How To Calibrate Your 3D Printers Extruder Esteps (Ender 3) 

Thank you so much, I just got a new extruder and this helped me a lot!!

At last. Someone has explained "the simple mathematical formula" that is so simple, no-one else is prepared to share it. I mean, why not rely on newbies being telepathic? Thank you so much for this explanation as to how the e-steps are actually calculated. Really appreciated.

There is a time and place for detailed, laborious tutorials when you want to learn. But this one was quick, too the point, and clear enough for laymen to understand and follow. Cheers for not over-complicating things. very well done.

Thanks for the tutorial! FYI: These same basic steps can be done using the Ender 3 control panel as well. Here are the steps for setting up the test: 1.) "Control > Temperature > Preheat PLA conf" -- to change the End temperature from default 185 -> 210 2.) "Control > Motion > Steps/mm" -- to view and modify the steps for each axis. (Default for E does seem to be 93.0) 3.) "Control > Store Settings" -- to SAVE the changes that you made. Then to test: 1.) "Prepare > Preheat PLA > Preheat PLA End" -- to start warming up the nozzle 2.) "Prepare > Auto Home" -- to home the printer 3.) "Prepare > Move Axis > Move Z > Move 10mm" -- set to 50mm 4.) "Prepare > Move Axis > Move Y > Move 10mm" -- set to 50mm 5.) "Prepare > Move Axis > Move X > Move 10mm" -- set to 50mm 6.) -- Wait on the Info screen for the Nozzle to reach 210 -- 7.) "Prepare > Move Axis > Extruder > Move 10mm" -- increment the current value by 100mm *Note: If you do several tests in a row, the Extruder value does not reset to 0, so just add 100mm to the current value (such as 100 -> 200 for the second test) At this point you can measure the filament per instructions in the video. If you need to make adjustments, be sure to use the current E-step value in place of 93.0 for the 9300 / [extruded length] calculation, and then repeat steps 2-3 in the setup. Then, if your nozzle is still hot and you did not home the print head, run the test again starting at step 7. Finally, once you have an acceptable measurement, you can either... A.) Start printing something! (since you hot end is ready to go) B.) Be sure to cooldown your print head before turning the printer off... Cooldown: 1.) "Prepare > Cooldown" -- Turn off the heater in your print head 2.) -- Wait on the Info screen for the Nozzle to reach ~30 -- 3.) Turn off the printer

I still go back to this video💀🫡🫡thank you bro

I dont smoke weed... but I ate an edible the first time I watched this.. and when he said "use editing to quickly get to temperature" my dumbass googled "editing for faster temperatures" like 5 seconds before I realized the joke.

Great help with figuring out what the issue was after I upgraded my Bowden to direct drive, 3d printers are one of those things you never stop learning about and add knowledge to life

Thank you. I literally needed to do this to my Ender 3 and this video helped tremendously. I did an upgrade on the extruder and changed to a silent mainboard. Its now printing like a champ.

finally someone making a "for dummies" tutorial with software recommendation! thank you so much!

Thanks. I literally just got the same MicroSwiss direct drive you have and this is exactly the info I needed. This helps me so much.

Thank you so much, this is perfect, mine was 10.2mm under-extruding (from factory) and with your advice I managed to get it in about .2mm accurate so huge change. Keep up good work.

2 years later and still out here saving lives. Thanks for making this vid!

So useful. Should 100% be in every beginner's tutorial to 3D printing. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Omg you don't even know how much stress this just saved me. The other video I was watching had a little tiny mistake and I could not figure out the problem for weeks. THANK YOU

Not sure if you have seen this. I tried your process at least 5 times and the M500 would not store. Until I remembered a RU-vid channel were it was mentioned to make sure you have an sd card in your printer I tried this and it seems to work. I don't why but it worked. I will check and see if it continues. Thought you might mention it in your next e step calibration video. Keep up the good work I check back often.

I don't calibrate e-steps often enough to remember the gcodes & formula. I've came back to this same video multiple times over the past few years. Extremely helpful, thanks for making this!

I uaed your video a couple years ago to perform this calibration and it worked perfectly. Once again, I needed it and once again, I am calibrated perfectly. Thank you!

This is the first video/website I've found that explains a workable way to do this on a unit with a bowden tube. Thank you!

Not sure if I said it before, but this is the BEST video on RU-vid for properly adjusting the E-steps for the extruder. Thanks!

Very nicely executed. A++ very detailed and hands on rather than talking about it like others i have seen. CHEERS brother. Keep up the good work

Thank you so much for taking the time to share this. This fixed a big issue I've been having after upgrading a motherboard.

Thanks so much for this video. Very easy to follow. Was having underextrusion issues on my stock ender 3 pro and this helped me to adjust it.

I got my reversal fixed and went through these steps. Slight glitches but nothing serious. End product is perfect. Thanks again.

Oh Man, this help my prints look so much better now! Thank you for doing this. Thank you for making the Math part easier. Awesome!

I just wanted to say thank you for this video, helps a lot and makes the whole process a lot less scary to try at first.

Thank you sooooo much!!! Finally I have been able to sort out the problems on my ender 3 pro it was massively under extruding!! Your video is spot on I can now finally get on with my printing!! Thank you!!

Perfect video for getting my newly installed swiss extruder on the ender3 to work correctly!

Thank you so much for the video. This has made a nice difference on my Ender 3 V1 with All metal hot end and all metal extruder gears.

Easiest guide out there by far. Only issue I had was that I needed the CH40 driver for my computer and Pronterface to recognise my printer (Ender 3 Pro with an upgraded Ender board) over USB, but that was solved with a 5min search. All in all, it took 30min, but my results seem to tell me that I shouldn't have been surprised at the fact that my prints used to underextrude. Hopefully, this will have done the trick!

gotta few hundred hours on my ender 3 v2 now . it is my first printer and i feel like it will not be long that i will have to start tweeking the settings and this vid helped me better understand what ill be facing in the near future .. thank you!!!

AWESOME VIDEO!!! Ive had my printer for a while now, upgraded the main board, but never updated firmware or anything as that is a new area for me, but after following your video and calibrating my new micro swiss extruder I feel I can do the other things I've been intimidated by!!

This was the best video out there for steps per mm. Very well done . Thanks so much I now know how to do this 👍

After following the steps in this video I was able to troubleshoot and determine that my extruder had gone bad. Used these steps again when I put the new extruder on and now it prints like a beauty! Thanks!

Thanks my ender 3 had a lot of the problems you were talking about so I did this and It extruded just about the right about of filament just 1mm over!

Thank you so much, I had no idea how to calibrate esteps and this showed me exactly what to do Extremely helpful!

Perfect! Thank you SOOO much! Just installed the MicroSwiss Direct Drive Extruder on my Ender 3 V2. Once I finally got my feedrate (steps/mm) set, ALL of my issues went away. Calculating it was easy. SO much easier than trial and error. 139.5 steps/mm and my prints are silky smooth and adhere to the bed properly. I *really* needed this! -- Ender 3 V2 MicroSwiss Direct Drive with all metal hot end kit.

crazy useful for calibrating my new extruder. thanks for this content!

omg! this video was amazing! a friend sent it to me and now my ender 3 is printing perfectly fine with no issues and no under extrusion

Thanks for the vid. I had a hunch my printer is under extruding, gonna try this out in the morning. Thanks again for the tutorial :D

Using the bottom of the calipers is a brilliant wee tip👍

Thanks for a great video. It was a much needed video! Too many videos on this topic are extremely over complicated. This was short and sweet. 😎

Thanks mate. Really helpful for novice users like me. One thing I noticed though. On your recommendation the extrusion command has a flow of 100mm per minute (F100). With this command I dad some hard time to have accurate measurements (Bowden extruder and PLA temperature on 210 on an Ender 3 V2 -with metal extruder). I had better and more accurate results when I dropped the flow to 50mm per sec (G E100 F50).

thank you for showing this on pronterface! so very helpful

perfect video easy to follow. Our numbers were pretty much the same 93. then i was off by 66.3. new number 140.3 dialed in perfect now great video thanks!

Absolutely fantastic advice, exactly what i was looking for.

Perfect explenation. I am using creality community firmware 6.1 and your path is works. I found 20.25mm after final calculate like yours measurement. 👌

Big thank you made doing Extruder E-step so easy to follow

you video value to me is gold , you have solved my issue with very good baby steps , thankssssss

Super helpful. only recommendation is to explain pronterface to people bad with software like me. Had to watch some other videos to get the connection right to my printer. Hopefully setting the E steps will help the massive oozing and stringing problems I've been having (maybe also adjusting the retraction settings better too). Thanks, great stuff!

If you've seen (as I have) the other RU-vid videos on this topic then you know how good this video really is. Thanks very much and keep up the good (intelligible) work. One suggestion: Forget the Sharpie. Flush cut the filament before & after the 100mm extrusion where it exits the extruder. Much easier to measure. Not sure why you think it's important to actually extrude from the printhead. I wonder how many newbies have calipers. They should be one of the first tools they buy. INVALUABLE!!!

Thank you so so so much, just fitted a dual extruder which was missing steps and was making weird lines like shown in your video. Again thank you for your help!

You can also calculate and set them on the printer menu (at least on the pro model), basicaly eliminating the need for any aditional software ;). Very informative video, keep up the good work

I am grateful for this video. (And many more of your videos) Just set up a new direct drive Microswiss hotend. Nailed my E-steps!

really useful video mate! :D thank you so much, I was massively under extruding!

Perfect explanation and I got it perfectky now to test it out.

Have been having these really odd issues for months now and couldn't pinpoint the issues and I believe it was due to various recommended updates which no one mentions could cause under extrusion. Updates / changes I did, replaced the plastic extruder bracket with all metal and replaced the original Bowden tube with Capricorn tubing. The issues were small at first, bed adhesion, first layer issues, etc.. and still had successful prints, just not satisfied with the results. however when printing with PLA+ and Shiny PLA there were tons of issues. I spent countless days screwing around with the bed, ensuring level z axis and even reassembled the E3 pro, bought CR Touch and new mainboard but it never occurred to me that the updates to the tubing and bracket were causing this temporary under extrusion. Finally I got into teaching techs calibration guide (Should have been my first step in troubleshooting). After following this video in calibrating my e-steps I am finally seeing better results. Thank you for putting this together, I can now have confidence in my printing abilities again. - Finally!!!

Thank you, very well explained and did the job perfectly!

This just saved me a TON of headache! Thanks so much for this video! btw I am only 3 weeks old 3D printing

Cant believe you dont have millions of subscribers thanks for the great video I am watching

Thank you so much, this video was very helpful.

Earned my sub! I recently upgraded to the Micro Swiss direct drive extruder on my Ender 3... hopefully I can get this sorted. Now, I just need to find an STL or cad file for a bracket for my Geeetech 3D Touch(BL Touch knock-off) that will mount properly with this new extruder as well! Thx! Great video! (so tired of manually leveling this thing)

Thank you for your help with this. great job

Worked perfectly. Thank you

finally the solution of my troubles ! thanks a lot ! Bless you.

this saved me out of the blue i had under extrusion issues go crazy i tried getting an upgraded extruder new bowden tube i was like surly the calibration cant be off....it was off 10% which makes a big difference!

Worked like a charm on my Ender 3 Pro with the stock extruder setup. Thanks! Edit: Worked again for the MicroSwiss DD for Ender 3 Pro (obv I see now you're using the same thing 😊).

Thank you I am .4mm off my calibration cube and need to be like less then .1 off for my prints and this is a perfect help thank you

Always using this video on new builds

Awesome thanks. I used a really expensive 3D printer at work, which made me want to buy a budget one for at-home use. I am having to overcome not being ready out of the box. lol

Thanks for the clear instructions.

Changed my CR10S extruder to a direct drive dual gear. I did an EStep calibration but I was still getting little globs on my prints. Changed my ESteps from 160 to 155 and it's printing perfectly now.

Thanks for making this simple!

worked perfect first time, thanks!

Great video. Please don't ever take it down!! Thank you

This was great. Thank you!

Thanks a bunch! Love your channel

Hi. Great video man! Helped me tremendously! Thank you for the awesome content! Just a friendly heads up in your description... "It is not very difficult to calibrate your extruder and I am 'hear' to guide you through it."

Excellent Video and Thank You so much was a big help!!!

Very helpful! Thank you.

Big help, thanks!

Voxelab was set at 93steps/mm. Changed it to 100 after this and now it prints incredible. I was having issues with some prints not sticking to the build plate. Bed was leveled with a receipt.

Thanks, i just did what you told me to do and it worked. on my ender 3 the Esteps are also 93 so creality must have made that a default setting from the factory.

thank you! this was very helpful

AWESOME!!!! Thanks for the detailed help!!!!

man this was the bets, ty. you didn't over complicated the shit out of this.

Amazing video, thanks!

Thanks! perfect tutorial

Thank you this was very helpful!!!

This was perfect. Thanks!!!

Thank you for this video.

Sir you are insane in a good way! Thank you!

This was perfect thank you so much!

Nice 1 cheers dude, brilliant instructional video helped a alot

Thanks so much, it help me a lot!

Nice and simple THX

I really appreciated your very clear and detailed tutorials. This one is one of the best on this subject. It might be a good idea to show how this can also done right from the printer control panel for those beginners (like me) who don't want to deal the extra complexity of Pronterface at this time.

wow my printer is printing great now. THX

You can also run all these commands in the terminal section of octoprint. Great video thank you.

BEST VIDEO EVER!!!

Great guide