3D Printing First Print Tutorial

[cwbullet]

These are tutorials that will help you get that perfect first layers.

• Matterhackers First Print
• PRUSA First layer
• Creality First Layer.

 

[manixFan]

To reiterate something discussed in the Prusa thread, a really good light is key. I have a small, tightly focused flashlight I keep on my printing table so I can easily see the extruded filament. Especially helpful is holding it near the bed and shining it parallel to the surface to highlight the texture of the first layer. My Z values were low compared to the typical -1.1mm that Josef mentions but I have great adhesion and overall very good quality prints. It probably took me a good 10 tries before I got the Z height correct.


Tony

 

[Karl]

I finally bit the bullet and flashed both of my printers with a custom version of Marlin 1.1.9 yesterday. I've been suffering with a warped bed on both printers which was easy to work around with z-offset on smaller prints but since I've been doing stuff lately that takes up most of the build space it was time to get it sorted.

The main thing that put me off using custom firmware was having to re-calibrate everything but it really wasn't that hard in the end. I'll link some calculators at the bottom that really helped me calibrate the stepper motors for dimensional accuracy and the extruder motor.

So if you're like me and have a fairly basic printer that only has manual bed levelling and suffer from a warped bed, I couldn't recommend it enough. Have a look on Thingiverse to see if anyone has posted a custom version of firmware that enables mesh bed levelling and go for it. You can always re-flash the stock firmware if you aren't happy and go back to defaults. (make sure you have a copy of the stock firmware from the manuf website before doing anything)

Extruder Calibration Calculator

https://jscalc.io/calc/tHjfIiKMKjDF42Hg

 

[JDcluster]

I was pulling my hair out for 2 days to get this thing straight. I reflashed with Tiny Machines firmware. A nice upgrade for you CR-10S Pro. I haven't flashed the LCD to match but, it still works better than stock. I like that they fixed the 8 character for files cap on the LCD. The toughest part is getting Z- Offset dialed in. To high you get nothing , too low you start plowing your build plate.

 

[cwbullet]

I was pulling my hair out for 2 days to get this thing straight. I reflashed with Tiny Machines firmware. A nice upgrade for you CR-10S Pro. I haven't flashed the LCD to match but, it still works better than stock. I like that they fixed the 8 character for files cap on the LCD. The toughest part is getting Z- Offset dialed in. To high you get nothing , too low you start plowing your build plate.

I recommend a Z offset in the middle. Make sure you redo you Z every few months.