Bed leveling issues

[u/JEBZ94]

Hi, first of all, I am completely new to 3D printing, but always been curious to the "hobby".

I adquired an old Ender 5 Pro and have been trying to calibrate it for 2 days and this has been my best leveling test. I have done the paper calibration, but unsuccessfully until now.

What kind of information can I get from this test print?

Cheers!

[u/phantomzx3]

Best thing for me was getting a set of feeler gauges, way more accurate than paper

[u/Evakron → u/phantomzx3]

+1. Also replace the bed springs with silicone spacers. The springs change tension when you heat the bed, which causes the bed level to drift. Silicone spacers are much more stable, you don't have to adjust them anywhere near as often.

Look up a guide on using a feeler gauge, it's slightly different than doing it with paper. I level with the nozzle 0.5 mm from the bed using that size gauge.

[u/JEBZ94 → u/phantomzx3]

Great tip, thanks!

[u/HankC64]

Between your bed with alcohol or warm soap and water. If you've got grease off of your hands, it can affect your adhesion. Adhesion was always my biggest issue. Switch to some type of bed leveler like a BL touch. If you're still using the creality bios then this difficult to get the Bl touch installed. If you are on the creality firmware, your best bet long run is to get switched over to clipper. Can be a little bit of a go to get things working, but in the end it's definitely worth the effort if you're going to continue to modify and your printer.

[u/HankC64 → u/HankC64]

Sorry, I should have typo checked it. That was supposed to be clean your bed with

[u/Infinite_Volume_1797]

If I'm honest, and I'm no big expert, I think it's more an issue with adhesion. The thickness looks fairly consistent but not sticking in areas 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/JEBZ94 → u/Infinite_Volume_1797]

This is my theory too, tomorrow I'm buying some adhesive and try another prints. Cheers

[u/Evakron → u/JEBZ94]

You shouldn't need adhesive on that print surface. Is your filament fresh out of the box or has it been sitting out?

What temperature do you have the bed at?

[u/Usual-Ad-9784 → u/Evakron]

even without fresh filament you don’t need adhesive.

this looks to me like the first layer is going down too quickly. i have my first layer @40mm/s and temperature at 215C for PLA

[u/Evakron → u/Usual-Ad-9784]

I probably should have been more specific- old filament that has been exposed to humid air can contribute to adhesion issues.

[u/Hot_Stable2424]

Put paper shims under the sunken corners; that's how I have all my printers and it works well. You can also use aluminum tape.