Marlin 1.1.9 - Bed Levelling on a Heated Bed

 

Heated Bed - Bed Levelling 

A few days back, I was wondering if it mattered much if I did a bed leveling without heating the bed to 110C. Well, I thought it was OK when I printed the "X" sample (45 x 3 x 1.5 mm), as shown below. It looked great then.

I should have known that it was meant to be a "first-cut" to prove that the auto calibration and initial bed levelling worked. But, it should not be taken as a fuller test since the print subject was rather small.

Here is a short video of what happened when I did a larger print (100 x 100 x 2mm) after doing a new bed levelling WITHOUT first heating the bed.

You can see that a few portions, including the 100 x 100mm perimeter (this facing side) were not printed. At the other end, except for the triangle shaped hole, all seemed somewhat fine. So, I terminated the print, cleaned the bed and did a Bed Levelling again, after heating the bed to 110C.

The bed's thermistor read 110C and displayed the same figure on the printer's LCD. A fish-tank temperature probe that I inserted somewhat nearer to the center of the bed (below the heated aluminum plate) showed about 100C.

I don't know who to trust anymore.

Here is a photo of the same plate that was printed after Bed Levelling was done with a heated bed. Unfortunately, I did not record a video.

Ignoring the trailing filament that I did not clear up before printing, the general outcome is very good. I stopped the printing altogether as I realized that I had forgotten to coat the glass bed with my sugar/flour paste! It will take me a very long hard time to remove this print from the glass!!

So, in conclusion - at least for my Kossel, Bed Levelling must be done with a heated bed (if you are using a bed that needs to be heated). Oh yes, please remember to save your settings after performing the Bed Levelling.

For Marlin 1.1.9, Bed Levelling:

1.    Pre-heat your bed to required temperature

2.    Prepare >Bed Levelling >Level Bed  (it will take a short while)

3.    Prepare >Bed Levelling > Store Settings (so that after re-boot the settings are still there).

4.    Print all that you want!

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