligning the Ender 3 frame. As a tool & die maker, this is an area of expertise, so kudos for this technically accurate video. I was pleased that with my recent Ender 3 purchase, I found the machining on the extrusions square, evenly sized and with good hole locations. I agree that squaring the X axis extrusion with the motor-side X axis bracket (with the Z axis rollers) is important to the geometry of the frame, and ultimately getting consistent bed tram. Save some time and get it right during initial assembly. [edit] Creality (and others) _could_ fix this issue by providing two eccentric rollers per side on the X axis gantry assembly. The tire tread gage is a great cheap tool. The data output is a standard Mitutoyo digimatic style. The cable type, pinouts and data format are readily available with a search.
I aligned my gantry with the legs rather than the cross beam. My benchy came out good. The cross beam holds the table, which is leveled to the gantry. The important thing is for the gantry to be perpendicular to the Z axis.
I don't have a link, but OneBadMarine aka Luke Hatfield wrote procedure that many people use, and 'Edge of Tech' channel walks through the procedure from it step by step on his channel. There is a link there. I could do a written procedure of what I have here though, but not till next week
These solutions seem solid, thanks dude. Wish i knew them before i put it together. However, the prints i get look real fine. I haven't printed anything larger than a palm sized dog, and some bolts n nuts though. I am still doubting i got my aligment as right as it could be, obviously, so i am looking for a way to confirm my concerns. Have you got any idea for a test print that could help me pin point a slight misaligment in my machine? My main concern is X gantry and vertical extrusion aligment since Z rod doesn't seem to bind. I don't want to touch any bolts before i know i absolutely have to. Anyway, loved your vid.
So i stopped being lazy and measured that x gantry is 1.15 mm taller on lcd side, when it sits 155mm above the bed. Also, the y axis is ever so slightly twisted towards x axis, creating something like 88°. Should i be concerned about such orders of magnitude, or better leave it be in case i only make it worse?
I did want to say, I have been adjusting my E-Steps and found that if you have a bondtech replacment drive and set it all up to extrude exactly 100mm I need to reduce my cura FLOW to 90% otherwise i get over extrusion artifacts, have you had a look at that?
I'll go further and guess that modern slicers have all added a % of over extrusion to compensate for crappy extruder drives from the original rep-rap era.
@@jakefromstatefarm8545 Yea, very valid point, but if my calipers are giving me 1.75mm average for all the types. I understand a little adjustment is still required of the 1-5% level is acceptable and Prusa Slicer even goes so far as to say if you need to adjust more than 10% then something is wrong. If I start with a basic Ender 3 with 93 steps per mm and measure my filament at 93mm moved for 100 asked, and I adjust that 93 to 100 and get 100mm when asked then that implies that Creality KNOWS that 100 mm is too much and they deliberately offset it to 93 to compensate for the fact that extruders are, over time getting better. That or I am so far off base I have lost sight of the landing pad
@@foxabilo No, there is no overextrusion in the slicers except maybe the smallest little one where the infill connects to the perimeter, where the overextrusion should all land on the infill side rather than the outside. I believe you are experiencing a different issue. I can't tell you what it is without seeing and feeling everything, and maybe not even then because shit is complex. First thing to check is whether you're possibly experiencing a different amount of slippage depending on the feedrate, making the steps/mm nonconstant. All printers without adjustable preload spring tend to have slightly too little idler tension for my taste, and it gets weakened with time because something is happening to the spring, they're usually not very well hardened springs, and there's a significant reduction in spring tension on a 6 month to a year timeline. I think the reason manufacturers set with extrusion steps/mm set too small is simply because they source their extruder pinion from wherever, one week it's one, another week it's another, and they just err on the safe side because underextruded prints are more visually appealing than overextruded ones. Besides, the remote Bowden extruder, as the nature of things goes, isn't very good at depositing material exactly where you ask it to, it kinda looks almost right, but the exact amount is not right, because there's springiness of the bowden tube, potentially some slip in the couplings, there's springiness of the filament, so it's possible to get underextrusion at one spot and overextrusion at another, like around retracts, moves and speed changes. Indeed your instinct that 10% is too much for comfort and needs to be investigated is quite right.
@@SianaGearz Well I have a bondtech BMG twin drive and it pushes through bang on 100mm when I ask it to, be it at 185C or 205C always spot on, I'd need to check but I believe my steps per mm on the E0 BMG is set to 631 with a 3 to 1 gear ratio and 32 micro steps on a DRV825 at 1090mA not skipping or anything solid as a rock,it just seems to kick out 10% more filament than is needed... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
i been using this printer for about a year now and i literally never even try to level it or square ignorance is bliss i guess, it was ok enough right outside the box (other than bed being convex) and i was happyly hacking it to print beyound the specs in really small scales of prints, to be honest it is way too big for what am i doing with it
If i saw this sooner i may not have sold my ender. It was close to getting good but not quite there. In frustration i went the easy route which is bambu lab.
To align the gantry I printed two cleats to hold the gantry square to the top bar and placed a small spirit level on the gantry to get me close to level and then measured each end before tightening up the bolts, of course, if you only have the one printer it may be the case that your Ender 3 is not printing square so the cleats might not be the correct tool for you, I have another four printers to choose from to print them so that wasn't a problem so I used my most precise printer which is a Pro 3D V-King to print my cleats. + 1 Subs
Alex just for curiosity, are you an engineer? my compliments for your passion and way to explain all, i see on youtube that often 3d printer "specialist" prefer to show their Yoda prints or their new shining printer, you really are technician, precise, mathematician, competent, i dare say the esoteric man of the 3d printer world! Alex please don't print any f.. Yoda! :)
haha, thanks. I have been employed off and on to do engineering-style work, BUT I don't have the papers to claim that title, so out of respect for the folks who do, I just say 'technician'.
Didn't like the loud music at the beginning but I did like the video. My printer was printing good, but I noticed the frame wasn't square so I tried to square it up (without thinking about the bed) and now I can't get the nozzle down to bed close enough.
Ye gads man, you should have 3x the subs of teaching tech, another excellent video, and that's coming from a man with a surface plate and a dial gauge who could see his ender was as pissed as a bishop in a brewery. My Z axis is much happier. And pretty funny too.
Ok I started watching this video and thought that this guy talks a lot. But then by the time I got to the x leveling, I seem to be enjoying the talking.
Man, you are so damn fucking funny plus educational, or viceversa. The "hole" trick just killed me. I thought of doing the same to fiddle with the x-gantry in my CR10S "butt" I didn't had the balls to do it. Now seeing that I'm not the only halfbrained out there, I'll give it a try
No, it's not RS232. RS232 is not clocked, this one is explicitly clocked. Maybe there is some calipers which do RS232, but these China-cheapies do not.
@@foxabilo Sure, interfacing with it with an SPI USART should be easy enough, but it's slow enough that you can do it in a million ways and it'll all be fine. Voltage is a bit of an issue, it's barely even 1.5V for logic high, so that's a small inconvenience.
Good. One of the most stressful listening exercise I have ever had. There are a lot of side comments and 30 minutes. Could've just been option 1,2,3 instead of this is the way I do it etc.
Jesus. Lol I have a love hate relationship with my ender 3. My z axis wasn't moving on layer changes, so I had to lose up the eccentric nut, so now I don't know what I did but now, three of the wheels aren't making contact with the extrusion....god I hate this thing.
Hello dear friend! thanks for your video, you have a like from me. I am writing to you because of one problem that arose with my 3D printer, in particular what happened: I changed the motherboard to a new Creality 4.2.2 And the firmware is marlin. the old motherboard worked well also Z working good but it could not produce temperatures above 230 degrees (this temperature need to strong filaments,not PLA) and I had to change to a new one with a new firmware (the old motherboard was: CR7 Creality and even it was not possible to make a firmware on it). I Thought everything would be fine but I was wrong. It DOES however move during homing and in manual control. This results in the everything getting printed on first layer... please not be lazy to reply if there is any solution to this problem write to me. I tried everything: I changed the wires of stepper motors but Z does not work, although I repeat when I click on auto return home Z works fine on all sides and up and down too. I connected it to the computer and tried to turn on Z but it doesn’t work. please if you have a source of information please share with me. Sincerely, George!
I'm very disappointed with the ender 3 s1, my ender3v2 prints parts much better in quality than the s1, which has a double axis, automatic leveling I'm very disappointed with my ender3 s1, I've already checked all possible parts. , I am suspicious of the Z axis that is not going up enough or going up d+ like this making the lines but I don't have much knowledge to know what it is and how to solve it
In the thumbnail, Alex looks a bit like Sardo Numspa. Simular energy, more than a spitting image 😎 Francis Rossi's son maybe ? 😄 Just kidding, Alex. I like the videos 👍
Thank you soooo much for making this video.
I am assembling my first ever 3D printer today, the Ender3 V2 All of the videos I was watching to help assemble all said the same thing, "At this point, make sure the X gantry and the top bar are parallel and measure the same from one side to the other. Ok, now moving on......"
NONE of them addressed what to do if you had 3mm of difference from one side to the other.
I disassembled, tweaked A and B screws, reassembled, remeasured..... three times.
Then I discovered this video. Eureka!
I used the top bar method.
1) I cut two identical 3" blocks off of a 1x4 PVC board I had in the garage. (ANY two identical objects such as the CD cases he used will suffice, but narrower objects let you grasp both bars with one hand and hold them together.
2) I placed one piece on top of the X gantry and raised it up until it was touching the top bar.
3) While holding the two bars against the block, I drilled TWO holes using the existing access holes as a guide.
4) I loosened all four of the screws (A,B,C, & D).
5) Then I pulled the X gantry and top bar tight against the two blocks with one hand while tightening the four screws with the other.
BOOM!! Within ten minutes, I had the two bars parallel and exactly the same distance.
I LOST IT when you said "I... drilled a hole." Spot on delivery there. Ohhh man.. I needed that.
You just saved my sanity! I have been trying to find a way to level the X axis for a couple days. It was literally the two right side screws…I just started crying with joy! Thank you thank you thank you!!!
This is one of the best technical channels on RUclips. Author actually explaines and teaches the viewers, with a lot of details and deep explanation. Thank you so much.
This video should be on the SD Card of every Ender 3 sold with Creality naturally paying you handsomely for your efforts! You nailed it with this! It is obligatory viewing! :-)
Great information. This video has been the most helpful to me. Started troubleshooting my Ender 3 v2 after after consistent print problems where right side of bed would be about 1-2 mm too high leading to nozzle touching (and sometimes scraping) bed. Leveled bed using every possible method (and bl-touch with jyers extended firmware). Nothing worked on bed leveling so I backed up and looked at gantry levelness. It was off...dummy side off by 1.5 mm. Great! Readjusted eccentric nuts, tightened this, loosened that...still off. So I backed up again and checked z rails (vertical left and right extrusions of frame). They are the exact same size and not bent. Put them back on the "legs" and measured inside distance between them from bottom (near legs) and compared to the inside distance to top (horizantal bar on top of frame) and it was off by 1.5 mm!
I mention all that to say this. I found a manufacturing problem not mentioned anywhere that I can find on youtube, creality, forums, social media. I'm putting it here to help anyone else who may have tried everything to no avail. It took me a week to figure this out.
My vertical left and right z rails were not perfectly square because of high center in "leg" extrusion. So, creality creates the base in the form of an H. The two legs are connected to perpendicular extrusion by way of 8 screws (4 on each side). When those 4 holes were drilled into the "legs" during manufacturing it warped the extrusion making the middle a bit high center. When I put z rail (or anything flat) on top of the leg above those screw holes, it didn't lay perfectly flat...there was an ever so slight wiggle from left to right. This occurred on both sides. There was enough wiggle to produce up to a 2mm difference from bottom to top. Hope this makes sense. My solution was to shim (ever so slight) both z rails where the connect to legs. I've seen this before, but that was to compensate for uneven lengths. Same solution applies to compensate a high center problem on legs where the z rail connects.
this was very frustrating for me and I hope it might save someone else some time. Thanks for your video!
I was beginning to think that I was the only person out of the thousands of Creality owners to notice that the eccentrics on the x-gantry fight against each other! I had never seen anyone on RUclips discuss the issue until this video. Nice job explaining the issue and fixes.
BTW, you don't have to remove the electronics cover to do the level-to-the-legs method. You can place the spacers on the legs just in front of the vertical posts. I use a couple of wooden blocks for this. You may have to remove the control panel to get the needed space.
Same here. I figured out the hard way, by failing a bunch of prints when I tried to ignore it. Kind of have to align them each in isolation and then once more as a pair to really dial those wheels into a nice snug but not overly snug fit.
Was trying up a Tevo last week and couldn't find a vid highlighting all the issues. Perfect!
Must see for every Ender 3 owner. Nice work Alex!
I'm late to the party as usual, but your video has been more helpful than any I've seen. You came up with the same solution I did, which is to drill access holes in the verticals. This is a really shitty design, but anytime cost is the object, this is what you get. I've spent 2 days trying to get my Sovol SV04 mechanics aligned properly. I had to shim the verticals out by 1mm to match the wheel width and get everything square. I still don't have 6 wheel contact. Out comes the drill! Thanks for showing me am not quite as crazy as everybody says I am.
Dude, I really enjoyed watching the video, I was only looking for the best way to align the X axis and ended up watching the whole thing. Fantastic.
Unless I have it wrong, you drilled a hole to access the B bolt but refer to is as the A bolt throughout the video (25:40). Drilling out the B bolt puts a hole in the channel of the extrusion but for A it would interfere with where the rollers meet the extrusion. Using B as the fulcrum makes sense but I think I'll have to use A and drill for access to B (which is what it looks like you do in the video; but, it's not what you're saying). Anyway, great video and it's been helpful
Thanks a bunch Alex for your work. I have the E3pro sitting in the box for a while waiting for a proper vid like yours to explain the nooks and crannies of this printer. Outstanding work.
Add a 0:00 marker to the start of your time index to add those makers to the videos timeline.
This is how it works AFAIK. I once had a video up with that for a few days before the line line markers showed up.
Thanks for this video when you made the hole it looks like it is to access the B screw not the A screw or did I see something wrong. Thanks
I know this is from a long time ago, I just got this 3d printer for Christmas but the motor side the part I have to connect the bar where A is, the the like screws are backwards. The nuts are in front instead of in the back. I don’t know if I explain that well but I don’t know what to do and I don’t think it was said in the video unless I didn’t pay attention well enough.
Drilling that hole to access B screw is awesome!!!
Why drill one when you can drill TWO? That's what I did.
Followed for A) great informative content, and B) no BS click bait facial expression. Thank you my good man 👏🏻
Huh. The 8 screws affixing the left and right base extrusions parallel to Y-axis... Turns out they were overtightened to heck from the factory, which made the extrusions bow, so my left and righr Z-axis extrusions never sat flush. No wonder I've never been able to get everything square!
Thankfully it seems that having backed them off a little bit, the bowing has gone away. But now I'm worried the screws won't stay tight because their locking washers are now entirely flat.
Suggestions? New locking washers? A metric ton of thread locker?
Recipe for success... Take the absolute best ender 3 calibration tutorial, Add in a good amount (but not too much) of comedic relief, sprinkle some clear editing and top it all off with great visual aids and BAM. you have this masterpiece. For real... If you're having issues with what seams like incurable whacky prints, follow this video BEFORE you throw your ender out the window and/or kill it with fire 😂
This is awesome information. I have a weird situation where, when I level my bed, the left and right sides of the bed are fine but the center of the bed is low. Mind you, I have a flat glass bed surface installed. Is it possible that my x-axis is bent in a slight inverted "U" shape? Is there anything else it could be? HELP!!!!!
I have the same problem. Did you find a solution?
Awesome vid. Every ender owner and 3D printer enthusiast should see this one.
Did you confuse A and B in the tutorial? Because surely A is the fulcrum as B is the only one I can tighten when achieving level thru our newly drilled hole?
I was looking for this comment, I thought I didn't understand or I'm too clever.
I use bubble leveler to level my X gantry. You can also check if it has changed. It is accurate enough for this job, just remember to not level it towards the ground but use the top bar to get the reference point. If you use some kind of liquid glue for bed adhesion, it is good idea to actually make the printer be level in reference to earth too, that way the glue won't pool up in one corner. I use DIY magic goo (IPA100%, glue stick dissolved to the point of saturation, add 5% more IPA and pour it thru a mesh to remove all the non-dissolved glue particles, store in a jar large enough that you can store a brush inside the jar, use the brush to spread the goo).
love your style and how you do things... I don't even have one of these printers and I watched the whole thing! 👍
You made the hole to access screw B (because a hole to access screw A would be more complicated, probably needing a full disassembly and a drill press), but you also said to use it as fulcrum. Any problem in using screw A as fulcrum and tightening screw B through a hole?
My printer came and I assembled it and on of the corners were WAY off level could this affect my print even if I propped it with an appropriately sized object? I can't seem to get it to print properly even after hours of hand tuing the thing
Another interesting thing is the position of eccentric nut. When adjusting wheel, You can have nut "looking" up or down. This affects where wheel touching rail, relative to other two. I noticed this when tried to align X and had one of outer wheels little more loose than others. So, I made them "looking" same way and now all 6 wheels seems to be tight.
I always do the eccentric nuts before bolting them to the x-axis extrusion. This way all 6 wheel touch and are equally tensioned without being pulled or pushed unevenly or loaded by weight. I tighten B screw first dont bother adding the hot end as that adds weight. I square the X extrusion to the leg that's on the same side as B. Then tighten A and B fully. Next I slide back on the hot end. Then slide on the passive set of wheel on the other leg. I support only the Z motor side of the X gantry without the z motor or z rod installed. Similar to the CD case but the support is resting inline with the leg so it'snot touching the x-axus extrusion which might cause it to go out of alignment. Now you can move the passive block with the C and D screws as needed to get the scews on, but don't tighten the screws. Next install the top bar. With the top bar tightened you can tighten the C and D screws on the passive block. I've assembled 2 printers with this method and it not only keeps everything square and evenly gapped but it also resolved binding with the Z rod since The Z rod is installed last instead of before the x gantry.
Most of the shims I see in Thinkiverse move the motor further towards the back to make the threaded rod parallel to the vertical strut when viewed from the side. Instead of a front-to-back problem addressed by these solutions, I have a left-to-right problem. When viewed from the back, my threaded rod is slanted towards the right. To make my threaded rod parallel to the vertical strut when viewed from back to front, the z-axis motor needs to be moved in around 2mm towards the center of the printer. A motor mounting bracket with oval screw holes may work, but I haven't been able to locate one to print. Do you have a recommendation to correct this alignment problem in my printer?
Hi There - Did you ever find a solution for this? I am experiencing the same issue.
I noticed that in my z axis, there's a difference of 0.3mm from the bottom to the top, there's no way to ajust it to run well. I will need to drill a little bit to the side to make the bolts to be in the right position. And use steel wool to fill the gap.
What 3D Modeling Software are you using in 'this video' to demonstrate?
what do u think about anti-backlash nut and life time theese brass nut when ll be replace
Alex - love your vids - no nonsense - have an issue with my ender3 - put a direct drive ontop of swiss hot end - prints great until 3/4s or so then flares out a line or 3 then prints on normaly....any ideas ?tightened everything up etc no joy........thank you
My printer’s x axis motor is not spinning what do I do?
Quick question, when steppers disabled, should be the z-axis moving rather freely like x or y axis'?
Thank you for making such great videos. I checked my first ender with these methods, and found it perfect. Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe its because I perfectly flushed the x-axis brackets to the extruded aluminum with my patented calibrated left thumb. I eye-balled the alignment of the lead screw to the left inside edge of the extrusion to make it as close to plumb as I could manage too.
Mine was off all kinds of ways and ive had to cut file and do all kinds of things trying to get this squared off.
Why not reverse the a and b screwing orientation? The v slot on the gantry(?) is unused and you could still get to the nuts with a wrench (provided ones at least). If anyone has any ideas i'd like to hear them out. Heck maybe this has been done. I just got inyo 3d printing and adjusting the ender 3 max is a similar pain.
I have an S1 Pro, and it just shifted all the prints backwards on the plate about 2 inches overnight.
Same Programs I've been using for over a year, suddenly are completely out of center.
I don't even know where to begin, because it homes itself all the time. Just moves back until it hits the limit switch.
I'm very confused.
Everyone who writes about this online references the slicer. But it's not the Slicer. I haven't changed the G-Code. It's exactly the same.
Just the video I need right now as the X gantray is needed leveled out
What do you think anti-backlash nuts on the z-axis?
What is the appropriate alignment for an Ender 3? Chaotic Neutral?
HAHA. Sounds about right
in D&D Chaotic Neutral was reserved by Ogres Trolls and Barbarians
Hi, Great video. Where can I find the CAD file of the Ender 3 pro printer?
My Ender 3 had the bracket for the z rod collar improperly bent and also drilled waaaaaay out of any possible alignment with the stepper motor (Would have had to make a mount with a 1/8th" offset.) Ended up having to preform percussive maintenance and aggressive drilling.
I do not think my "search-fu" is strong in finding the precise CAD model files used in this video... Can you direct me to them? I may have missed them when searching the comments, so if you need to point me to a link in one of them (that has not been taken down), that would be awesome. :)
I have some Problems with my X axis Belt on my Ender 3. When the head runs left the belt goes towards the Steppermotor. When the head runs right the belt runs away from the Steppermotor and scrubs the rail. The results are vibrationlines all over my prints. What could be the source of this problem?
I used 6mm x 10mm slot nuts on both sides of the gantry. I also when I aligned it . I have 2 z-axis screws. I removed them and setup my ends to roll free .This is with out the extruder on it. I set it up first on the left side without the right. I used spacer I made to set the height. Once I got it straight I added the other bar and rechecked. Then reassembled, Also use med thread locker. Once I Got it all together. I put the extruder back on. The slot nuts on the right allows you to keep all wheels in contact.
Would love to see what you can do similar for the alignment of an Ender 5. I have one of those and the box frame makes it difficult to do a lot of the alignment. There’s too many constraints with the existing screw holes to get perfect alignment (in my experience) so I’m often trying to split the difference to get the imperfections symmetrical across the axis in question . Anyways, good stuff.
Great Video. I replaced the cross head screws in positions A and B with hex bolts. Exact adjustment was then easy.
whats the margin of error you accept for left to right?. My printer has a .5mm deviation from left to right. i cant seem to get it closer.
Awesome guide by the way. i also wondered why they not simply put a hole in the z-rail :D
Thank you! This video was really helpful!
Have you ever noticed the hole in the right side is in the correct position if it were on the left? I feel like this is a design flaw and that hole was supposed to be on the left specifically for this purpose. My solution was to square the right side first then flip it upside down and use that existing hole to tighten the left side square while I’m thinking, “This must be a mistake?”.
Excellent Video. I really like the hole in the extrusion method. Next time I need to adjust mine, It goes in.
For whatever reason (well, because its threads made into soft alu) my "a and b" screws keep coming loose :(
And yes, I'm totally going to drill a hole too, genius.
Very useful info for tuning and aligning the Ender 3 frame. As a tool & die maker, this is an area of expertise, so kudos for this technically accurate video. I was pleased that with my recent Ender 3 purchase, I found the machining on the extrusions square, evenly sized and with good hole locations. I agree that squaring the X axis extrusion with the motor-side X axis bracket (with the Z axis rollers) is important to the geometry of the frame, and ultimately getting consistent bed tram. Save some time and get it right during initial assembly.
[edit] Creality (and others) _could_ fix this issue by providing two eccentric rollers per side on the X axis gantry assembly.
The tire tread gage is a great cheap tool. The data output is a standard Mitutoyo digimatic style. The cable type, pinouts and data format are readily available with a search.
Hey thanks! Did a search for digimatic pin out and found all the diagrams and example code I need to get started, very helpful
I aligned my gantry with the legs rather than the cross beam. My benchy came out good. The cross beam holds the table, which is leveled to the gantry. The important thing is for the gantry to be perpendicular to the Z axis.
Thank you for this insane video! you helped me so much.
Good stuff, thanks for taking the time to make these videos.
yeah i thought how they could drill a few more holes to get to the screws.
do you have a written guide for the no new holes alignment guide ?
I don't have a link, but OneBadMarine aka Luke Hatfield wrote procedure that many people use, and 'Edge of Tech' channel walks through the procedure from it step by step on his channel. There is a link there. I could do a written procedure of what I have here though, but not till next week
These solutions seem solid, thanks dude. Wish i knew them before i put it together.
However, the prints i get look real fine. I haven't printed anything larger than a palm sized dog, and some bolts n nuts though. I am still doubting i got my aligment as right as it could be, obviously, so i am looking for a way to confirm my concerns.
Have you got any idea for a test print that could help me pin point a slight misaligment in my machine? My main concern is X gantry and vertical extrusion aligment since Z rod doesn't seem to bind. I don't want to touch any bolts before i know i absolutely have to.
Anyway, loved your vid.
So i stopped being lazy and measured that x gantry is 1.15 mm taller on lcd side, when it sits 155mm above the bed. Also, the y axis is ever so slightly twisted towards x axis, creating something like 88°. Should i be concerned about such orders of magnitude, or better leave it be in case i only make it worse?
I did want to say, I have been adjusting my E-Steps and found that if you have a bondtech replacment drive and set it all up to extrude exactly 100mm I need to reduce my cura FLOW to 90% otherwise i get over extrusion artifacts, have you had a look at that?
I'll go further and guess that modern slicers have all added a % of over extrusion to compensate for crappy extruder drives from the original rep-rap era.
foxabilo flow will depend on the filament you use. Even if it’s the same type of filament from different manufacturers.
@@jakefromstatefarm8545 Yea, very valid point, but if my calipers are giving me 1.75mm average for all the types. I understand a little adjustment is still required of the 1-5% level is acceptable and Prusa Slicer even goes so far as to say if you need to adjust more than 10% then something is wrong. If I start with a basic Ender 3 with 93 steps per mm and measure my filament at 93mm moved for 100 asked, and I adjust that 93 to 100 and get 100mm when asked then that implies that Creality KNOWS that 100 mm is too much and they deliberately offset it to 93 to compensate for the fact that extruders are, over time getting better. That or I am so far off base I have lost sight of the landing pad
@@foxabilo No, there is no overextrusion in the slicers except maybe the smallest little one where the infill connects to the perimeter, where the overextrusion should all land on the infill side rather than the outside. I believe you are experiencing a different issue. I can't tell you what it is without seeing and feeling everything, and maybe not even then because shit is complex. First thing to check is whether you're possibly experiencing a different amount of slippage depending on the feedrate, making the steps/mm nonconstant. All printers without adjustable preload spring tend to have slightly too little idler tension for my taste, and it gets weakened with time because something is happening to the spring, they're usually not very well hardened springs, and there's a significant reduction in spring tension on a 6 month to a year timeline.
I think the reason manufacturers set with extrusion steps/mm set too small is simply because they source their extruder pinion from wherever, one week it's one, another week it's another, and they just err on the safe side because underextruded prints are more visually appealing than overextruded ones. Besides, the remote Bowden extruder, as the nature of things goes, isn't very good at depositing material exactly where you ask it to, it kinda looks almost right, but the exact amount is not right, because there's springiness of the bowden tube, potentially some slip in the couplings, there's springiness of the filament, so it's possible to get underextrusion at one spot and overextrusion at another, like around retracts, moves and speed changes.
Indeed your instinct that 10% is too much for comfort and needs to be investigated is quite right.
@@SianaGearz Well I have a bondtech BMG twin drive and it pushes through bang on 100mm when I ask it to, be it at 185C or 205C always spot on, I'd need to check but I believe my steps per mm on the E0 BMG is set to 631 with a 3 to 1 gear ratio and 32 micro steps on a DRV825 at 1090mA not skipping or anything solid as a rock,it just seems to kick out 10% more filament than is needed... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Good stuff love the way you explain it :D
i been using this printer for about a year now and i literally never even try to level it or square
ignorance is bliss i guess, it was ok enough right outside the box (other than bed being convex) and i was happyly hacking it to print beyound the specs in really small scales of prints, to be honest it is way too big for what am i doing with it
People need to learn what traming is not bed leveling 👍🏻
I have the proper gear your videos are still informative we all miss things
This is a great tip for leveling the x gantry. Thank you!
If i saw this sooner i may not have sold my ender. It was close to getting good but not quite there. In frustration i went the easy route which is bambu lab.
The most well prepared humans always have an assortment of lubes and oils ready for usage at a moments notice.
To align the gantry I printed two cleats to hold the gantry square to the top bar and placed a small spirit level on the gantry to get me close to level and then measured each end before tightening up the bolts, of course, if you only have the one printer it may be the case that your Ender 3 is not printing square so the cleats might not be the correct tool for you, I have another four printers to choose from to print them so that wasn't a problem so I used my most precise printer which is a Pro 3D V-King to print my cleats.
+ 1 Subs
Alex just for curiosity, are you an engineer? my compliments for your passion and way to explain all, i see on youtube that often 3d printer "specialist" prefer to show their Yoda prints or their new shining printer, you really are technician, precise, mathematician, competent, i dare say the esoteric man of the 3d printer world! Alex please don't print any f.. Yoda! :)
haha, thanks. I have been employed off and on to do engineering-style work, BUT I don't have the papers to claim that title, so out of respect for the folks who do, I just say 'technician'.
From the best videos especially the trick with the straight sheet me i use Pavement slab
It will eat the threads right off the rod. Awesome video brother.
Didn't like the loud music at the beginning but I did like the video. My printer was printing good, but I noticed the frame wasn't square so I tried to square it up (without thinking about the bed) and now I can't get the nozzle down to bed close enough.
Thank you. Looks promising, I will try 😅
Great video and humor man
Thanks for the info gonna make these calibrations tomorrow on my ender
Ye gads man, you should have 3x the subs of teaching tech, another excellent video, and that's coming from a man with a surface plate and a dial gauge who could see his ender was as pissed as a bishop in a brewery. My Z axis is much happier. And pretty funny too.
Ok I started watching this video and thought that this guy talks a lot. But then by the time I got to the x leveling, I seem to be enjoying the talking.
Nice one, I was able to find cheap one with the data port on it to play with...
One thing I have always wondered about the JFK speech is what are "The Other Things" that he refers to?
Thanks for your guid brother 🤙 it worked perfectly 🙏
Man, you are so damn fucking funny plus educational, or viceversa. The "hole" trick just killed me. I thought of doing the same to fiddle with the x-gantry in my CR10S "butt" I didn't had the balls to do it. Now seeing that I'm not the only halfbrained out there, I'll give it a try
Great stuff man
Thanks. Great informative video mate, Well done :)
Love you video style very funny and informative
Dude awesome video thank you.
Ohh and the output pins just squirt RS232 out usually something slow like 2400baud
No, it's not RS232. RS232 is not clocked, this one is explicitly clocked. Maybe there is some calipers which do RS232, but these China-cheapies do not.
@@SianaGearz iyou could have one of the SPI ones, I have not seen one myself but I know they exist, should just be clock and data and away you go
@@foxabilo Sure, interfacing with it with an SPI USART should be easy enough, but it's slow enough that you can do it in a million ways and it'll all be fine. Voltage is a bit of an issue, it's barely even 1.5V for logic high, so that's a small inconvenience.
@@SianaGearz Hmmm... some low voltage CMOS buffering logic and then off to an UNO,
Good. One of the most stressful listening exercise I have ever had. There are a lot of side comments and 30 minutes. Could've just been option 1,2,3 instead of this is the way I do it etc.
Hi Alex, very useful video indeed. Sometimes your voice remembers me the great Frank Zappa!!! :-)
Damn I love metal. 44 and still a Chuck Schuldiner super fan.
Great video as always
Thanks for sharing :-)
Jesus. Lol I have a love hate relationship with my ender 3. My z axis wasn't moving on layer changes, so I had to lose up the eccentric nut, so now I don't know what I did but now, three of the wheels aren't making contact with the extrusion....god I hate this thing.
The people who actually know what they're doing get no views...
Thank you
Hello dear friend! thanks for your video, you have a like from me. I am writing to you because of one problem that arose with my 3D printer, in particular what happened: I changed the motherboard to a new Creality 4.2.2 And the firmware is marlin. the old motherboard worked well also Z working good but it could not produce temperatures above 230 degrees (this temperature need to strong filaments,not PLA) and I had to change to a new one with a new firmware (the old motherboard was: CR7 Creality and even it was not possible to make a firmware on it).
I Thought everything would be fine but I was wrong. It DOES however move during homing and in manual control. This results in the everything getting printed on first layer...
please not be lazy to reply if there is any solution to this problem write to me. I tried everything: I changed the wires of stepper motors but Z does not work, although I repeat when I click on auto return home Z works fine on all sides and up and down too. I connected it to the computer and tried to turn on Z but it doesn’t work. please if you have a source of information please share with me. Sincerely, George!
Technical and funny . Subbed :)
I'm very disappointed with the ender 3 s1, my ender3v2 prints parts much better in quality than the s1, which has a double axis, automatic leveling I'm very disappointed with my ender3 s1, I've already checked all possible parts. , I am suspicious of the Z axis that is not going up enough or going up d+ like this making the lines but I don't have much knowledge to know what it is and how to solve it
This video: I will describe 3 problems, then over explain how to solve 1 problem and skip the other 2 entirely.
In the thumbnail, Alex looks a bit like Sardo Numspa. Simular energy, more than a spitting image 😎
Francis Rossi's son maybe ? 😄
Just kidding, Alex. I like the videos 👍
Well, Rossi and I DO share the same hairdo
😊
I wish I still had a bunch of hair 👨🔧