first layer to thin after leveling

chainbreaker2012

Hey everyone.  Just got a new a5s and did a few prints with the blue painter's tape on the bed, worked fantastic till one of the prints tore the tape on removal. Removed the rest of the tape and cleaned the glass with alcohol to start a new print. (think be may be warped) I set the paper down and do the leveling on all four corners till I just feel the slightest resistance then when I do the fifth point I can barely get the paper under it at all. If I try to print then the first layer is a super thin layer and it causes the filament feeder to constantly "click" trying to feed the filament through.  The only way I can get proper thickness is to use the little triangle inspection tag that was in the warranty booklet and tighten it just till I cant slide it. If I fold a piece of printer paper in half it's too much but 1 sheet thickness is too much. Any ideas on what a general rule of thumb is for filament extruded thickness in relation to z-axes height? heard it was 70-80%

Samuel Pinches

A rough suggestion:
Layer height should be less than 80% of nozzle diameter, and greater than 10% of nozzle diameter. 

Samuel Pinches

Because the heating element is on one side of a metal sheet, there will always be some warp.

You can also try to use mesh bed leveling on the custom firmware to compensate.

Samuel Pinches

Glass itself is never warped, it is manufactured dead flat - it’s the clips holding it to the warped heater plate that cause it to bend slightly.

chainbreaker2012

Thank you Samuel Pinches. I figured it may have something to do with the clips. I may just go back to using painters tape. I have a set of feelers at in my shop that I may bring in so I can do the leveling. I appreciate your advice and what you do for the community my friend.

chainbreaker2012

Hey Samuel I am having a issue with the custom firmware. I have installed it and did the mesh bed leveling. After that is finished I click store  to store the settings and try to print a test bed. I have it set on skirt and that starts fine. when it gets to the actual print it puts the nozzle straight to the glass and ignores the mesh setup. I do have cura setup to inject the m420 s1 in the end of the code started sequence. I have uninstalled and reinstalled everything 2x trying to get this working. Tried from raspberry pi and from sd card.

Samuel Pinches

Can you please upload the gcode here?

chainbreaker2012

here ya go

Samuel Pinches

hmmm, gcode looks fine .... I'll be honest, looking at that gcode it's completely impossible for there to be any difference between the skirt and the part - there is no difference in the code being sent to the printer. This gcode file is just one layer, there are no z moves. I would suggest you do the following:

Validating Mesh Leveling Settings:

1. Restart the printer with the SD card OUT - mesh will not be loaded

send the following code via USB serial control (pronterface/octoprint/repetierhost)

G28 ; home all axis

G1 Z10 ; move up 10mm

G1 X150 Y150 ; move to centre of bed

G1 Z0 ; move to 0mm

check height of nozzle with gap/shim tool

2. Restart printer with SD card IN

printer should indicate that it has loaded settings from SD card - mesh should/may be loaded automatically

send the following code via USB serial control

G28 ; home all axis

G1 Z10 ; move up 10mm

G1 X150 Y150 ; move to centre of bed

G1 Z0 ; move to 0mm

check height of nozzle with gap/shim tool

send:

G29 S0

check serial console for any messages - paste them here

send:

M420 S1 ; load mesh and enable mesh bed levelling

check serial console for any error messages

G1 Z0 ; move to 0mm

check height of nozzle with gap/shim tool

chainbreaker2012

sounds good, I will give that a try and report back

chainbreaker2012

here is the results. this was done on a fresh install of the firmware with a fresh bed level and bed temp at 50 C

looking at the test it loks as though it is working

Samuel Pinches

Excellent

chainbreaker2012

Thanks again Samuel!