Calibration Explained

Calibrate your KE — start to finish

This is the full run, in order, from a fresh printer to clean prints. Do it top to bottom and stop when your prints look the way you want — you don't always need every step. Each one says what it fixes, how to run it (mostly from the screen's Tune tab), and how to know it worked.

Golden rule: change one thing, then print a test. If you tweak five things and the next print is worse, you won't know which one did it.

You won't "reset" anything. Re-running a calibration just overwrites the old value — there's no separate reset step. (More on that in After a hardware change at the end.)

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0. Mechanics first (no software)

Software can't fix loose hardware — it can only paper over it.

• Belts firm (a plucked belt should "thunk," not flap), no slack in the gantry, bed not rocking.
• Nozzle clean (no plastic blob), bed clean (IPA), V-wheels/rails snug but not binding.

Done when: nothing wobbles when you nudge it. Five minutes here saves hours later.

1. Stable temperatures (PID)

Wobbling hotend/bed temperature = inconsistent extrusion. If your temp graph swings more than ~±1 °C at target, PID-tune. In the Klipper console:

PID_CALIBRATE HEATER=extruder TARGET=230
PID_CALIBRATE HEATER=heater_bed TARGET=60
SAVE_CONFIG

(If you installed the Creality macros, PID_HOTEND / PID_BED do the same.) Done when: the temp holds flat at target on the screen's graph.

2. Bed mesh (even first layer across the whole plate)

The bed is never perfectly flat. A mesh maps its hills and valleys so Z follows them. From the console:

BED_MESH_CALIBRATE
SAVE_CONFIG

(Your G29 macro does this too. If you installed KAMP, it meshes just the print area automatically at the start of each print — see Perfect first layer.) Done when: the mesh on the screen (3D or table view) looks like a smooth surface with no wild spikes — typically within a few tenths of a millimetre corner to corner.

3. Z-offset / first layer (the big one)

This is most of what makes a print "look good." Set the nozzle-to-bed gap with the screen's live Z-offset baby-stepping (Tune tab, or tap the Z-offset readout while a first-layer test prints):

1. Start a first-layer test print (a single-layer square or patch).
2. Nudge Z down/up in 0.01–0.05 mm steps while watching the line go down.
3. Aim for lines that are squished together and fused — not gappy/round (too high), not translucent or smeared (too low).

It saves automatically (with Save Z-Offset installed). Done when: the first layer is uniform and the lines have no gaps between them.

Why not let the printer auto-set it? The KE can set Z-offset automatically with its nozzle-load sensor, but it drifts run-to-run and isn't reliable enough for a consistent first layer — here's the data and what to do instead: Auto Z-offset: the load-sensor caveat.

4. Axis Twist Compensation (only if the first layer is uneven left↔right)

Classic symptom: first layer is perfect in the middle but squished on one side and lifting on the other, and bed mesh didn't fix it. That's a slightly twisted X gantry tilting the probe. Run the on-screen wizard: Tune → Axis Twist (a guided 5-point paper test). Full walkthrough: Perfect first layer. Done when: the first layer is even edge to edge, not just in the centre.

5. Input shaper (kill ringing / ghosting)

Those faint echoes after sharp corners are vibration. Input shaping cancels it so you can print fast and clean. The KE has an onboard accelerometer, so you measure and apply it from the screen's Input Shaper tool — it runs the resonance test, shows the graph, and recommends a shaper for each axis.

Accelerometer placement (bed-slinger): the sensor must be on whatever moves for that axis — the toolhead for the X test, the bed for the Y test. You don't need a permanent bracket; taping or zip-tying it on for the ~1-minute test is fine. X and Y are measured independently.

Done when: a fast ringing-test print shows no echoes trailing the corners.

6. Pressure advance, flow & temperature (slicer side)

The last 10%: corner bulges, blobs, gaps, over/under-extrusion. These are tuned in your slicer (flow, temperature) and with pressure advance. Don't start here — it only pays off once the first layer and motion are solid.

7. Skew correction (only if parts aren't square)

If functional parts come out as slight parallelograms, square them up: Tune → Skew — print a calibration square, measure three lengths with calipers, type them in. Full guide: Skew Correction. Done when: a measured test square is square on both diagonals.

8. Quieter motors (optional)

Tune → TMC Autotune computes better stepper-driver settings from your motor type — quieter, cooler, sometimes smoother. It doesn't change dimensions, so it's pure quality-of-life. See TMC Autotune.

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After a hardware change

You don't have to redo everything when you change a part — just the calibrations that part affects.

The rule: redoing a calibration overwrites the old value, so there's no "reset first" step. The only time reset matters is if you changed something you can't re-measure right now and the stale value would be harmful — then set it back to a safe default instead of trusting it.

How stale values hurt — two buckets:

• 🔴 First-layer / safety (Z-offset, bed mesh, Axis Twist, skew, PID): a stale value can wreck a print or crash the nozzle. Redo these promptly after a relevant change.
• 🟡 Input shaper: a stale shaper just under-corrects — worst case some ringing returns. It can't damage anything, so it's the lowest-stakes one to leave for later.

What to redo when you change…

You changed…	Redo
Nozzle / hotend	Z-offset (+ PID if you swapped the heater)
Bed surface, springs, or anything affecting bed height/flatness	Z-offset, bed mesh
X gantry / anything that could tilt the X axis	Axis Twist, then re-check the first layer
The moving hardware on an axis (belts, carriage, bed rails — changes mass/stiffness)	Input shaper for that axis only (the other axis stays valid)
Frame squareness	Skew
A heater	PID

Reset commands (rarely needed): skew → SET_SKEW CLEAR=1; active mesh → BED_MESH_CLEAR; disable a shaper axis → shaper_freq_x: 0 (or _y). For everything else, just recalibrate — it overwrites.

Not sure where your problem comes from? → Perfect prints — start here has a symptom-to-fix table.