I got sick of dealing with the nearly-useless bed leveling method recommended by the manufacturer. I know I'm a decade late to the bandwagon, but I've only had this machine for a year.

I looked for a tool, and I saw a bunch of existing ones that are either simplistic or overcomplicated, but few that I had any confidence would actually fit, print,or work well. Not all indicators are the same. Posting a non-adjustable design in STL with no specified dimensions and saying "make sure it fits your indicator" makes your design go straight in the trash. Either state the one thing it specifically fits, or make it configurable. I also have zero faith in a magical press-fit design. I'm not inclined to permanently dedicate my Starrett to the printer. Either it clamps onto the indicator, or it's a single-use bad idea. I just gave up on the drift of existing designs and made my own, because of course that's what I have to do.

This design is done in SCAD. As given, it fits a 3/8" stem indicator with a 1/2" stroke. It takes M3x16 screws and 1/4x1/4x1/2" magnets. If that's not what you have, you can modify the SCAD file to get what you want. Included is a convenient base for storing the tool atop the printer. It's convenient since the bed leveling system on the Replicator is a bunch of unrepeatable claptrap, so you'll need to check level every time the wind blows.

As the final middle finger to the firmware's maddeningly tedious and useless bed leveling routine, I clumsily hammered out some simple gcode routine to use with the indicator base. It homes X,Y,and Z, then moves the Z stage down 1mm and disables the X,Y steppers. The 1mm offset clears any cold boogers on the extruder, and the XY stage is free to move by hand. So long as you have a known offset stored on the indicator, you can re-level without needing to pick up the nozzle position again. The file will time out automatically after 5 minutes with an audible chime. I included the gcode and X3G files.

So far, I haven't ever needed to pick up an absolute nozzle offset since I made this. I use a single-layer test print for bed adhesion, and if I need to move Z up or down globally, I can just do that using the indicator. It's amazing how simple tasks become when observations are objective and quantifiable.

Oh, as usual, no supports are necessary for either part.

Category: 3D Printer Accessories