Cannot get nozzle to touch printing plate

#1

I cannot seem to get the printing nozzles to touch the printing plate. When I follow the instructions to calibrate/level the printing plate, the nozzles are several mm away from the platform. Screwing the adjustors to move the plate closer to the nozzles can’t get it close enough before the nuts at the bottom of the bolts pop off.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? It’s seriously like 5mm too far away to do anything useful. I’m thinking about putting some round magnets in between the printing plate and the holder screws to cover the distance. Any other thoughts?

#2

Hi Jack, you need to adjust the top micro-switch on the z-axis. Look for the black plastic piece at the top of the z-axis with the two slots and two small allen screws. Loosen the allen screws slightly and then slide the attached microswitch up a few mm. Re-tighten snuggly (not too tight, or you might strip the threads in the plastic). This will let the bed come up higher before contacting the z-axis micro-switch and stopping.

Btw, I found it’s best to leave some wiggle room in the bed leveling screws when making this adjustment. You want enough squish in the bed leveling springs to allow the bed to push downward a few millimeters. This allows the nozzle to hit a warping print and push the bed down without causing undue stress.

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#3

Thank you so much for your reply. Just to be sure, given that their are 2 pairs of allen screws on the top z-axis microswitch: I should adjust the two smaller ones (each in a vertical slot, as you mentioned), not the two larger ones at the top of the micro-switch, correct?

As for allen key size, given my 1/20" is too small and my 1/16" is just a hair too big, I probably need a 1.5 mm metric allen wrench?

Thank you very much. I’ll make sure to keep some wiggle room once I pick up some metric allen wrenches (no idea what happened to my set).

#4

Yes , those smaller ones are the ones, and I believe you are correct, they are 1.5 mm. Zim appears to use both metric and standard sized screws BTW :smile:

#5

Got a 1.5mm allen key, raised the microswitch and it’s working! Now to get the printing bed calibrated properly… Thanks for your help!