Hi I am a complete newby to 3D printing. I just got a CTC printer and added a glass plate to the build plate. It is picture frame glass and about an 1/8 of an inch thick. In order to level the build plate I have to put the plate all the way down and even then the extruder is too close to the bed (I can’t slide a piece of paper between the plate and the extruder). Is there a way to adjust the build plate a little lower so that I can actually make adjustments to it when trying to level it?
Yes you need to put a spacer at the position of the z axis end switch. There should be plenty of examples online. Just remove the glass. Level. Print the spacer. Put it on the build plate so the end switch is triggered earlier and then put the glass back on .
I don’t know if the stock firmware has it, but sailfish has an option called Home Offsets - setting the Z offset to minus should work without adding any extra parts. It’s what I do.
The issue with this is. If an error occurs the print had can still slam into the print bed and potentially break it if you are going fast enough. The end stop is there to prevent this. Removing this possibility is not without risk. I would definitely recommend the shim method…
I had to make spacers to raise the print head assembly before I could get the bed to sit with enough space to bring the levelling adjustment to about mid point of the spring range. You could try this to get the adjustment and clearance you need. You need to make two squares of the correct height to go between the bed support frame and the print head assembly.
