The ultimate DIY machine

[Nifty]

Having that feature is like having a remote control for your TV, you can manage without it but once you have it you don't want to do without.

Good comparison. Since I haven't used auto-bed-leveling before, I worry it's overpromised and might underdeliver... especially if it's an aftermarket thing I try to cobble together.

That said, maybe a printer in my future with built-in auto-leveling might change my mind.

 

[The Hat]

My Ender 2 came with auto levelling and I taught wow, I’ll have a go at that for a change, but I just felt uneasy and disappointed using it.

It only checks the four corners and is very slow and time consuming but it is reasonably accurate, but I still went back to manual levelling and never used it again, because I felt more confident and reassured doing it myself.

I also have an automatic cut-off when the filament runs out on me, again I don’t use that either, because it does stop the printer alright but doesn’t save your print, so its just a waste of time, I bypass it with a small piece of static filament..
P.S. I do use my tv remote control, I'm not that stupid...

 

[Redbrickman]

The Ender like the newer version of the CR-10 have bed leveling, which levels the four corners.

The difference using a "levellign" probe such as the BL Touch or similar devices is that the machine does Bed Compensation i.e. it makes up for an uneven surface across the entire bed surface.

It does a multipoint probe and then stores the differences in height as a map in the control board. It can then adjust the Z height continously as the nozzle moves across the board, interpolating the height in between the probe points. For the CR10 with it's bowed bed I shimmed it between the aluminium plate and the print surface as best I could then used the probe and it has been great. You can feel the Z rods when printing and the tiny adjustments they make. You can also set it up to produce less strain on the steppers as it can "taper off" over several mm in Z height and then revert to normal operation.

Having said all that the Voron 2.1 if built with a flat Aluminium tooling plate does not need bed compensation as a proper tooling plate (pic6 or EU equivalent) is very flat and is not affected by the temps we use on the printers. Once the machine does a bed level on the four corners the bed is essentially level and flat.

I also never bother using the filament runout as it's just a pain to have to dealwith when changing filaments.

 

[Nifty]

but I still went back to manual levelling and never used it again, because I felt more confident and reassured doing it myself.

Once I moved to the Home Depot mirror with glue, I find I very very rarely ever have to do any bed adjustments.

I also have an automatic cut-off

I actually started building my own "filament run out alarm", but the other day my filament "ran out"... which meant it pulled at the reel until my dry-box fell against the printer. It seems that the filament at the end of was tight enough to the reel that it would have never come loose and would have never triggered any kind of run-out sensor.

 

[The Hat]

I got around the bow in the middle of my hot-bed by using an aluminium plate point 5 of a mm thick and 10 cm square under the glass and held down tightly with eight paper clamps, it seems to have evened the problem out and I’ve had little or no problems to speak of since..

 

[The Hat]

I've been dreaming about building one of these for quite some time.

I am looking forward to the day that @Redbrickman shows off his new Voron 2 printer here, I won’t hold my breath dough, because Redbrickman tends to build slowly, carefully and gets it right first time, not like me, Wham bang thank you mam..

 

[Nifty]

@Redbrickman did you see this STELLAR review of the Voron?