Calibrating that darn extruder...

[nouser2017]

Dear all, as a new user I searched the docs and the tutorials, but cannot seem to find a comprehensive guide.

Goal: calibrate extrusion multiplier.

I have:

• Nozzle size is 0.4mm
• printer a Black Widow with red all metal stock extruder
• firmware Marlin RC8 from the RCBugFix branch
• E-Steps are reasonably well set, measured without hotend.

I tried:

• As with other slicers, I used the spiral vase option and set the extrusion width to fixed 0.5mm.
• Printed a test cube with 10mm height.
• Calibrated multiplier until caliper with two digit-precision showed 0.50mm wall thickness. It's now at 0.72

Unfortunately, when I print a cube with 0.6mm bottom thickness, 0.8mm wall thickness (exactly 2*nozzle size) and no roof, I get massive underextrusion at the 3 bottom layers and the part falls apart easily. I can pull each single layer off and have a square flat plastic ring.

Could you point me to a calibration procedure that has proven to work well with S3D? Thanks.

[brian442]

I just use the single extrusion measurement as a starting point. So that may tell you that you want 0.8 as the extrusion multiplier if you are only looking at a single perimeter. Then I print something more complex with 5 perimeters and make sure that there are no gaps between the 5 perimeters. Sometimes, I end up raising the multiplier a bit here, but usually not much. Then once everything else worked, I try printing something with infill and top and bottom solid layers. Make sure you have infill or around 50-70% so that the top layers have plenty of support. Also make sure that you have 5 or so top and bottom solid layers so that you can get a good measurement. Usually, when I do this, I end up increasing the extrusion multiplier a bit more to make sure the solid layers are filled, but keeping an eye on the perimeters to make sure those don't extrude too much.

I think this is a good process, because you start with something simple, and then slowly work your way towards a more complex part. It's worked well for me with several printers.

[carlo]

you might want to check this stack exchange answer: https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/a/1163/11191

[dkightley]

18 months have passed sine this thread was originally posted. I'm sure the issue will have been resolved by now!

[ilium007]

18 months have passed sine this thread was originally posted. I'm sure the issue will have been resolved by now!

I am having the exact same problems as the OP.

Is there a definitive way to calibrate an extruder with S3D? I’ve spent countless hours trying to get this to work.