On today's episode I'm gonna install a three-point leveling system on an Ender
three I'll show you how to install it and how well it works on today's Filament
Friday. Filament Friday is brought to you by these patreon supporters. Here's the
Ender three that I want to install this on. As a baseline I ran my bed level test
and you see it came out very good. I'll put a link in the upper corner here
to that video if you missed it. I want to install this the Gulf Coast robotics
3-point leveling system. I've heard from some people they prefer a 3-point
leveling system so I figured I'd try it. This wasn't donated, I actually bought
this and it does kind of make sense because in geometry three points define
a plane not four. I've never had problem with a four point system but this is
what it's going to look like. Three adjustment knobs. The first step is to
remove the bed material. I'm just going to unclip it here. Now this is a pretty
worn out piece of Buildtak but I'm going to stick with it because
if this three-point leveling system works with this, that's a good test. So I
took that off and now I need to actually remove the bed. In order to do that I've
just got to unscrew the knobs. There's four of them. One in each corner. So I
just unscrew them, spun them and then when I got to the last one I was getting
pretty good at it. I could just spin it right off. And then I can lift this bed
off carefully because I don't want to break the wires. And then I'll take the
springs and the screws out from this bed and then I'm going to set it aside
because we're actually gonna work on the base that's underneath this. I got
everything organized and the bed moved to the back so now we can get to this
base. I'll loosen the screws for the mount for the belt idler for the y-axis.
Pushed it forward and now I can take these belts off the base. They come right
out of a slot so I got the one off the front and then I slid the one off the
back. Now I want to take this base all the way off so what I did was loosen
that bracket further and then pushed it down. Now I can pull this base all the
way off the aluminum extrusion because I need to get to those wheels and remove
them and install it on the new one. So I put a wrench to the back of it and then
I used an allen wrench to the screw and just twisted these guys off. Took them
all the way off. So all four of them need to come off because we're going to mount
them on a new base. Here's a comparison of the old base to
the new base. You can see the new base has a flat side on it. There's a plate
that goes on top of this. That's where the single adjustment controls two
corners. So now we need to install the wheels on this guy so we can put it on
the aluminum extrusion. There's a lot of different holes. The inner ones are for
the Ender three. There's a bigger hole and a smaller hole. The bigger hole gets
the eccentric spacer so the screw goes through the wheel and through the
eccentric spacer then a washer and then the lock nut. On the other side the
smaller hole you just get a bolt, wheel, spacer, a nut, no washer. So I tighten
these up with a wrench and an allen wrench and once I get these four in I
can install this onto the aluminum extrusion. So I got the first one made
sure it's spun properly and here the four are.The wheels felt fine so it's
ready to go on the aluminum extrusion. Notice the bigger spacing at the back,
that's also a sign of the wider gap that goes around the motor and hits the stop
switch so make sure you get this on the right way. Mine was a little bit tight so
I had to loosen the eccentric spacer and then tighten it back up on the front and
the back to get this thing to fit tight and smooth. But once I got this moving
and feeling pretty good then I could install the belt. I installed the back
belt first. It goes into the slot just like the original base and then on the
front. I had to reinstall that idler wheel back
out to the aluminum extrusion and then I could put the belt on the front. Now I
needed to tighten the belt so I just pulled that idler wheel bracket back
with my finger and tightened one of the screws. It felt pretty tight so then I
tightened the other three screws and it was ready to go. The movement felt smooth
and it was hitting the stop switch so I was ready for the next step.
These are the extra pieces that come with it. There's a long screw and that
goes into this bracket and there's one side where it fits. So I put it in there and
then you place it on top of the bed and it lines up with the holes. And then
there's shorter screws that go through the bed into this bracket and then
there's a lock washer and a nut and you want to make these tight. But I'm gonna
finger tighten them first and then I'll use a wrench and a screwdriver later. But
we want these tight because they transfer that Center position to the
outer end so we want this to kind of be one solid piece. So then I put the lock
washer and the nut on the back. Tighten that with my hands and then I'm gonna
use a Phillips screwdriver and a wrench to get them nice and tight against the
bed. And that also holds this screw in place the center screw so I don't have
to worry about that slipping really. Now I take the two original screws, that one
on the other side, I stuck it through the back put a spring on it, and then the
strain relief goes over the top of that. So this one was fine.
It's actually gonna hold the spring in place but what was dumb is I put the
other screws in and in the springs thinking I could flip this over and the
springs wouldn't go flying but gravity wins every time.
And it was dumb anyway because it's just as easy to put them in after but you can
see as I flip this over, boom... there goes the springs. And it turned out I could
just put the spring on line to screw up get in the hole much easier than trying
to line it up. But hey, you got to give it a shot right? Once I got the screws and
springs lined up then I could just push down on this thing and it felt pretty
good. All I needed to do was install the three knobs. Two on one side and one at
the other side which is closest to the LCD. The last step is to clip the bed
back on with the well-worn buildtak and then we can run a bed level test.
then I ran my bed level g-code that goes to each corner on top of the
adjustment knob and I did the left side. And then went to the right. Of course
there's no knob there. It went right to the corner so I just did the single
adjustment and when it came to the front I didn't have to readjust. So that bar
going across seems to be doing its job. In the center it was slightly crowned so
it was just slightly tighter but then I laid down the test print where I
actually rubbed my finger and this is really where you get the fine-tuning. You
live adjust and it was coming out great. This whole side looked really good with
the single adjuster so I let that run. And I only had to make some slight
tweaks to get the bed just a little bit closer to the nozzle on that right side
with the single adjuster. Very minor adjustments. So I was really happy how
this was working. I did adjust that single knob to bring the bed slightly
closer to the nozzle just because I wanted the filament to stick a little
better. But that's really all I did. And as the second layer went down I stopped
the print, moved the head to the side brought the bed out and really checked
it out. And it's very smooth. Very even. So I think it did a good job of leveling
this bed. It worked well. The only thing I didn't like is the springs on the left
side looked really good but that single one on the right, because of that bracket
took up space so that spring is really compressed. Overall though it worked
really well. It also has extra holes for this handle
so you can pull the bed out easier and also a single handle with a mount for a
GoPro. But deep down this is mainly a three point leveling system. There you
have it, three adjustment points instead of four. It works and I got it to level
pretty well. Is it worth it? Well that's your call. There's some nice features though
that you can add the camera or the handle and it's already drilled for that.
This also has holes so it can fit an Ender three pro with the wider base and
also a CR 20 so it can be used on other machines not just the Ender three. Now if
your base like this is bent, sometimes they get bent in shipping,people have
asked me can you just buy a new base and this is one way to replace it and then
get a three point system. So that is an option. But losing
one extra knob? I don't know if it's that big a deal. And that spring being
compressed more because of that bracket being in there? I think they should have
supplied a new spring a shorter spring that was a little stiffer so you could
still get to travel but not crush it like that. So anyway, I think it's a
decent setup. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments below. So if you
like what I'm doing here maybe check out some of the videos popping up, and if
nothing else click on that CHEP logo and subscribe. That way you don't miss an
episode. I'll see you next time right here at Filament Friday.