Z-axis Calibration On My 3D Printer

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I mentioned a while back that my 3D printer was down. My ‘special’ nuts arrived from China and now I am back working again.

In the process though, I had to relearn how to calibrate the Z axis. This was a task I hadn’t done in about 5 years, so it was worried since it can be a bit tedious. Fortunately, I ended up with no significant damage and only one real gouge out of the bed plate from a hot end crash.

If you have not done a Z-axis calibration in a while, here is a summary. These instructions are for my 3D printer (Printrbot), but most printers should have these same or similar machine codes. The M212 machine command sets an offset from where the machine thinks Z zero is located.

  1. Set the Z axis so the proximity sensor goes off with only a ‘business card’ between the bed and the hot end. Usually, there are some adjustments to move the sensor up and down – this is where my nut was cracked that I had to replace that precipitated these events.
  2. Since I’ve moved everything, the first thing to do is set any previous offsets to zero. Type in the command M501 into the command dialogue box of your printer controller. Your 3D printer will output the current settings for your machine. This will include a line which shows the settings for M212 which will give you your X, Y and Z settings.
  3. If the Z setting is not zero, set it to zero by typing in M212 Z0.
  4. Type in Z500 to save the change
  5. Type in M501 to validate that the change took place.
  6. Now attempt a small 3D print. Be ready to pull the plug quickly, if there is a hot end crash or some other odd behavior.
  7. Examine the bead that is first laid down. Ensure that it is sufficiently squished. If it appears that nothing came out, your hot end is too low. If it is just laid down upon the bed, the hot end is too high.
  8. Set M501 to the desired offset. If you type M212 Z-0.5 and press enter, it would lower the hot end by 0.5 mm. if you type in M212 Z1, it will raise the hot end by 1mm. In my case I had to raise the hot end by 0.5mm
  9. Type M500 to save the change.
  10. Type M501 to verify it was saved.
  11. Run a test print again to see if you get the desired result. If not, go back to step 7.

Hopefully, I’ll not need to that again for a while.

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3 thoughts on “Z-axis calibration on my 3D printer”

  1. Looks like a good procedure for many printers.

    Calibration issues are part of why I moved to a (mostly) self calibrating printer, but I’m not sure how many are actually out there, especially at the larger printer sizes I’d like to upgrade to eventually.

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  2. […] remembered to do the Z axis calibration, for forgot I really needed to check the amount of material being […]

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  3. Once you at a BL touch or other self-calibrating capability, you will still need to set the Z offset, but it should be a bit easier.

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