I printed a model of an elephant's foot and enabled "elephant foot compensation". My printer disappeared and now I have a mini black hole in my print room. Thanks, Angus.......

Go to any automotive shop and get an inexpensive set of "feeler gauges". These are a bundle of metal slivers of calibrated thicknesses used for setting spark plug gaps. Choose the sliver that corresponds to your bed offset and slide it under the nozzle until it barely fits. Attempt same with the next size sliver down, if it will not go, then your know your exact nozzle offset is somewhere between the two. Much more accurate and repeatable than the "paper pull" method and only costs ~$10.

Excellent. I just bought me ender 3 v2 and it’ll be delivered this coming week. Now you just made me more excited to start. By the way I’m 76 yrs young so I’ve got a lot of learning to do. Never too old to learn. Keeps your mind in tip top shape Thanks again and I’ll start using your Videos once I’m up and running

In Cura it's called Initial Layer Horizontal Expansion. Works like a charm. Rafts produce an ugly finish on the bottom layer.

One thing to mention: if you slice and print a 20mm cube, no matter how well calibrated your printer is it will *always* measure slightly less than 20mm in the end unless you compensate for material shrinkage by resizing the part slightly.

You’re so engaging that I somehow watched all of this when I don’t have any interests in 3D printing.. it was quite interesting, I gotta say

Dude your like the best guy on youtube who does not focus on just one printer model. I like how you make most your videos more general so those with a different printers can follow along anyways. Thanks angus! 😄😀😃

Great advice as always Angus. Those new models look amazing, can't wait to see and print, always love your fiendish puzzles.

Exactly, if you home all the axis and level the bed with apiece of paper then you will have a .1/.2 mm gap at z 0 position so when the first layer is printing it will lift up another .2mm depending on the layer height resulting in a .4mm gap. So when i level my bed i lift up the z axis .1 mm and level there with a .1mm piece of paper resulting in a thiny little gap between the noozle and the bed at 0 position because the paper has a little room to play. I was looking for this technique online but didn't found anybody who used it and i didn't know if it was right but it works for me!

Good video. Have been printing for years and very surprised recently on the “lack” of videos to help with this. Thanks again for everything you do!

Tremendous video, Angus. So much useful information. I get these problems and until a few days ago I didn’t know what a raft was!

comment comment engagement. comment for the algorithm. Miss your face, glad you're keeping up on projects man.

Thank you very much for all the time you spend teaching everyone all these tips and tricks to get by on our printers, it's much appreciated! Please, don't ever stop!

It's time to talk about the elephant's foot in the room

what a good video! Due to other issues with my printer, I've had to make some tweaks that drastically increase the elephant's foot issue for me. It's interesting that this video focuses not on "fixing" the issue, but more on how to compensate for it. Excellent video that just got me re-inspired to print again!

Thanks so much for talking about rafts. I've always thought they seem super useful but haven't seen many youtubers using them often so I was a little nervous. but this makes me feel better about them!

Elephants foot compensation is “horizontal expansion” in Cura. I’ve used it in a pinch to give models a bit more play or to tighten up gaps for a better fit. Super helpful!!!

All your videos are amazingly useful even if we know about what you are talking about already but the fact you emphasize it make the information stuck and now I am finally convinced to use Rafts for the parts that I intend them to be precise.

Found this channel earlier today. As a current biomedical engineering major, accurate and precise 3d modeling and printing is a necessary skill to master. Thanks for your outstanding videos, subbed for sure👍

You've got the best points on design that are concisely and clearly presented. Thanks!

Hello Angus, this issue has been killing me this week with a filament that I put a lot of trust in. I've only been at modeling and printing for about 2 months now, and your videos have been hugely helpful. This one takes the cake though. Thank you so much!!!

Thank you so much for your videos I’m currently saving up for a 3D printer and I’m already picking up tricks and techniques thanks to your videos

This was the biggest problem I've had to deal with lately. Thank you so much for putting this out there! Found the "Initial Layer Horizontal Expansion" setting in Cura and I'm going to try it tomorrow :)

Thanks for this, it validated something I've been doing for months. I needed to print some structural pieces on a resin printer without elephant foot and figured a 0.5mm chamfer would compensate for the 0.5mm elephant foot I've been getting. The nice thing is with resing elephant foot only occurs on the bottom layers that have been set to a longer exposure, so it's very easy to figure out how high to make the chamfer and the part is still very dimensionally accurate.

You are the channel that inspired me to create my own youtube channel about 3D printing. Keep making great videos!!!

And in Cura it's called "Initial Layer Horizontal Expansion", but instead of a positive number, you have to enter a negative, i.e., -0.3mm or whatever. There's also the command "Horizontal Expansion" which is used to compensate for holes that print out too small (or large). Again, enter a negative number to compensate for holes that print too small and a positive for holes that are too big. Both of these work pretty well for me.

Great timing. I've been running into this lately. Thanks!

Excellent reminder of this and some great tips for mitigating it. Thanks for another great video!

cool video dude, just recieved my ender 3 v2, not had chance to build yet, so been watching as many tuition vids to get up to speed!! great info thankyou

I love how the elephant foot compensation and whatever makes support material easily detachable are both things that are activated by default in the Prusa Slicer. I just switched over from using Cura slicer with a Creality CR10 Mini to Prusa Slicer with a Prusa Mk3S, and I'm very happy with these two features, in addition to the magnetic PEI bed and the generally excellent functionality of the Prusa Mk3S printer.

This tutorial couldn't have come at a better time :V I had a whole plethora of issues that I only had myself to blame for - I'm a rookie and made the silly decision of doing my first ever nozzle and bed upgrades (despite the fact that my printer was dialled in to near perfection with my old nozzle & bed), right in the middle of a bunch of commissions for some pals. Looks like I was way too confident in my ability to troubleshoot because it was one problem after another, (bed levelling and the nozzle wasn't fitted properly, ontop of speed settings etc.) I kept my head on and solved everything pretty quick until this damn elephants foot which I've been at for days with little improvement. I was just about ready to call it quits and refund my friends till you uploaded this and now I'm happily on my way to finishing each commission. I think this calls for some more celebratory upgrades. :^)

THANK YOU! This was a very well done, very useful video covering the entire spectrum of the elephant foot issue and giving valuable advice and great solution options on how to remedy the issue! 👍👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏👏👏👏👏

I don't get why people hate rafts, for some prints they're necessary, especially things like rings where there's not much contact with the bed. I find even a 1 layer raft can make a huge difference, and it really doesn't take that much longer, or use that much filament. I probably waste more changing filaments to make sure the colour has changed!

I just started to try printing with Prusa. This is so helpful. Thank you!

I always love your content for years now, THANKS.

Whoa, I was having this issue with a test print yesterday! Perfect timing!

Would’ve been nice to see a comparison of a cube printed with and without a raft to see if accuracy is improved.

Great troubleshooting video! You can also set your first layer height in the slicer to 0mm or whatever with a piece of paper or even pause the printer at its first layer/temperature to level it then. Anyways, I just eyeball the level and either adjust screws or babystep/set home offset until things are level while printing. I assume a tolerance of .2-.3mm with a .4mm nozzle for projects so there is no need for a raft. Another tip is lowering the bed temperature. I was printing PETG at 85 on the bed and just reducing the temperature to 80 reduced elephant foot almost completely.

You print some awesome things and make some great Videos, I am getting a Creality Ender 3 Pro soon as my first 3D Printer and have seen some interesting mods for it and I was wondering if you had any suggestions or improvements of your own, though I will likely re-watch your videos and watch many more once it arrives. Thank you for making great content for the community to help people get started with 3D Printing.

I wish I would have had this info 3 years ago when I first started 3d printing! I knew nothing about 3d printing besides I was getting a computerized machine with a mini hot glue gun on it. The first 6 months or so of 3D printing was figuring out how to get the perfect first layer with no "squeeze out" was what I called it then. In the beginning I thought maybe my filament was too hot, or the heated bed was too hot and my prints were melting inside themselves! I just have to say you have done a glorious job of explaining what elephants foot is and how to compensate for it. Thank you thank you!

Top notch advice as usual, Angus. Thanks again.

This was the video I needed. My prints come out pretty well and I'm happy with the dimensional accuracy, already better than some stuff I've seen at Uni. Except for the first 3-5 layers.. I was looking on how to fix this. Trying it tomorrow! Next step: the remaining tiny bit of Z inconsistency and the infill structure slightly popping through

Thank you so much for this, I really was having trouble with my printer giving me this.

Oh! That explains that. I'm very new to 3D printing, and have so far printed one thing (on a library printer) and it definitely had elephant's foot. I was wondering why it was a little wider at the base. Nice to know that my plan of adding a chamfer round the base edge is actually a recommended solution.

I tend to just eyeball my corner leveling. I find its suprisingly more accurite than basing the height on how well the nozzle grips the paper. Just use babystepping to grt the hight perfect while you print your skirt. Also when leveling corners make sure there isnt any plastic on the tip of the nozzle. Made that mistake plenty.

Thank you so much Angus. It's been a big problem for me and now i think my parts might fit.

I'm a newbie and your video took me out of 5 failures on my print, thank you so much. i was like on a time loop. :p

This is very informative... Thank you Angus!

I was waiting for "Let's get started!"

I would like to say that after 2 years of watching this channel I have finally caved and bought my first 3d printer. Ender 3 Pro.

you are really smart angus! love your stuff!

Great vid. Superslicer has a setting for elephants foot and also has another setting which lets you select how many layers to compensate for.

Thanks for this video. I have a persistent EF problem on my Ender 3 but all the other videos I have seen only talk about the EF being on the first layer. Mine is visible up to as many as 10 layers and all protruding outwards, not concave like some you showed. I have tried many adjustments but I will now revisit the problem.

Underside chamfer is GENIUS! Thanks!!!

YES I needed this video so much ty

Wow, I have been fighting with this for a week. Im really new to 3D printing and its been a bit of a nightmare to get it all going. CR10 but the glass was apparently warped out the gate. I bought 12x12 panes from lowes and it took me all day to dial that in. I just ended up using rafts like you said as I still must be off a touch or Z is somehow or being told to increase z height at the start. Thanks for the video!

Thanks Angus, this is really helpful

For very small parts I find chamfers especially helpful in keeping them dimensionally stable in the X and Y

...not to mention that the "Elephants Foot" is the most dangerous object on planet earth. Thanks Chernobyl!!

That happens to me all the time this was very helpful thanks Angus

Nice solution! To fix it in S3D, I just add another process just for the first layer and give it negative Horizontal Size Compensation

Thank you so much for this video you took me from needing tool to get 5 all the way to being able to do 3 with ease

Great updates Good points Thanks for sharing👍😀

Thanks for this excellent tutorial.

Great tip of the raft, I will use that in Cura now, thanks!

I printed you clearance castle on my new FLsun SuperRacer at 150mm and no problems everything was prefect!

I already use most of these things to stop elephants foot on my prints. What i suggest is putting a little bit of glue from a glue stick on the bed before the print and making the first laver height the same of higher than all the others. Really good tutorial. You did a really good job at explaining the fine details for people that are new to 3d printing. A++

Recently all of my prints have been a little off on the base, like it was squished, and i just couldnt figure out what was going on, thank you for this!

Just at 11:30, I love rafts. I don't need them anymore, but on my first days working on a makerspace machine it wouldn't have come along without a raft. This bit of extra material is often worth compared to failed prints.

Hey Angus, I’m a bit late for this one, if your puzzle is really difficult please send one to Chris Ramsey. Great videos, very helpful, thank you.

Very informative! Thanks so much!

This man said "Raft" and my eyes rolled back so hard I found inner peace

Me: doesn’t even have a 3D printer. Also me watching this video: Hmm yes, interesting...

Seen elephant's foot in title and was wondering how you could stop Chernobyl's elephant foot with a 3d printer.

The real issue : There is no official tool for calibration.

Root causes of Elephant's foot, extruded width is wider than you spec'd due to wrong height, perimeter printed last gets nudged out by too wide fill, first layer stays too hot gets crushed. Fix these and get a perfect first layer: 1. Robust tuning to handle bed variation. First layer needs to be the thickest layer so changes in bed level are a small percentage of the first layer height. A 0.1 mm variation in bed level is 50% of a 0.2 mm layer, and results will always be crap. Use a thick first layer like 0.32 and pick a layer that is divisible by 4 full step motor steps for most Z accuracy. 2. Print first layer, stop, peel up and measure on all sides with micrometer. Adjust nozzle height and bed level manually until what you peel up and measure is as close as possible to the first layer specified in slicer. Measure near each level screw if possible. 3. Leave room for extra material due to variation. Set first layer extrusion width to the widest to get great adhesion, like 120%. This both increases flow rate and spaces the traces farther apart. Then set first layer flow rate to 90%. This will allow for variation in bed level before the print gets too big. 4. Print perimeter first on first layer. This avoids overly thick fill traces from bumping out the perimeter. 5. Slow down enough so first layer is cool before second layer goes down. Second layer with the fan blasting, to avoid crushing and expanding the first layer. Those setting at 1:30 are the opposite of what you want. Use First layer height 0.32 and First layer width 0.48, first layer flow 90 %, adjust as needed. Enjoy the perfect first layer.

Our 2 stratasys printers default to using rafts otherwise they would fuse, the markforged prints directly to the bed but it always looks fantastic. My guess is a combination of accurate leveling and software correction. My printer at home uses foam blocks with HIPS so that's fun.

Thanks Angus, super helpful 🙂

After about 5 test prints and too much wasted material I managed to get rid of most of the elephant's foot. So thank you!

Thank you for explaining this

Awesome work mate

Very interesting and informative. I think it is also worth mentioning the *temperature of the bed:* the squeeze of the first layer is possible because the bed heats plastic enoguh to be able to deform. By reducing the temperature of the bed after the first layer from, say, 60 to 50 degrees Celsius (PrusaSlicer has a specific option to set this), also reduces the squeeze of the first layer. I don't like using chamfers to correct the printed object, as it is not actually a part of the object, just a trick to overcome the squeeze of the first layer. But it works ^^', just as rafts do; sometimes you have to do what you have to do in order to have the printer make the object well

Thank you!....I honestly don't know why I didn't think of a simple chamfer myself!

If I remember right Cura has an adjustable number of layers to apply elephant's foot compensation; I use it on almost anything that isn't printed on a raft. And yeah, when I really need that perfect accuracy, I do swear by using a raft. One of my prints required several copies of a part being printed on a hexagonal raft about 10mm wide, and since they pulled away so cleanly I made the resulting rafts into coasters for beverages! No wasted material, they look cool, and they actually work quite well!

I don't even have a 3d printer. But enjoy your informative content. Thanks!

I fiddled with the settings and tightened my belts to try to get the perfect C cube and I got it bang on 20.00 mm in the X, Y but the Z-axis was 19.96 mm, I knew it was Elephants foot that was causing the loss in the Z-axis height. I am now going to slice my cube with compensation to see if I can get that perfect C cube.

Useful for me. Good stuff

After having issues, I bought your tolerance test. First print? .3 required force, the others broke. Second? They spinnin'! ALL of them! I was having a major issue with the infill causing expansion on the perimeters/walls, and after reading who knows how many forums (Prusa, reddit, etc) it seems that more walls would help. Sure enough, if you're having issues like that: up the wall count! So, it seems there's something unique about that middle one...

Angus your awesome !! I have a cr10s pro and I have upgraded backlash nuts, micro swiss hotend. I am getting so frustrated with my parts coming out inaccurate. If you ever decide to come to the US on a holiday, I have a beautiful home in the mountains near Yosemite National Park! I would be more than honored to offer you a a private room in exchange for a few hours of instruction one on one… I have a Plasma Table and a Wood Carving Avid cnc machine…. you would be welcome to use any or all of them. All you need to do is get here, your food and lodging are on me….. Thanks, Geoff

i would love to see many many puzzles it's such an interesting subject and so many branches you can go down

I’ve tried everything….I’m almost ready to fly you to NJ!!!

Thank you, Angus. I'm dealing with this now on a complicated device with low tolerances. I'm sick of using a stanley knife to cut off the elepheet!

Helpful video

Great video. I learned something about how to cure elephant's foot.

Wow very useful, thank you!

I started using Prusaslicer today and I'm so happy

A few words about crazy and complicated 3D designs: procedural generation and scripting helps A LOT. F.e. - using openSCAD in conjunction with Python and SolidPython library. It made possible create 3D models literally impossible to hand-draw in regular CADs, yet going to need at least elementary programming skills and intent to dig into it.

Perfect timing. I think i will print gears or gearboxes soon

i used the rafts from the clearance gauge as coasters....its a nice shape.

Ultimaker Cura has a tick box for printing rafts. I don't recognize your slicer. Cura is pretty good. Besides, I'm new. Okay, not quite as new after the previous line has aged a while, but I just want to let you know that I paid for the Clearance and Tolerance 3D Printer Gauge to test my profiles. I sliced it using .08, 0.10, & 0.12 layer height, and as expected, when printed using the .12 layer height, both 0.2 and .15 are stuck tight, and I had to break .3 free. But I surprised myself when I sliced it with the 0.10 layer height, then printed it. Imagine how awesome I feel that on an Ender 3, I have it tuned well enough that all 5 are free and rotate easily. I didn't have to break them apart either. And, I didn't know that the middle piece comes out when all 5 outer discs are lined up with the cutout over the center. I didn't bother slicing and printing the .08 version. Why go that low? Thank you for creating that gauge, so noobs like me have a target to shoot for. If anyone thinks a Creality Ender 3 can't print well enough to get all 5 discs to break free, without breaking free, they just don't know how to tune the printer correctly. For y'all to understand what I did, I first got rid of the elephants foot by using first layer horizontal expansion limits, then a couple other similar settings. I'm not going to go into any more detail. I'm willing to share my profiles, but if you really want to be good, you need to struggle to figure things out on your own first. Oh, look for hints in online sources, but remember, how you set up your printer in the first place will make a huge difference. The Ender 3 is a kit, so treat it like a challenge to get everything perfect, e.g., perfect 90 degree angles where they belong. Once you have that done, then tune it for printing. And welcome to a new drug. A very addictive drug. But, the highs mean you are serving someone in your life by creating things to make their lives easier. Or more enjoyable. I make stuff my grandkids love. Yeah, I'm an old FART (Fathers Against Raising Teenagers - an odd club I thought I as in when my kids weren't married and all grown up and moved out.)