Delta Printer is printing above build plate - Any suggestions?

First of all, let me say this: I really expected this section of the forums to have a lot more posts than what it does. Is this a new subforum?

Anyways, I purchased a box of 3D printer parts that I found on Facebook Marketplace. It looked to be several of the cheap "Flsun" Kossel Delta 3D Printer kits and an Anet A8 kit, but I figured for the price of $50, if only half of the steppers work and one or two of the boards work, it would be money well spent and I could use the parts on some of my other printers.

So, I tested a lot of the components and everything seemed to work. I decided to go ahead and put together one of the Kossel Delta printers. This is my first delta printer, but I do own several Anet A8 / i3 Clones, a MakerBot 3, and a Flashforge 3D so I am not completely new to 3D printing.

Long story short, I ended up assembling one. It works great, but I can not get it to print on the build plate. I assembled another one, same issue. Only prints just above the build plate. Assembled the 3rd kit and the same issue. Given that all of them are having the same issue, I figured it must be a setting that I've overlooked. I've updated the firmware to the newest version of Marlin on one. The other two have the original firmware. I have adjusted the Z height offset in the firmware configuration files. I've manually leveled the bed and I've tried using the auto leveling feature that these units have.

I've pretty much spent all weekend working on these things and I am wondering if anyone here has any suggestions or a setting I may have overlooked. This is my first experience with the delta style printers and it has already been a little bit of a learning experience.

Looking forward to see if anyone has any ideas or suggestions.

Thanks!

I don't have any experience with that exact kit, but do have some with delta's in general. What sort of bed levelling system are they using? Probe-based (induction?) or the delta system where it taps the plate? Also, how far over the build plate is it going?

It might be something as simple as needing to move the limit switches down just a bit. On the delta I have, the maximum Z travel is defined between the limit switch and the bed, so if the switch is too high up the tower, you'll also end up hovering over the bed (as in, it moves down the maximum travel from the limit switch and stops, having not made it to the bed yet).

Paladin21 said:

I don't have any experience with that exact kit, but do have some with delta's in general. What sort of bed levelling system are they using? Probe-based (induction?) or the delta system where it taps the plate? Also, how far over the build plate is it going?

It might be something as simple as needing to move the limit switches down just a bit. On the delta I have, the maximum Z travel is defined between the limit switch and the bed, so if the switch is too high up the tower, you'll also end up hovering over the bed (as in, it moves down the maximum travel from the limit switch and stops, having not made it to the bed yet).

Click to expand...

It's printing about a quarter of an inch above the build plate. The leveling system uses a limit switch and spring on the hot end and taps build plate.

Printing above the bed level for the first level is one of two things:

1. You need to calibrate the machine, particularly the Z-axis (up/down) and the bed leveling.

2. The file you are printing isn't sliced or positioned right. If you open it up in a 3D modeling program the bottom part will be floating above 0 coordinate in the Z-axis...basically floating in midair. Sometimes you want to print something like that, but if you do you need supports.

CaptNumbNutz said:

Printing above the bed level for the first level is one of two things:

1. You need to calibrate the machine, particularly the Z-axis (up/down) and the bed leveling.

2. The file you are printing isn't sliced or positioned right. If you open it up in a 3D modeling program the bottom part will be floating above 0 coordinate in the Z-axis...basically floating in midair. Sometimes you want to print something like that, but if you do you need supports.

Click to expand...

I am familiar with 3D printing, but just new to the Delta style printers. That being said, I do understand that you have to calibrate the machine. The reason I posted this is because I have taken the time to calibrate the machine, but it is still printing above the bed and I'm looking for suggestions regarding settings that may have been missed. Specifically ones that are Delta only.
Files are good, no issues there.

When I calibrate thickness gauges, the tool gives you the option to adjust the zero value. Is there the ability to manually input less than zero?

otherweeb said:

When I calibrate thickness gauges, the tool gives you the option to adjust the zero value. Is there the ability to manually input less than zero?

Click to expand...

The only thing I've located in the firmware configuration files similar to this is the Z height offset and I've tried -25 to +25mm with out much luck.

I'm going to play around with it some more this weekend. However, I've never modified the firmware settings before and this is completely new to me. I'm going to try and use software to offset the Z height issue.

They live! All of them are currently printing benchmarking models.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.
The Delta configuration was just more complex than the Cartesian style printers I am used to.