Rep Mini leveling issue?

[Arafat Terron]

Hello guys, here I am with another issue. Besides the Z18, we also have a couple of Replicator Mini's in the office. To show you my issue, I started printing the first layer of a raft, the raft base. If you take a look at the pictures, you will notice that the top left corner of the raft base is different than the rest of it. It is more like "curly" instead of the more flat good looking. That curly corner doesn't stick so well to the build plate and if I print large surfaces that are close to that corner it will come off and start warping. As far as I know, the filament gets that curly form because the extruder is far from the build plate. I would like to lift up a little that corner to get it close to the extruder, but the Mini is supposed to have an automated leveling and I don't know if there are other ways of leveling the plate. What would you guys think is the issue?

[Dan Newman]

On 15/01/2015 1:39 PM, Arafat Terron wrote:
> Hello guys, here I am with another issue. Besides the Z18, we also have a
> couple of Replicator Mini's in the office. To show you my issue, I started
> printing the first layer of a raft, the raft base. If you take a look at
> the pictures, you will notice that the top left corner of the raft base is
> different than the rest of it. It is more like "curly" instead of the more
> flat good looking.

The "curly" corner has a larger gap between the build plate and the nozzle
than the nicer, flatter corner. It sticks better in the flatter corner because
the gap was smaller and the extruded filament was pressed more into the tape
thus bringing about better adhesion.

This is a classic leveling issue. Despite what the assisted leveling tells
you, you want that back corner a little higher.

> As far as I know, the filament gets that curly
> form because the extruder is far from the build plate.

And you are correct.

> I would like to lift
> up a little that corner to get it close to the extruder, but the Mini is
> supposed to have an automated leveling and I don't know if there are other
> ways of leveling the plate.

I thought it was assisted leveling? It tells you when to stop turning one
of the leveling knobs. If so, ignore it and turn the proper knob a tad more.
If they used typical M3 x 0.5 mm leveling studs, then a full turn raises the
section over the stud by 0.5 mm. You are likely off by 0.1 to 0.2 mm.

Dan

[Arafat Terron]

The Mini user manual specify "Automated" leveling, but actually is nothing more than just move the plate up until it touches the tip of the extruder. There are no knobs on the Mini plate or any other place on the printer, the plate is just a piece of plastic with some metal inserts. You are supposed to remove and install the plate by pulling out and pushing it in place and nothing else is required.

[Ryan Carlyle]

You can try to figure out why the plate is out of alignment. Or just build up thicker tape in that corner to get better nozzle squash.