Repper's delight

Leveling the Rapman's bed to ensure it's perfectly parallel to the XY toolhead's plane is something important.
Until now, like a lot of people I guess, I was doing it "by eye", trying to achieve a thickness of about 3 sheets of paper (hot-end/bed distance) where the 3 leveling bolts are placed (back left and right corners + middle front).
It usually is enough for classic 3D printing.

But as I allready said, for pen-plotting and especially for milling, it's important to insure that the bed is perfecly leveled. Or at least as perfect as it can be.
So we're going to need a more "scientific" way to make sure the bed is at an equal distance to the toolhead (at least at these 3 leveling points).

And I think there is an easy way...

Doing searches on the web, I found that little python script.
It's aimed to print lampshades from grayscale images on a Makerbot.

If it works on a Makerbot it should also work on a Rapman. So let's try that...

I have never tried printing with PLA.
I know it warps less than ABS so it can be an interesting material, especially for big flat parts. I have some blue translucide PLA so I'm going to try with that...

For a complete week I have a dual head BfB3000 to test at home.
So let's see what this printer can do...

Tuning my Rapman is real fun.
But I'd like to print something else than just spare parts from time to time.
So let's make a little pause...

Skeinforge's Statistic module gives information on how much plastic should be used.
It's just an estimate.
But how good is Skeinforge in this cost estimate ?
Let's try to find out...

I know that I will have to calibrate my machine if I want as accurate prints as possible.
But for now I'm just too excited to wait and want to see it print right away !