XYZ 1.0 Pro issue

from my experience the beds do run out of calibration quite easily, I only have to clean the bed and it shifts, I use the manual method, or if the extruder starts clicking I wind in the adjustor 1/4 turn on the section of bed its currently operating on. (tightening the screw moves the bed away from the hot end

I have bad news for you. No matter what you spend on a 3D printer you will never have an issue free experience. They will always need adjusting, tweaking, and tuning. Down the road they will even need repair.

If your first layer height is set correctly by using the manual method then it will take care of most of the adherence issues. The built in method is faulty as it does not take into account for your set layer height. The first layer should be half or less of your desired layer height for max adherence. For example if your desired print layer is .3 then your first layer height should be .15 or less. The numbers that the 1.0 display shows are actually the measured height at each point of measure and the machine is looking for 250 which is actually .25 which is really too tall regardless of your layer height.

As for adherence assist methods you are mixing them and could be part of the issue. If printing PLA you want to use a cool bed and blue painters tape. Not sure if masking works the same. You can also print PLA on a heated bed but for that you need glue and it needs to be put directly on the glass or Kapton tape. An alternative that works well is Aquanet hairspray applied to the bare glass. But you need to wait for the part and glass to cool to room temp before attempting removal.

For ABS it needs a heated bed and again glue on the glass or Kapton tape. No painters tape. You will also fine that hairspray works well here as well. Another ABS method is ABS paste. This is made by dissolving small amounts of ABS in Acetone an spreading a very light coat of this over the bare glass. This sometimes can work too well though and chip the glass.

As for a good open source printer the Monoprice Ultimate Maker seems to be getting much praise from some of our core members here and is in the $500 or less range.

It's just another cheap variation of the Prusa and you get what you pay for. If you want a good printer that will be easier to work with you need to be ready to break the $300 price range. In 3d printers you get exactly what you pay for. They are cheap for a reason. You should do your research, read reviews, and repeat over and over until you find what you feel is right for you. But like I said you will never get a worry free machine even spending $2000 plus on one.

I used to have similar issues with prints not sticking to the bed until I fitted a PEI sheet
Everything sticks really well now and just pops right off the bed once its cooled down.

I've tried glue sticks, blue sheets, buildtak but PEI just worked for me and I have almost zero problems now.

Your issue is not prints not stick to bed, instead, your printer nozzle is too high from the bed. Your raft are dropped to the bed instead of squeezed to the bed, the raft corner where nozzle changes direction is round. the right side corner is sharper than the left side suggest small bed leveling issue.

Anyway, when your printer finished raft, the first layer of your print is dropped on raft instead of squeezed on the raft, which cause poor layer binding between first layer and the raft, and will be very easy to be scrapped off when printing 2nd and 3rd layer.

I would also recommend manual bed leveling, a lot more reliable.

so I am not happy and probably never buy an XYZ printer again, but I have one now 1.0 pro and I have been listening to everyone, thank you very much, but when I read manual it talks about a guided adjustment process, but when I run calibrate, I only get fail.

so I am not sure how to calibrate this to get me back on track making these projects that my students have designed.

why does not my machine show me what the manual says?

ideas to leveling with out those controls?

again thank you

using the calibrate function to level the bed is a most frustrating process, my advice is once you do get it within range of the calibration, to stop there and use the manual method, I think last time i used the calibrate function it took me over an hour of tearing my hair out to achieve a result that wasnt a fail, then I did the manual method with a sheet of paper, and have just used the manual method since.

What? My MP Ultimate did not have auto-leveling! I guess that is what they meant "you get what you paid for." My ultimate only have assisted manual bed leveling. It automatically move to corner of the bed and I have to turn the leveling screw manually to get bed leveled. Not that I like to use fully automated bed leveling, but it feels like I missed something. Are you sure your ultimate came with auto-leveling? not someone opened the box and add the mod for you?

No auto bed level just manual assist like your you did not miss out.

well mine does not work likely the reason it is an open box unit.