I’ve been trying to calibrate my printer lately, but it’s giving me a headache now
I’m experiencing some problems about getting the dimensions right.
I’ve printed a cube that is hollow in the middle
It’s a square 20x20x10 (X Y Z) it contains a square-hole/pocket in the middle, and the walls is designed to be 5mm thick.
Here is my problem:
The outer wall is measured to be 19,75mm (supposed to be 20mm)
The inner wall is measured to be 9,75mm (supposed to be 10mm)
and the walls between is exactly 5.00mm, as it should be.
(the height is also precisely 10.00mm high.)
Now, both the dimensions of the inner and outher wall are 0,25mm too small.
So i tried creating a bigger model, to see if it was the printer steps that was calculated wrong, but now. Even a model double and quadruple the size, gives the same error of 0,25mm .
I’m printing at 168 to get as little shrinkage as possible, but even printing at 210c gives me the samme error size of 0,25…?
i’ve even checked for backlash, but everything is tight and runs smooth as it should
Do anyone have any clue of what it could be? i would really appreciate the help.
Don’t know about the shrinkage and printing with a lower temperature will fix anything, however otherwise I’ve noticed the same thing that you’re reporting. I believe this is due to the fact that the print-head is printing with a 0,35 mm nozzle size and that the slicer doesn’t take this into exact account when slicing walls. But since it is consistent, I just keep this in mind when I design stuff that needs that kind of precision. For example, I usually make vertical holes with a 0,3 mm larger radius in the design than what I aim for in the printout, which gives me exact enough results. You might need to experiment a bit to get to the exact compensation you need, and keep in mind that Z-resolution is more exact synced to reality, which becomes problematic when you’re designing holes at an angle.
Hope this helps somewhat. Maybe someone else knows of a better way?
I think the max print size (without firmware modifications) is 180x200. If you zoom in on a corner and switch between “Manual control” tab and “Preview” tab you can see if there´s a difference (if so the printer stopped early). I generally print at max 170x190 to be on the safe side.
