A different way to check/adjust bed and frame alignment.

#1
I worked in an old machine shop and we used dial indicators to level our surface grinders and to align pieces on the lathe. I designed a bracket to hold a dial indicator on the extruder. I attaches to the light cover. I tried aligning my bed this way and was not very successful. Worth a try though. It needs to touch the bed closer to where the extruder (nearly) touches the bed. And it should be attached with a more rigid design. You can get your bed extremely well aligned using one of these. Its also much faster than another way. if set up properly...Which Mine is not yet. You can also pivot the indicator 90 degrees to check alignment of the z-axis with respect to the bed. But you need a tall square with a machine flat surface to do the z-axis. Any ideas for improvement?

This is the dial indicator I bought... Not the best but works well enough. 10 micron increments. 1.3 micron accuracy.
[url=http://www.shars.com/products...w.shars.com/products/view/1932 ... _Indicator[/url]

... I would share the file but it says I can't upload .STL or .SKP files. Why not?

I will link a picture when I get home.
 
#3
I used a depth guage on a set of calipers to level the extruder bar to the frame. Then I found it quick and convenient to balance a drawing compass (the type with the screw and thumbwheel and with the lead removed) on extruder bar it swings freely. Tap it so it swings and adjust the bed corner until it just stops the motion. Repeat at each corner. Then do a second check.

Bring the extruder down until it just before touches the bed. Then slide the endstop up until it trips.

Use the slicer setting to adjust the z offset to get perfect first layer height