Prusa Mini + / Squaring X Y Axis Skew

[@SavvasPapasavva]

Another useful calibration video: First Layer Adhesion kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5zIZplvr9emZ6ssi=UvhN5jKHNx7W0q2X - Plus I've updated the Top 3D Printers (I've used) article on my website which you can check out here: miscpro.com/top-3d-printers/

[@VincentVeak]

Idk why this isn't documented, but you're a legend for doing this. Ran across this last night and could not find any resources

[@dustoff499]

Thank you for posting this. The Prusa Mini has been the most frustrating piece of equipment I own. It was assembled from the factory and I have yet achieved a proper print. Now I have to go check someone else work - not happy.

[@andrewshults902]

Same here. I am veering on faulty with known issues. Then they want $80 in shipping to even get a refund. Frustrating.

[@Yakkers]

I've tried everything in the video and the comments and nothing has worked for me, no matter what I do the arm won't stay in any adjusted positions and I have the same XY skew at the exact same angle. Is there anything else I can try here? I can't believe nothing about this is in the manual or the official squaring guide, this kind of skew will completely destroy the usability of aligned assembled parts. I'm so frustrated with this thing, I really wish I just went for a typical printer that's held from both sides.

[@michaelplaczek9385]

I feel like this is essential to know when building your kit

[@SavvasPapasavva]

Yes - I wish I knew this before I bought it.

[@eddiepfund]

Same. I'm having a lot of trouble with mine, and I think this is one of the culprits.

[@floopflarp]

Finally fixed this problem for me. Thanks for the tips, I didn't want to just brute force the arm forward or backwards and this helped it

[@afluka]

Thank you for this! I was following along the "Squaring your MINI" article for my MINI+ and it had no mention of how to work on the XY axis. My printer has a very slight misalignment and I haven't noticed it until now that I had to print a box with the two lids printed separately (and the top lid laying on its top) and noticed I can't connect the two lids properly.

[@Jeffferguson1911]

Thanks for sharing. I had considered some minis to supplement my existing farm however I was worried about squareness issues with only one support on the Z. I might just but a few more MKS3+ instead. Stay safe!

[@SavvasPapasavva]

You too! If I had known about the skew problem I'd have probably just gone with the MKS3+ but it's a nice size and does print really well - really easy to set up and bed mesh level. Just have to keep an eye on that skew. I've also printed the brace which will hopefully improve the rigidity.

[@giedrius2149]

Squareness is an issue with every printer

[@10magicalfingers27]

@@giedrius2149 that's why there are other good printers

[@sasca854]

​@@giedrius2149 Between the two of them, however, it's far less of an issue on the MK3. The Mini is a multi-piece cantilever design with *no* software skew compensation. The backbone of the MK3's, on the other hand, is a single-piece steel frame-- and it has sophisticated skew detection and compensation built into its firmware. I love my Mini, but there's really no comparison here when it comes to printing functional parts. I'm hoping the XL combines the best of both into a single machine.

[@dingdingdingdiiiiing]

I wasted half a spool, thinking my tolerances weren't sufficient. Turns out the mini rhombusd when it should have squared. The official documentation is still clueless about this possibility. Thank you for the video, but that didn't solve my problem, which is that the X axis is not perpendicular to the Y. The plate is fine. The arm of the X axis is at the end tilted forward a couple of degrees.

[@SavvasPapasavva]

Maybe you can ask for the part to be reprinted and sent to you. Either that or re assemble the section to see if any debits had made it offset. It's possible to get the mini printing well but it's a process of trial and error.

[@dingdingdingdiiiiing]

@@SavvasPapasavva For now I've resolved it so that I wedged almost 2mm thick piece of plastic between the aluminium extrusion and the printed plastic part that holds the Z rods. I could only eyeball it but even so, a 170mm square now has less than 0,5mm difference on the diagonals, before that it had about 2,5mm. It's not easy to keep everything perpendicular when you're adjusting it... But damn. I'm still a bit in shock this happens on a Prusa printer. I've been printing for a couple of years with the mini, haven't noticed this before. But it is the first time I've printed large part where squareness is critical..

[@bravenkind7843]

I bought the pre assembled version expecting that it would just work. Unfortunately my xz axis is about 0.5 cm out of level. How common is this?

[@howard_francis_davies]

Many thanks for the video, it has been really useful

[@StevesRealWorld]

Do you have a link to the flat square stl file? OH I FOUND it - Thank you for this awesome video!!!!!

[@crawlerin]

Very useful video, thank you! Just a wild thought: maybe the re is some skew at higher Z because those smooth rods are twisted a tiny bit? Maybe releasing and adjusting screws on the top would help.

[@SavvasPapasavva]

Yes that is a possibility but it's hard to tell. They are seated into 3D printed parts. Maybe using a dial gauge with the magnetic base running along the aluminium would reveal that answer?

[@chrisfairbrother9197]

Yes I was thinking dial gauge as well, but very useful advice anyway. About to order my mini.

[@dawnbreaker84]

Looks very good. So whats your current settings for the bridging with petg ??

[@andy_warb]

Super useful, thanks for sharing!

[@nrxpaa8e6uml38]

The 4 screws were not enough for me to correct the skew, I had to loosen more around the base… why don’t they calibrate this in software? It’s even a Marlin feature, there would be basically no work to be done.

[@SavvasPapasavva]

I don't understand why it can't be done is software either - as that feature is available on the larger machine with the older controller. It's just a firmware update away...

[@sea1swk]

@@SavvasPapasavva Same with me. I had to loosen the 4 big screws on the main support that stand strait up. 2 on the top, 2 on the bottom.

[@bluurayr]

Thanks for the tutorial but this does not work for me. I can not move the X Axis in any direction after loosening the 4 screws. Anybody know what I am doing wrong?

[@SavvasPapasavva]

How many turns did you do to loosen the four screws? Do you see any movement at all when you look downwards onto the X axis and compare the axis to the lines on the heatbed?

[@bluurayr]

​@@SavvasPapasavvaAh i guess I know the problem. I don't have the Mini+ and there is no clearance between the printed part where you turn the screws and the aluminum profile. The printed part sits flush with the profile....

[@SavvasPapasavva]

@@bluurayr I didn't realised the 3D printed parts had changed - thought it was just the upgrade to the SuperPINDA sensor? You could try loosen the machine screws at the top and bottom of the Z aluminium profile but I found the four I described in the video allowed for sufficient movement to correct X Y skew. Anyway good luck - from my experience I think all 3D printers need some kind of calibration.

[@bluurayr]

@@SavvasPapasavva Maybe I am wrong. I just compared your video to my printer and the angle at which I can see that printed part in your video made it seem like your printer has a bigger clearance. But I will try that and report back. Thanks!

[@Zhus118]

I have the mini+ and I cannot move the X axis either after loosening the four screws. I think those screws are just for holding the X axis guide rail bars. I also tried the four screws in the back behind the bowden drive but it is still not working for me

[@Bullsnation6]

Hello, During calibration my x axis fails and it just skips over the y and z calibrations. I noticed that the nozzle sits higher when it is farthest from home. I came across your video and checked for squareness and it was slightly off, so I fixed it expected my problems to be solved, but it still fails the xyz calibration. I’m not sure what else to do.

[@SavvasPapasavva]

Look for the X Z Axis skew correction process on their website. Sounds like that's your problem.

my friend. thank you. so much. be happy. see you..

[@SavvasPapasavva]

Thanks and you too!

@@SavvasPapasavva see you.

[@daemon3spade]

Do pre-assembled mini+'s still need adjusting belt tensioning and xz axis skew correction?... btw how did you replicate that peanut???

[@danielsiegel8491]

yes they do

[@kretoooo]

sorry but think your are wrong since the Z rods get clamp in the Z bottom box (the electronicbox) and Z box have 2 fix points on the side off the 3030 so if that part is printed on a printer where XY if skew is not perpendicular or the printed Y front/back dont have identical holes for the 3030 the top Z alu shine only have 1 mount point on the 3030 so that become pivet point on X plane you will end up twisting your Z axis if you look at XY skew at Z0mm and Z180mm it will most likely have a twist.

[@johnfithian-franks8276]

Hi I don’t know the cost of filament but I know you can print knobs that can except M6 or M8 bolts through them my question is the cost of making star knobs less or more than buying them?

[@SavvasPapasavva]

Hi John - hope you are well! To answer your question, many slicer software allow you to input a cost per kg of filament which is used to estimate the cost per part. I had a 3D model of a wing knob for an M8 bolt that I just imported in the my software and assuming I was printing it from a £25 spool of PLA filament, with a 0.2mm layer height and 30% infill, the part would cost 33p. So very cheap. I think for me it's the ability to realise designs or ideas very quickly which is the magic of 3D printing.

[@spammyjenkins87]

just to add to Savvas' comment John; my particular machine pulls around 350 watts (using one extruder and the heated bed for ABS), so a 4 hour print for example, at 16pence/kwh would cost about 22pence in electricity.

[@jsincoherency]

The main benefit of printing them over buying them is that you've always got them "in stock" at whatever dimensions you want.

[@SavvasPapasavva]

​@@spammyjenkins87 ​ I'll add to that - the print I described earlier would take 1h 20m to print. So it's very cost effective.

[@johnfithian-franks8276]

@@SavvasPapasavva I agree, the only things that have stopped me from buying one is my own stupidity, I have a CNC that has been sat here for over a year that I just haven’t managed to figure out how to carve anything on it as when I bought it I did not read the manual and when I did read it I found out that the programme will not run on windows10 and although I have a couple of computers that run XP and window 7 I don’t seem to be able to get it working on those machines and every time I sent an email to the parent company (in China) I got the same response no matter what the email was about that told me in very poor English to plug the machine in, I got so frustrated at one point I thought about flying to China and shoving the CNC where the sun doesn’t shine.

[@hillfortherstudios2757]

but what if it is out of perpendicularity in the XY plane?

[@SavvasPapasavva]

You mean going upwards into the Z? I suggested to strengthen the z axis with that bracket but it's not that easy to calibrate this machine.

[@hillfortherstudios2757]

@@SavvasPapasavva Oh, I am realizing that I misunderstood what you said in your video, I see that you acchieved this using the white line as a literal guideline for perpendicularity in the c axis (xy plane). I would've hoped there would be a more accurate way but perhaps not. Thanks a lot for your video. My Prusa mini got knocked very hard on to the concrete ground and smacked the x axis. I am running these checks to confirm squareness. Great video!

[@SavvasPapasavva]

@@hillfortherstudios2757 The prusa mini is a difficult machine to square - partly because of how it's designed. Compare this printer/video to the Cetus on MyfordBoy's channel - and how simply he squares his machine up.

[@hillfortherstudios2757]

@@SavvasPapasavva I didn't have to. My mini was knocked on the floor and smacked the x-axis. I just wanted to double check that my x-axis was still square. I think it may be a good idea if one did have squareness issues, to re-print the mounting piece (the piece that connects the z axis bars to the x axis bars. That would be unfortunate, but at least there is that modularity. Thanks for your response! Thanks again for the video!

[@amiddled]

Don’t do this to me, When I bought the mini I thought I’d just bought the ‘it just works’ printer...

[@SavvasPapasavva]

Me too, but a problem shared is a problem halved. Lol.

[@gh7319]

Well I tried that on my PrusaMini, exactly as described, and it didn't make even the slightest difference, my X-axis is still off.

[@stefan-bayer]

Now after owing the MINI+ since April 2022 I can recommend staying away from this thing. So much troubleshooting and stuff I can not stress how much I hate it. It just works definitely not the case here. Kind Regards

[@SavvasPapasavva]

Try follow this official guide to squaring. help.prusa3d.com/article/xz-axis-skew-correction-mini_158518 I also bought small 0.2mm shim washers from ebay and placed them between the heat bed and stand-offs for this levelling mod - forum.prusa3d.com/forum/user-mods-octoprint-enclosures-nozzles/prusa-mini-silicone-bed-leveling-mod/

[@luke.perkin.inventor]

Great video, but it makes me hate my prusa mini even more. I wanted to like it, but this skew issue shouldn't happen. It should be square by design, not by calibration. I also had the too-short ptfe tube in the hotend, and then noticed the heat break is 5.5mm instead of the standard 6mm... not to mention the cables running underneath to get snagged... it's just a disappointment. Don't buy one.

[@UberAlphaSirus]

I still have to try the 3d scanning thing on my Samsung S20+, I will ask my missus to do it while I hold my n u t s. Like you, 1 bottle, cheep date ;P I do like your cubist artisic model of emmentaler with one eye, is this in response to current ongoings and you are suggesting there is another side to the illuminatis all seeing eye. Talking of eyes, I was diagnosed with colour blindness last week, I wasn't expecting it at all, it came right out of the mauve.

[@UberAlphaSirus]

I am disappointed I only got a heart. I demand a refund on my quips in writing!?!

[@SavvasPapasavva]

@@UberAlphaSirus I can refund you the in equal value of 3D printed peanuts - please designate an account or bowl you'd like to be paid in.

[@shelbyseelbach9568]

At 1:50, the front and rear cap pieces of the bed assembly are NOT 3D printed parts, they are injection molded.

[@nanders81]

In this video the front piece is actually 3D printed. They changed this part to injection molded after some months of production.

[@PilotPirx2000-ff5qd]

I don't know how you got a good result by loosening those four screws. This is nonsense.