I have a Flash Forge Creator Pro and I am using a digital dial

3D Printing
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1

I have a Flash Forge Creator Pro and I am using a digital dial indicator to level my bed. I am able to get the spots directly above of the leveling screws to be 0 but anywhere else and it is off by 0.1mm or less. How am I supposed to level these other spots?

Here are my steps:

  1. initiate bed leveling.
  2. install indicator bar mount and indicator
  3. level the bed so that the extruders are barely giving any force on index card (the card that came with the flash forge for leveling the bed)
  4. zero the indicator
  5. move indicator to above all 3 screws (1 in front, 2 in the back (left and right)) and level till you get 0

After step 5 i then move the indicator around the bed and they range from 0 to .1mm on the indicator? If I adjust any of the screws then it adjust else where as well. It seems like a never ending cycle.

2

I have a glass plate with PEI so that should help with making the plate itself flatter, correct?

Thanks! I’ll try and adjust it that way and see if it makes a difference.

3

Hmm… I wonder if I should go PC master race and apply some thermal compound to the aluminum heating bed and then apply my glass on top of that. haha!

4

If you want flat glass, by all means avoid lower-cost residential window glass. It’s likely to reflect like a fun-house mirror, although much less so. The platen of a flatbed scanner should be good, but I’m no expert. Good luck!

5

Good gosh. Glass does not transmit heat well. On revisiting the topic, decades ago, if you needed a flat metal surface, you would have used a surface grinder. I don’t know squat about the printer you’re concerned with, but 0.1 mm doesn’t seem particularly flat by today’s standards.

There must be some substance with a higher melting point than resins used for 3-D printing that becomes a free-flowing liquid. It could be applied to the Al if it’s hot enough and allowed to cool so that gravity levels it. If it would need frequent replacement, no point in covering the whole plate, I’d say. Any materials scientists around?

Then, you need to consider compatibility with the resins and its durability. However, I have no practical experience in the matter, only ideas and age, and don’t want to waste people’s time and energy. Best of luck!

6

Beds are heated and have clamps. So expansion tied with clamps will yield distortion. If you print a raft on a not quite flat bed the raft will compensate.

You’d have to use a heater with a ground steel plate to try and maintain heat better. But that’s a lot heavier.

7

I use regular float glass with a layer of ABS juice that I apply with an 8mm rod like a rolling pin. If I print PLA at 50c then it sticks really well and once cool (usually five minutes or so) comes off with no effort.