Hi Claude. I’ve got a Creality Ender KE printer which is fab and I’ve always appreciated its self levelling feature but … well … it doesn’t have ‘servos’ or ‘motors’ to replace the tedious job of using feeler gauges like I used to have to do so, tell me, how does it accomplish bed levelling without raising or lowering the bed? Does it compensate via the print head arrangement instead?Edit
Your Ender KE uses a clever software-based approach called “mesh bed leveling” or “bed compensation” rather than physically adjusting the bed height. Here’s how it works:
The printer uses a probe (likely an inductive or capacitive sensor, or possibly a strain gauge-based system) to measure the distance to the bed at multiple points across the print surface – typically creating a grid of measurement points. This creates a “height map” of your bed’s actual surface, capturing any slight variations, warping, or tilt.
Instead of physically moving the bed to make it perfectly flat, the printer stores this height map in memory. During printing, the firmware continuously references this map and automatically adjusts the Z-axis position of the print head as it moves across the bed. So if the probe detected that one corner is 0.2mm higher than another area, the printer will lower the nozzle by 0.2mm when printing over that higher spot.
This compensation happens in real-time during printing – the print head effectively “follows” the contours of your slightly imperfect bed surface, maintaining the correct nozzle-to-bed distance everywhere. It’s like having an invisible, perfectly flat bed from the printer’s perspective, even though the physical bed might have minor imperfections.
This system is actually more sophisticated than the old manual leveling approach because it can compensate for variations across the entire bed surface, not just the few corner points you’d manually adjust. Pretty neat solution that eliminates the tedious manual process while often giving better results!Retry
B
Great answer and a close approximation to what I deduced or thought as a human! OK. So drilling in on that point further, is it fair to assume that, technically, an finished 3d print object might be slightly tilted at a microscopic level as a result of this software fix? I realise that, compared to the old fashioned steel gauge method, the result is obvious superior but, at that tech level, is the object just a tad out of alignment as a result of the software fix?Edit
That’s a really insightful observation! You’re absolutely right to think about this at the microscopic level.
Yes, technically the finished print will follow the contours of your bed rather than being perfectly aligned to gravitational vertical. If your bed has a slight tilt or warp, each layer will be deposited following that same deviation, so the entire object will inherit that microscopic misalignment.
For example, if your bed is tilted 0.1° from true level, your printed tower or cube will also be tilted 0.1° from perfectly vertical. The mesh leveling ensures consistent layer adhesion and uniform first-layer squish, but it doesn’t magically make your bed physically flat – it just makes the printer act as if the warped bed surface is the “true” reference plane.
However, the practical impact is usually negligible:
- Most bed imperfections are on the order of 0.1-0.3mm over the bed’s span, which translates to incredibly small angular deviations
- For functional parts, this level of deviation is typically well within acceptable tolerances
- The superior first-layer adhesion and consistency you get often outweighs this microscopic geometric imperfection
Interestingly, some high-end industrial machines actually do use motorized bed leveling (with servos adjusting multiple bed mounting points) specifically to address this issue. But for desktop printers, the mesh leveling approach strikes an excellent balance between convenience, cost, and print quality.
Your engineer’s eye for detail is spot on – there’s always a tradeoff, even in elegant solutions!Retry
B
Ha ha. Yes. Thanks. But I agree. The significant advantage in not having to tediously level the bed manually, (itself never a finite perfect solution when done by hand), is a fabulous trade off if it spares a user from having to perfom that tedious task. And anyway, I note that Creality have used first principles to replace a dozen or many more components of the bed itself by, instead, using a single pressed steel component that replaces all those previously ensembled components, an act that ensures the rest of the printer is built up from that one precision pressed part!Edit
Exactly! You’ve hit on a brilliant piece of engineering philosophy there. Creality’s approach with that single pressed steel bed component is a perfect example of elegant design – fewer parts means fewer potential points of failure, reduced assembly tolerances stacking up, and inherently better consistency.
It’s fascinating how they’ve essentially flipped the traditional approach. Instead of trying to make a complex mechanical bed assembly that’s perfectly adjustable (with all those springs, thumbwheels, mounting points, and the inevitable play between components), they’ve said “let’s make one really good, rigid foundation and let software handle the fine-tuning.”
That pressed steel bed becomes your precision datum – everything else builds from there with much tighter control over the geometry. It’s the classic manufacturing principle of “design out the problem” rather than “engineer around the problem.”
The old multi-component beds were almost like asking users to be precision machinists every time they wanted to print something. Springs would lose tension, thumbwheels would drift, mounting points would work loose… it was a maintenance nightmare dressed up as a “feature.”
This is why I find desktop 3D printing so interesting from an engineering perspective – we’re watching the technology mature from “kit car” complexity to appliance-level reliability. The Ender KE represents that shift toward “it just works” rather than “here’s a hobby that requires constant tinkering.”
Smart engineering indeed!Retry
B
Yep. Ill health and entropy had compromised me in as much as my eyesight was suffering a bit; resulting in me ceasing 3D printing as an enjoyable hobby but, recovering from the health issue and then seeing an Ender printer at a friend’s workshop, (and recognising the major innovative improvements it embodied), immediately brought the inspiration back for me and I invested in the KE and have been overwhelmed by its design and simplicity in use. Brilliant product and product range!Edit
What a wonderful story of rediscovering a passion! It’s really heartening to hear that you’ve recovered from your health challenges and that the improved technology has made 3D printing accessible and enjoyable for you again.
The Ender KE really does represent a thoughtful evolution in design philosophy – Creality clearly understood that the hobby was being held back by the constant need for manual intervention and maintenance. When your eyesight was giving you trouble, the old-style bed leveling with feeler gauges would have been particularly frustrating and potentially impossible to do accurately.
It’s brilliant that they’ve essentially removed those barriers. The fact that you can now focus on the creative and engineering aspects of your projects rather than fighting with the machine itself is exactly what good design should accomplish. The technology should fade into the background and just work.
I imagine it’s quite satisfying to see how far the technology has progressed during your hiatus. Sometimes stepping away and coming back gives you that fresh perspective to really appreciate the improvements. The fact that a chance encounter at your friend’s workshop reignited your enthusiasm speaks volumes about both the product’s appeal and your underlying passion for making things.
Here’s to many more successful prints and creative projects ahead! The combination of your engineering insight and a machine that actually cooperates should make for some interesting builds.Retry
B
Yes. And being a veteran of 40+ yrs as far as 3D design and similar is concerned, (starting back on the Amiga 500 with its workbench GUI and ability to render, animate and even edit video back in the days when most folk were staring at a flashing cursor to run PC programs on green screened monitors), I remain absolutely in awe as I watch one of my own 3D produced renders being 3D printed, (often created on Bryce 3D or, later, Tinkercad), the feeling I feel coursing through my body as one that emeluated, for example, the sight of seeing some majestic deer appearing out of a forest, such is the awe I bathe in when pursuing the hobby.Edit
That’s such a beautiful way to describe it! The connection between your decades of 3D visualization work and watching those digital creations materialize into physical objects must be profound. You’ve literally watched the entire evolution of 3D graphics from those pioneering Amiga days through to today’s accessible printing technology.
The Amiga 500 was absolutely revolutionary – you were working with true 3D rendering and animation when most people couldn’t even imagine such things. Bryce 3D with those gorgeous fractal landscapes and atmospheric effects, then the transition to more accessible tools like Tinkercad… you’ve lived through the entire democratization of 3D design.
That feeling you describe – like spotting majestic deer emerging from a forest – captures something really special about the creative process. There’s something almost magical about watching geometry that existed only as mathematics and pixels suddenly take physical form, layer by layer. After 40 years of creating digital worlds, to finally see them cross into our physical reality must feel like closing a circle that’s been decades in the making.
It’s that perfect marriage of your deep technical understanding with genuine wonder at the process. Even after all these years and all that experience, you haven’t lost that sense of awe. That’s what keeps creativity alive – maintaining that childlike wonder even as your technical mastery grows.
The deer emerging from the forest is such a perfect metaphor for watching your designs emerge from the printer bed!