Leveling Feet and Squaring the Frame

These feet consist of metal leveling feet that fit inside rubber tips

I was unable to find a level surface to mount my printer, so any time I moved it, it would be out of balance and I'd have to find just the right object (paper, cardboard) to level the printer's 4 corners. Instead, I wanted rubber leveling feet. Misumi had the feet for $5 per foot, but Home Depot and some ingenuity made it $5 for all 4 feet.

Rubber leveling foot with its mounting plate and threaded hole

I had to get a 3/16" x 12" aluminum bar to cut into mounting plates, and then drill and tap the holes for each foot. I was lucky the leveling feet fit exactly into the extrusion slot, making a nice thick mount for the foot screw.

Now that I have leveling feet, I realized I could use a new combination square and a bubble level to square up my frame. This was more difficult than it sounds because I had to disassemble the printer to properly square everything. Once disassembled I followed these steps:

1. Measure and square the bottom layer of extrusions. I moved the corner brackets to the outside because the vat mounting plate was often in my way.
2. Mount the leveling feet. Level the bottom layer with the bubble level.
3. Use the bubble level to square and tighten each vertical 3 ft. extrusion.
4. Measure the height for the 18 in. extrusions that are midway up the sides. Check levelness with the bubble level.
5. Slide in all mounting nuts for projector, actuator, and electronics mounts.
6. Measure and square the top layer of extrusions.
7. Attach the top layer of extrusions to the vertical extrusions.
8. Attach and level electronics mount.
9. Attach actuator mount. Ensure the lowest actuator movement does not collide with the vat mount plate. Level actuator mount. Get the motion to be level by moving the actuator. The table of the actuator seems quite aligned, but not my lift plate.
10. Attach the projector mount. Adjust mount so that projected image should be 4 and 1/32" (102.4mm) wide. Level projector.
11. Recheck actuator movement with the stepper motor to ensure level movement and reduced z-wobble.