Three points define a plane, but many printers still use four screws to level the bed, with one at each corner.
Now, you can’t just put a standard bubble level on your bed and call it a day, because again, the “level” we are looking for is between the nozzle and the print surface - not the nozzle and the workbench, desk, or floor that your printer is sitting on. You want to make sure your bed is level so there is a precise distance between the nozzle and the entire surface of the build plate. Simply put - leveling your printer’s bed is exactly as it sounds. However, start a 3D print that runs across the entire bed and you’ll see the first layer is perfectly flat.
This in fact might mean that if you take a bubble level to your 3D printer’s bed, you will probably find that it’s skewed. What Does It Mean to “Level a 3D Printer’s Bed”?įirst, there is the important distinction that what is colloquially referred to as “leveling your bed” would more accurately be called “tramming your bed.” The goal is not to have the bed level in relation to the floor (as you might imagine doing with a bubble level), but rather to have the bed be the same distance from the nozzle across the entire surface of the build plate OR put differently the bed parallel to the printhead gantry.
