Calibration of a 3D printer

List of the steps and of the requirement of each step

(work in progress)

In my experience calibrating a 3D printer I built from scratch is a very time consuming process. Moreover, the various steps are interrelated so that a specific order is preferable to obtain optimal results.

I wrote this guide for my own use so that I can come here, copy/paste/download what I need, and avoid missing steps. I'm making the guide public so that other people can take advantage from it and so that they can help improving it.

This guide is based on the Klipper firmware, which I like very much.

This page is only an index page, pointing to the various pages describing the steps in more details (or sometimes simply linking the official documentation).

Here I'm listing for each step two important information: prior calibration steps which are required and events which should trigger a recalibration.

Physical parameters of the printer

PID tuning bed

Repeat depending on:

  • physical parameters of the bed (material, thickness, heater)
  • potentially chamber temperature (personally I have no experience)

PID tuning extruder

Repeat depending on:

  • physical parameters of the extruder

BLtouch offset calibration

Repeat depending on:

  • physical parameters of nozzle
  • wear of nozzle

Resonance compensation

Requires:

  • PID tunings
  • rotation distance calibration (not necessarily accurate)

Repeat depending on:

  • physical parameters of the kinematics and printer (belts and tension, gantry, frame stiffness, printer location, dampening feet)

Filament-related parameters

These calibrations all require the previous ones.

Extruder max flowrate

Requires:

  • rotation distance (not necessarily very accurate)
  • extrusion temperature

Repeat depending on:

  • filament brand
  • filament material
  • extrusion temperature
  • nozzle diameter

Rotation distance

Requires:

  • extrusion temperature

Repeat depending on:

  • filament brand
  • filament material
  • extrusion temperature
  • nozzle diameter
  • flow rate

Optimal bed temperature

Requires:

  • PID tunings
  • extrusion temperature
  • rotation distance

Repeat depending on:

  • filament brand
  • filament material
  • physical parameters of the bed (material, thickness, heater)
  • choice of glue or adhesives

Extrusion temperature

Requires:

  • PID tunings
  • realistic rotation distance

Repeat depending on:

  • filament brand
  • filament material

Pressure advance

Requires:

  • PID tunings

...

Retraction

Bridging

Requires:

  • PID tunings

...

Repeat depending on:

  • filament brand
  • filament material
  • temperature

Cooling speeds Repeat depending on:

  • filament brand
  • filament material
  • temperature

Author: Olaf Marzocchi

First revision: 2021-02-16.
Last revision: 2021-02-18.