3DPrinting

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What is the deal with all this first layer fixation? (programming.dev)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/3dprinting

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It seems like over the last couple months/half year there's been this new fixation with printing a huge perfect single layer of plastic all cross the entire bed of one's printer. I see lots of folks asking about calibration issues when they are trying to do this. It seems like it's sorta become a standard of sorts.

I just ask why?

It seems to use a huge amount of plastic and honestly I don't think it probably effects real world results that much.

I feel like the 3d printing community has a lot of shilling going on for companies and the information you get might not be entirely reliable. Look into the issues with this FLSUN S1 if you want to know what I mean.

But anyway, I have never had an impulse or see the need to print a single layer across the entire build surface of my printer. because I feel like that's a huge waste and doesn't actually matter when it comes to real world results.

Am I missing something? I kinda wonder if this kinda test is being pushed by the folks selling us filament, to sell us more filament. Is there a good reason to actually do this?

Please enlighten me!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

People who do first layer tests across an entire build plate are being anal retentive. Or they are looking for some kind of bragging rights.

Thanks to the various auto bed leveling systems out there on every printer these days, it means very little to do such extreme tests. And as long as your heat bed is flat enough to be in compensation tolerance for the auto leveling system you are using, you will never notice much.

This is not to say that it can't be a diagnostic tool if you ever need to check for a warped heat bed. But that's pretty rare these days to find a heat bed that's that bad. And if you are running Octoprint, there is a plugin to map the flatness of your build plate that you can see.

*** A word of caution: One needs to understand that the "flatness" of your build plate can and will change at various temps. Just because it might appear flat at one temperature, does not mean it will hold that flatness at a different temperature.