How to Calibrate E-Steps on Your 3D Printer for Perfect Prints

Achieving high-quality 3D prints hinges on several factors, and one of the most crucial yet often overlooked is proper extruder calibration, specifically calibrating your E-steps. Ensuring your printer extrudes the correct amount of filament is paramount to the flatness of top surfaces and the overall dimensional accuracy of your prints. If you’re aiming for flawless 3D printing, mastering the calibration box method is an essential first step. Before chasing down other potential printing defects, let’s focus on getting your extrusion dialed in. This guide provides a step-by-step procedure on How To Calibrate E Steps using the calibration box technique.

To begin this calibration process, we will print a simple calibration box. This box serves as a visual aid to determine if your printer is over-extruding or under-extruding, allowing for precise adjustments to your slicer settings.

Step-by-Step Guide to Calibrating E-Steps using a Calibration Box

Here’s a detailed walkthrough on how to calibrate your extruder using a calibration box:

1. Obtain a Calibration Box Model

The first step is to acquire a model of a 10mm high box, with sides measuring 20mm. You can readily find suitable models online. Thingiverse offers a couple of excellent options:

• 20mm Calibration Box on Thingiverse (Thing:2064)
• Another 20mm Calibration Box on Thingiverse (Thing:5573)

Download the 20mmbox.stl file from either of these links.

2. Measure Your Filament Diameter

Accurate filament diameter measurement is critical for correct slicer settings and, subsequently, for proper extrusion. Use calipers to measure the diameter of the filament you intend to use for printing. It’s important to take several measurements at different points along the filament to account for any variations and calculate an average diameter. Inputting this average diameter into your slicer is a key step in how to calibrate e steps effectively.

3. Prepare Your Slicer Settings

Open your slicer software and load the calibration box model (20mmbox.stl). Configure the slicing profile with the following settings:

• Layer Height: 0.2 mm
• Infill: 100% – Using 100% infill is crucial for this calibration as it helps in clearly observing the top surface quality.
• Filament Diameter: Input the average filament diameter you measured in the previous step. This precise measurement is vital for the slicer to calculate the correct amount of plastic to extrude.

Ensure that you have correctly entered the measured filament diameter and set the infill to 100%. These settings are essential for an accurate calibration process.

4. Print the Calibration Box

Now, print the calibration box using the slicer settings you just configured. Observe the printing process, but for this calibration, the primary focus will be on the finished top surface of the box.

5. Examine the Top Surface for Extrusion Issues

Once the print is complete, carefully examine the top surface of the calibration box. Visual inspection is key here. You’re looking for flatness or any signs of convexity (domed) or concavity (hollowed). While you don’t need calipers for dimensional measurements at this stage, a straight edge can be helpful in gauging the flatness of the top surface.

• (a) Flat Top Surface: If the top surface is nice and flat, congratulations! Your extrusion is likely well-calibrated for this filament, and you are done with this step of how to calibrate e steps for this material.

• (b) Convex Top Surface (Domed): A convex or domed top surface indicates over-extrusion. This means your printer is pushing out too much plastic. To correct this, you need to reduce the amount of plastic extruded.

  • Slicer Settings Adjustment: In your slicer profile, look for settings that control extrusion volume.
    • Ideamaker: Adjust the “Flowrate” setting downwards slightly.
    • Simplify 3D & Other Slicers: Look for “extrusion multiplier” and decrease its value incrementally.
  • Filament Diameter Workaround (Less Precise): As an alternative, you can trick the slicer by inputting a larger filament diameter than you actually measured. This will effectively reduce the amount of plastic extruded.

• (c) Concave Top Surface (Hollowed): A concave or hollowed top surface signifies under-extrusion. Your printer is not extruding enough plastic. To fix this, you need to increase the amount of plastic extruded.

  • Slicer Settings Adjustment:
    • Ideamaker: Increase the “Flowrate” setting slightly.
    • Simplify 3D & Other Slicers: Increase the “extrusion multiplier” incrementally.
  • Filament Diameter Workaround (Less Precise): Tell your slicer you are using a smaller filament diameter than measured. This will prompt the slicer to extrude more plastic.

6. Repeat and Refine the Calibration

After adjusting your slicer settings based on the examination of the first calibration box, go back to Step 3. Reslice the calibration box model with the new settings, reprint it, and re-evaluate the top surface. This iterative process of printing, examining, and adjusting is central to how to calibrate e steps accurately. Continue these steps until you achieve a calibration box with a consistently flat top surface.

Calibrating for Different Filament Materials

It’s important to understand that this calibration process is material-specific and should be repeated when you switch to a different type of plastic filament. The reason for this lies in the varying hardness of different plastics. The extruder’s pinch gear grips the filament to push it through the nozzle. The depth to which the gear bites into the filament is influenced by the filament’s hardness.

Softer materials like ABS will allow the gear to bite in deeper compared to harder materials like PLA. A deeper bite effectively reduces the turning radius of the gear. With a smaller turning radius, less filament is fed for each rotation of the extruder stepper motor. This means that settings optimized for PLA might lead to under-extrusion with ABS, and vice versa.

Therefore, for optimal print quality across different materials, remember to recalibrate your E-steps each time you switch to a new type of plastic filament. This meticulous approach to how to calibrate e steps ensures consistent and high-quality 3D prints, regardless of the material you choose.