E-steps will means the number of steps a stepper motor takes to extrude one millimeter of filament, incorrectly calibrated e-steps might cause under extrusion and bad bed adhesion too.
The process to calibrate your ESteps is very easy
- Heat up the extruder and remove the filament
- Remove the bowden tube from the extruder pneumatic fitting, so you can see the filament coming out of it.
- Insert filament until it reaches the pneumatic fitting and snip it flush to the whole
- Manually on the printer extrude 100mm of filament
- When the printer finishes extruding the filament snip it again by the extruder pneumatic fitting
- Using calipers measure how much filament was extruded
- Go to your printer settings and check what is your current estep value (For Ender-3 Menu > Control > Motion > Steps/mm > Esteps/mm) and note down your current EStep value (for most Ender-3s the default value is 93mm)
- Calculate your new esteps using the following formula:
OldValue x 100 / MeasuredFilament
, this means that if your configured ESteps were 93 mm, and you measured 96.6 mm your new EStep value would be ~96.3mm (93x100/96.6=96,273291925
) - Set this new EStep value in your printer settings (For Ender-3 Menu > Control > Motion > Steps/mm > Esteps/mm)
- Dont forget to save the settings, of you will wonder why your prints are not sticking again on the next day!