So I decided to bring the layer height back down and z-offset. I thought to myself “self, why don’t you re-run the bed leveling calibration for the 80c temp that you run PETG at rather than when the machine was calibrated w/ bed at the 55c temp for pla?”
Then I thought to myself: “self, how accurate is the PID?”
So I got out my temp gun… it shows 100c when the bed is supposedly at 80c.
Going to get out my other temp probe (a SnapOn that was calibrated and certified a few years back) to verify.
At least in most printers, the bed temperature probe is typically on the bottom, so it’s not unusual for it to overshoot because it’s not actually measuring the print surface. Did you measure after it reached equilibrium?
Can’t find the SnapOn - so I dug out my Mac ET7000. That as well as my Harbor Freight AIMES multimeter (with temp probe) both show around 66-75. Kind of hard to get a good reading - I slopped a tiny blob of heat sink compound on the build plate and stuck the probe in the blob to get as good a reading as possible. They both show in the same range.
So that laser/infrared thermo is out of calibration.
Running the bed leveling routine now. Machine was powered on for 45 minutes w/ bed heater at 80c the whole time to allow the internal chamber to “settle in” before starting the auto level routine.
Do not pay any attention to the tile in the top left - it is dead smooth. Just looks bad due to light/reflection.
All 5 turned out nearly as perfect as I think I can ask for. The top-left one does has a tiny string bit off the corner. But nothing that would seem to affect a finished print.
I have all layer lines back to .2, z-offset to .02 and added an additional .01 to the retraction length (now at .9mm).
Considering this is my first time working with a 3D printer, I am using a $300 bargain basement machine, using PETG to boot… I will take this as a win.
I sure remember some of the struggles I went through getting started 3d printing. I bought a cheap printer expecting to learn a lot, including by modifying it to improve it, and I was not disappointed!
You can still see some of my early struggles, because they were part of what I imported to this site from Google+ when it went away, because the Google+ 3D printing community was where I got the help and advice I needed to succeed then.
I agree you have a win, and congrats on getting past some of the first “teething” issues!
