I created this guide to help Ender 3, Ender 3 Pro, and other Creality Printer owners get their printers and their prints "all dialed in" as I like to say. Let me know if you have any questions or issues and thanks for checking this out!
Dial-In Your Creality 3D Printer:
Overall printer test from Thingiverse. Start here!
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2975429
Then print this again after tuning your printer!
Chep Cura Profiles for Creality Printers:
Chuck Hellebuyck's Electronic Products Cura profiles for Creality printers, gives you a great starting point for using Cura with a Creality Ender 3, Ender 5, CR-10, and CR-10 Mini 3D Printers.This way you can get started printing higher-quality prints, right out of the gate on your Creality 3D Printer!
Bed Leveling:
If you do not have ABL (auto bed leveling) please check out this Chep guide below for easily getting your printer bed leveled and printing level: https://www.chepclub.com/bed-level.html
Propper Belt Tension:
A lot of people think, that more belt tension = better quality. That isn’t the truth at all. The perfect belt tension is when the belt isn’t really tight but teeth on won’t slip at all. Be sure, that you can normally push the belts together with your fingers, but when you move the carriage by hand, everything should be smooth, with no bumps, no weird sounds. To find this perfect spot I’d suggest you add a belt tensioner that will fit your 3D printer!Calibrate the Extruder:
- The easiest way to do this is to make a mark on your filament about 100mm away from where the filament goes into your extruder.
- Then heat up the printer's hot end and feed 100mm of filament through your extruder.
- If all is dialed in correctly, the filament should stop RIGHT on the mark you created.
- If you went past the mark a decrease in your steps per mm is needed.
- If you didn't hit the mark at all; an increase in your steps per mm is needed.
- You can calculate deviation and your new/needed Esteps by using a simple formula:
- Deserved length / Observed length * E steps per mm.
- Using a 105mm example: 100mm / 105mm * E200.00 = E190.47 new number of steps per mm for your extruder.
Print Temperature:
PID Auto-Tuning:
Poor temperature stability can be caused by both non-calibrated or disabled PIDs as well. There are a few ways to fix Z artifact issues caused by bad PIDs. I highly recommend this printer tuning/PID Tuning guide for both your extruder AND your heated bed:
https://3dnation504795197.wordpress.com/guide/
https://3dnation504795197.wordpress.com/guide/
How To Run Extruder PID Autotune from Terminal:
- First home your printer on all axes (X, Y, Z)
- Next, move your Z axis 10mm up and X and Y to mid of your print bed.
- After this turn on your blower fan to 100% by sending M106 S255
- Next, send the M303 E0 C8 S210 command to your printer,
- M303 declares PID autotune command for your extruder
- E0 is the number of the extruder (E-1 is the bed, E1 is the second extruder)
- C8 is the number of PID calibration cycles you will run
- S is the desired temperature
- If print ABS or PETG most of the time, you can use S240 or the temperature value you'd like.
- Now, wait a few minutes until you see "PID autotune done" in your terminal window. Below that, you’ll see your new Kp, Ki, and Kd values.
- For example Kp 21.00, Ki 1.25, Kd 86.00.
- You have to write these values to EEPROM now using the M301 command.
- Something like this: M301 P21.00 I1.25 D86.00 (Kp = P, Ki = I, Kd = D)
- Then save these new values to the printer's EEPROM by using the M500 command.
- You can check, that you’ve done everything right by reading EEPROM values with the M503 command.
- If you see your PID values there under the M301 section, everything should be correct!
How To Run Heat Bed PID Autotune from Terminal:
- Move your Z-axis 10-20mm up, and X and Y axis to the mid point of your print bed.
- Send the M304 E-1 S60 C6 command to your printer,
- M304 declares PID autotune command for your heat bed
- E-1 is the bed (E0 is the extruder, etc.)
- S is the desired temperature
- C6 is the number of PID calibration cycles you will run
- If print ABS or PETG most of the time, you can use S85 or the temperature value you'd like.
- Now, wait a few minutes until you see "PID autotune done" in your terminal window.
- Below that, you’ll see your new Kp, Ki, and Kd values.
- For example Kp 10.00, Ki 2.00, Kd 5.00
- You have to write these values to EEPROM now using the M301 command.
- Something like this: M304 P10 I2 D5 (Kp = P, Ki = I, Kd = D)
- Then save these new values to the printer's EEPROM by using the M500 command.
- You can check, that you’ve done everything right by reading EEPROM values with the M503 command.
- If you see your PID values there under the M301 section, everything should be correct!
Print Speed:
Run a speed stress test to see what speed(s) may be best for your printer: this will help you with stringing, bridging, and overall print quality.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3071464
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3071464
Slicer Retraction Settings:
You want to be sure that you have retractions turned on in your slicer software. You want to start with some lower values like 2mm retraction and 30mm/s retraction speed. Then you should print some retraction tests like this one: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2563909This way you can find and save the retraction settings in your slicing software that produce the best results!
Stringing
Stringing happens when there is too much pressure in the extruder and melted plastic leaks out during movement in free space. There are 3 major values, which you are going to adjust to remove stringing: retraction, temperature, and travel speed. Tweaking those settings will help you get rid of stringing on your prints. FYI however, PETG is notorious for stringing!Some brands will string no matter what you do! So don't stress out too hard/badly.
