Build plate not able to level properly - suggestions?

[cliffyk]

In the first, this process is not "leveling", it is an alignment. The term leveling is a carryover from FDM printing in which it is important for the build plate to actually be level (as in perpendicular to the force of gravity).

This may sound picayune, however the use precise terminology never hurt any engineering endeavor.

An issue I have found is that plain ol' 20 Lb. copy paper is only 0.09 mm thick, whereas the FEP is 0.15 mm--so, I use a piece of 24 lb. "parchment" paper that is 0.15 mm. Also other than experimentally as described in a footnote¹ I have never concerned myself with the "pull-out" resistance nonsense which seems to be something Elegoo added someplace along the line--there is no mention of same in the my original user guide:

(from my OEM manual)


"Picture 3" highlights the need to tighten the front clamping screw first.

It seems to be something added for some reason known only to Elegoo.

Here is the procedure I use (again, use heavier paper or even two sheets of standard copy paper²):



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¹- Through experimentation I found that as little as 0.01 mm difference in spacing between the platen and "paper" dramatically influenced pull-out resistance. In the context of aligning the platen with the FEP 0.01 mm (⅕ of a normal "layer") is irrelevant.

²- two layers of standard 20 lb. paper will be 0.18 mm, or a negligible 0.03 mm (30 microns) thicker that the FEP.