First Time Leveling the Build Plate

[mrjayd]

When doing the initial leveling of the build plate, the instructions are fairly well written. However, if you don't get it right the first time it can be quite frustrating! As I have just found out from experience. So in order to help alleviate the pain, here's my tips for the initial calibration. 
 
Tip #1- When doing the initial leveling, the instructions call for using a single piece of A4 paper. According to the dimensions on that, it should be roughly 0.1 mm thick and theoretically should give you the right tension. However, when I zeroed my machine I started the initial Rook print and it hit bottom and started making a loud humming as if the motor was pressing against the screen when it shouldn't have been. To correct that problem, I took the piece of paper that I'd trimmed to fit and folded it in half. Zero the machine so that you can tug two sheets of paper free with very little drag and that cleared up the issue. 

Tip #2- If you need to re-level your print head if that happens then make sure you follow ALL the steps in the process. Starting with loosening the star bolts that hold the print head steady. The "zero" process presses the print head against the screen and then bottoms out on the springs holding up the build plate. If it doesn't have that "flex" then it will absolutely not let you get to the home point. And if you can't get to home, the system software won't let you reset the Z start point. So follow the steps in order: Loosen the screws. Slide the folded paper under the build plate. Get into Manual, and hit the house icon. Make sure the build plate is square with the screen. Tighten the front bolt and then the side bolt. Try to pull the paper out. Use the up and down arrows at 0.1 mm height in order to set it so the paper can be pulled free easily, but you feel a bit of friction when it's tugging against the build plate. Go back one screen, and hit the Set Z=0 button. 

I'm doing the initial print of the Rook test file now, but I wanted to get these impressions down while I was thinking about them. If the print is successful, I'll edit this to reflect that.

I'm having the same problem with my new Mars Pro but I can't get anything to work. See my thread above called "New machine won't print". I've tried everything 10+ times and it just won't zero out with the Z=0 button.