1 Topic by qac1991 (edited by qac1991 2013-01-17 23:05:16)

  • qac1991
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Topic: Poorman's X-Y Stepper Calibration

Hey all,
   I believe Ian has .stls and a tutorial for calibrating the x and y stepper motors using a dial gauge. Being a college student( a broke on at the moment) I thought I could come up with a cheaper (and less accurate) way to calibrate the stepper motors. I made a simple part in solidworks to attach a pencil to the extruder and simply attached paper to the bed. I raised the bed until the tip of the pencil was touching the paper. Then I used Repetier's manual controls to move the solidoodle 100mm in both the x and y directions. I measured the lines with a caliper and it was almost spot on. My x moved 100.39mm and my y moved 99.78mm. Also the line thickness showed my bed was not level so I continued to adjust it until the line was consistent all over the bed. Eventually I'm going to make a similar part to test my z stepper.

Anyway, I figured I'd post a video, pics, and the .stl's incase anyone else doesn't have a dial gauge.

On a side note, can you set the steppers to a decimal? For example instead of 88 could I set the x to 87.76?

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqZlAnfZ0l8

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Penciltest_fixed (1).stl 16.49 kb, 10 downloads since 2013-01-17 

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2 Reply by Tomek

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Re: Poorman's X-Y Stepper Calibration

Ian's dial gauge is for measuring the levelness of the bed..



But! Still a nice idea.  I usually print a 50mm hollow box a half centimeter up, or the few times when I was testing my x&y. They do not really need to be calibrated as much as the extruder does, though.

3 Reply by IanJohnson

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Re: Poorman's X-Y Stepper Calibration

Neil (Jinja) designed a dial indicator mount that lets you point it at the front and sides to check calibration there.   It doesn't work with the jigsaw replacement though. Maybe a version could be made to go in the universal mount Lawsy designed for the mark 3.