Is it time for 3D printers to abandon bed springs?

For a long time 3D printers relied on bed springs in each corner to level the bed and ensure a good first layer. However, most modern designs do away with them entirely. So can we safely remove them and rigidly mount the bed? In this video, I examine a range of 3D printers with and without springs to try and find an answer. I then do a before and after comparison on the Ender 3 with print tests.

0:00 Introduction

0:37 What bed springs do

1:57 Potential bed spring problems

2:19 Prusa MK3

3:37 Premium coreXY printers

4:47 Creality CR-10 Smart

6:03 Creality CR-10 Max

7:00 Bambu Lab X1C / P1P

8:49 Creality Ender 3 - Before and after

12:10 Summary and tips

13:26 Conclusion

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[VezD]

Nobody talks about bed vibration. But using silicon spacers instead of springs will dampen vibration.

[scramsby]

One benefit of springs I haven't seen mentioned yet is that it is giving some minor vertical play under high force to the bed means which means that if you mess up your auto bed leveling, Z offset, or Z endstop positions and accidentally crash your nozzle into the bed, the bed will give way and thus you're likely to cause less damage to your nozzle, print head, and the print surface. I know I've messed this up and it's saved me multiple times. I still use stiff yellow springs on my custom HEVO CoreXY that uses a fairly basic heated print bed with a PEI coated spring steel sheet.

[ILEFTCAPSN]

I used to use the yellow springs with my Ender 3 v2 and didn't really like the results, but since I switched to silicone spacers, I've loved the consistent results.

[axelSixtySix]

Well, here I gave silicon pads as spring replacement a try. And I must confess those were particularly efficient as they maintain the bed firmly in any direction while allowing adjustments by compressing them. They do not damage PCB or silicon heating pads and provide a good thermal insulation between the structure by the way.

[abaile]

I went down the rigid mount and ABL route a while ago after I got sick of having to level the bed so often. Rather than standoffs I sandwiched the carriage with nuts, so getting it as level as possible the first time way a huge PITA. I've never regretted it though; it's so nice to be able to just send a print to the printer and know that the first layer is going to be perfect every time. Just preheat, clear the dribble, press print and walk away.

[gizmobowen]

Two Ender 3s running stiffer than stock springs with an ABL. Working well enough. Very interesting to see the Bambu printers using springs for fine adjustment. Wouldn't have guessed that. Still love the thick bed and three motor systems a lot. Feels like the most robust solution.

[frickezthias]

Thanks for the video! To avoid more wobble on the machine, I place my 3d printer on a concrete slab from the hardware store and underneath the slab is some closed cell packing foam. It removes quite a bit of the vibration.

[thecamosoupbone]

I have a Ender 5. Originally upgraded to the yellow thick spring after a few months of use. Already made a big difference and I did not needed to level the bed often. Then last year (about 3years later) I switch to Silicone spacers/bushings. I had to level the bed last month for the first time. And only cause I upgraded the a different hotend and added a CR touch. I would 10 out of 10 recommend silicon spacers as I believe they do damp some vibrations as well.

[adamwentworth]

Thank you for this. The bed on my CR-10S was soooo wobbly. I replaced the springs with nylon spacers, and it's been wonderful ever since!

[g.h.c]

Been considering this for a while and seeing this pushed me to do it, I used nylon shims and fibrous washers. So glad I did not only had it stabilised the bed but it no longer drifts so no constant relevelling. Print quality has noticeably improved.

[manyhatershere]

when i got my prusa mk3, the rigid bed and abl experience was like the coming of the 3d printing messiah. it instantly cured all the problems i was having with first layer adhesion. i've been an ABL and no springs zealot ever since.

[andrewtinker]

One thing I did for my ender 3 that drastically cut down on bed slop and improved my layer stacking was to put washers and nuts at the top of the bed adjustment screws, rigidly attaching the screws to the bed. The screws as they are are just in loose countersunk holes, and then held at the bottom by the adjusting wheels. When the frame the bed is mounted to moves back or forwards, especially at higher acceleration rates, inertia momentarily keeps the bed stationary and the screws tilt off vertical. Tilted bolts are effectively shorter than straight ones, so that pulls the bed downward till it catches up. A washer and nut threaded all the way up against the bottom side of the bed pulls the screw tightly into the countersink on the bed surface, preventing it from tilting. Incidentally, I also use a three point tramming frame, as it just makes more sense to me than trying to tram with four adjustment points. That also allowed me to separate the support for the bed heater cord from the adjustment mechanism: I've found that the additional thickness of the heater cord support requires substantially more tension than the others to pull it down to the same level. As you found, equalizing that tension required adding washers to all the other screws.

[slysi]

I switched from springs to silicone spacers. Holds level better and suffers much less from vibration. Also added a lock nut to stop the wheels from lossening over time. Has helped so much over the original bed springs.
Great video. Thank you.

[azdip]

I gave up on springs a long time ago. I fixed the screws in the bed with nuts and washers. And printed two regulators with nuts for each corner. It's a little more difficult to adjust, but it works really well for me. Additionally, I set the manual calibration of the bed to 16 points, because the fiberglass table is crooked (±0.05mm). And I don't calibrate the bed for months, only when I completely disassemble it.

[Theeslickness]

On my old Tevo Taranula, I have a 3-point spring leveling system that is super stiff. The bed rides on 2 extra wide extrusions with V-groove rollers. I haven't touched those spring knobs in years. I'm glad to see how things evolve with the market.

[trevorjenkins]

Removed mine over a year ago had no problems with it. Fully adjustable.
Very rare to have problems.
It's a Converted Anet A8 it was made of ply now metal.
Thanks for your continued interesting information.

[rpjames]

My Ender 3 is still using bed springs. I put stiffer ones on from stock and that made a world of difference on the quality. I almost say that it prints better than my MK3S (with a 32 bit board, Revo CR, BLTouch, and a dual gear extruder).

[kodguerrero]

This is cool to see. I removed my springs last year after I read an article online. Now I have the bed attached with two washers and two butterfly nuts, that way I can regulate the height super easily but it stays tight

[goldiebboy]

I've just gone back to stiff springs in my biggest printers (Anycubic Chiron and Max) which had helped greatly! This is with the ABL system, using the bed_screws_adjust Klipper function. It had enabled me to have much better consistent first layers, with the ABL further removing any inconsistencies.

The above AND the Klipper macro of bed mesh leveling only the printable area for the model being printed has been fantastic! I struggled with a long time getting good first layers, especially with the Max that had the fixed spacers under the bed, but the mounting was terrible from factory.

Very happy with the springs for now.

[fkthewhat]

I used those nylon spacers you showed to get the springs to be much more compact. I opted to keep them so I could get the bed as flat as possible, but your idea of adding washers to compensate instead might be something I could try. Cool idea