Calibration - 3D printing¶

In fact, I have a 3D printer since 2013 ( an Ultimaker 1 ) so I print since this time and all the 3D printer of the lab are also ultimaker 1 printer. But since the last update of the firmware I’ve got some strange issue with the dimensions of my parts. So I decided to make a calibration file and try to solve this issue.

Machine presentation¶

The Ultimaker 1 is the first machine from ultimaker. It is a DIY machine you buy in kit and you have ta assemble yourself. It’s a very popular machine in the FabLab community and I have mine since 2013 …

Design a calibration part :¶

I designed my file with Fusion360 :

Here you can find the source file STL.

Fusion 360 have a great tool to export the .stl. You can choose the refinement of your model and directly send your file to your slicer.

Basic tool	More options	Preview Mesh

Print the calibration file¶

Parameters for the print¶

To do my tests, I will use the parameters below into Cura 3.2.1. I used black PLA in 2,85mm.

Menu	Parameters	Value
Quality	Layer height	0.15 mm

Shell	Wall thickness	0.8 mm
	Top/Bottom thickness	0.8 mm
Infill	Infill density	10%
	Infill pattern	Grid
Material	Temperature	220°c
	Diameter	2.8 mm
	Flow	110%
Speed	Print speed	50 mm/s
	Infill speed	30 mm/s
	Outer wall speed	30 mm/s
	Inner wall speed	40 mm/s
	Travel speed	100 mm/s
Build plate adhesion	Type	Brim
	Brim width	8 mm

Clic on the Prepare button.
It took 2h of printing
I put it on a SD card

Prepare the printer¶

First, you will have to set the temperature of your printer to the fuse temperature of your filament. For me, it’s 220 °C.

Clean your plate	Open the extruder	Put the filament into the extruder

Extrude “by hand” the filament	The fused filament should come from the noozle	Home your machine

Printing my file :¶

Beginning of the brim	First layer	Second layer

Result :

Measure and corrections¶

After the print, I took some dimensions as you can see below, an I compared them with those of my plan.

Top view	Square outer dimensions	Outer dimensions

As you can see there are big offsets and I need to correct that. Below you can see a table with all the dimensions and the offsets :

Info	Dimensions	Measures
Outer part	60.0mm	59.15 mm
Outer square	20.0mm	19.8 mm
Outer diameter	20.0mm	19.8 mm
Inner square	20.0mm	19.6 mm
Inner diameter	20.0mm	19.6 mm
Height Part	10.0mm	10.05 mm
Height Part	20.0mm	20.05 mm

The offsets are very similar for the inner parts. The firmware of the Ultimaker 1 let you correct this offset by modifying directly into the menu the values steps/mm for each axis. The Z axis seems to be ok, but there is the same offset on the X and Y axis.

The value of X and Y are 078.74 steps/mm. So we will have to change it to correct it. I will use this fomula :

$New Parameter = (Dimensions/Measures) * OldParameter$

Info	Dimensions	Measures	New Parameter
Outer part	60.0mm	59.15 mm	79,87 steps/mm
Outer square	20.0mm	19.8 mm	79,53 steps/mm
Outer diameter	20.0mm	19.8 mm	79,53 steps/mm
Inner square	20.0mm	19.6 mm	80,34 steps/mm
Inner diameter	20.0mm	19.6 mm	80,34 steps/mm