Calibration

[WillAdams]

Are there any generalized, straight-forward discussions of calibrating a 3D printer?

It seems to me that there are a couple of things which one has to calibrate for, and some are at a machine level, others are specific to a given roll / lot / colour of filament, while others are software tweaks to a slicing program which may be further adjusted for a given project.

First there's the mechanical setup:

- extruder motor steps --- this has to be adjusted to match the exact diameter of the hobbed bolt and how well the filament moves through the machine --- may require different values for types of filament, e.g. PLA vs. ABS (presumably 'cause of differing stiffnesses of the plastic and how slippery it is and how it reacts to being grabbed by the hobbed bolt).

Then there's calibration for a given lot / colour of filament:

- measure the filament to get the average diameter
- test print the filament to determine the optimal temperature(s)

Then one would need to configure slicer parameters.

[secretspy711]

buddy of mine has an ordbot. He pointed me to this:

http://reprap.org/wiki/Calibration

[WillAdams]

Yeah, I found that,and a bunch of other pages on reprap.org --- already linked on the 3D Printing page on the wiki. Trying to find a variety of sources which explain things piecemeal and in different ways so I can start to wrap my mind around this.

[chris33]

Search for triffid hunters calibration but to calibrate a extruder you need to make a mark on the filiment then feed it at 10mm at a time for atleast 10 times mark it again then measure the distance it should be 100mm you can use prusa calculator to work out the steps

[WillAdams]

Thanks! Found (and linked) that one previously.

Here's what I'm working on: http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/3D_Printing

and I'm looking to improve it to the point where it's a stand-alone resource.