Dual Head adjustment?!1

Does anyone have a working easy to do what of adjusting the nozzle heads to the same height. I’ve spent hours trying to adjust the heads at the same height but eyeballing it and zeepro instructions just isnt accurate enough. I really souldnt be this hard.

You are correct about the adjustment being a bit inaccurate. It uses the theory of the feeler gauge used by mechanics and machinists. The feel in “ feeler” is the human sensing the gauge is being touched by the object being adjusted. This is detected as a resistance to movement of the gauge as it is moved in the space being adjusted. How much drag is what is variable and where the skill lies. The gauge should not be captured in the gap but should be moveable with an opposition to movement. The amount of resistance is sensed and if the adjustment is not correct the gap is adjusted to increase the resistance and tested again.

This is a fairly easy to learn and very accurate procedure. The resistance to the movement is a repeatable measurement after some practice and accurate adjustments are achievable. The feeler must be the same thickness if the gap is to be the same. The thickness of paper is different for different types. Bond paper is very accurate in thickness but there are different weights of bond with different thicknesses. A digital caliper will reveal the thickness of a selected paper and this paper used to adjust the heads. A successful result using this paper and recording the thickness for future reference is good practice.

I have found light weight laser paper to be a good choice. Using a piece about an inch and a half wide and six to eight inches long works well. The alignment done in order needs to be done twice as the points 2 and 3 change the point 1 adjustment. The point 1 adjustment is the most critical as it is where the build is centered and if wrong the first layer may not stick well. I have had the front of a part not stick while the back did. Do not be afraid to tweak the point 1 adjustment screw an eight of a turn if this happens. I have stopped many prints cleared the build table, tweaked the screw, and restarted a successful print.

With paper gauge in hand and Zim at point 1 slide the paper slowly between one off the heads while adjusting the point 1 screw until resistance is felt in the paper movement. Repeat for points 2 and 3. Perform this procedure twice for the same head. Check that the second head has similar resistance by performing this procedure testing its height. A big difference in resistance on the paper gauge indicates the heads are not the same height. This condition needs to be corrected as the lower head can hit the part being built by the higher head. A close to equal resistance on the gauge and the adjustment is complete.

Watching the stripe printed across the front of the build table to see if it is attaching to the table is a good indicator that the table is level. The beginning of the stripe may not stick but the return stripe should. Again an eight turn of point 1 screw will help here.

The blue tape can be removed and replaced without upsetting the adjustments enough to cause problems. Beware of trash picked up by the magnets. I run my Zim in a machine shop and that is a constant problem for me.

The position of the build table is one cause of bad prints but temperature is another. I had to increase the head temperature by 5 degrees and block the draft of the air conditioner across the table to achieve good results.

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Great responose and thanks for the info unfortunately I was hoping someone figured a more accurate way to level the bed instead of feel guess and redo I did figure out that one of the problems I was having was the temperature was too high. I was using the 195 presetting zeepro had but I decieded lower the temp to 185 and it made a world of dif. I dont why but for some reason pla at 185 works better that pla at 195. I also made my own enclosure to make sure drafts arnt a problem. Im still not getting the quality I hoped for in the kickster my guess is the software so I might just throw in the towel till zeepro opens there software options up

here is a link to how i level the bed

Is there anyway you could send a pic of your setup to show so I could understand a little better?

There are photos in the link in my reply. You can also find the photos in the “USB experience?” forum topic.