MakerBot Industries

Perfect prints come from careful build heights

Once I had my Thing-O-Matic build-height dialed in, I never thought about the starting build height again.  As a Cupcake owner, I used to obsess about getting the build height right for every print job.  I’d start a print job, watch the raft to make sure it was going well, and scrap the print if it didn’t.  A calibrated Thing-O-Matic will automatically home to the specified build height.

Until very recently, I had exactly two profiles I would print with – one for PLA and one for ABS.  Using Dave Durant’s formula, I’ve been able to print with any vertical resolution I feel like.  It was only this weekend that I realized that I can’t use the same starting build height for every profile.  When printing at 0.36mm layers, I have to use a build height 0.3mm higher than the build height when I’m printing at 0.25mm.