Guides › How to calibrate e-steps and flow rate

How to calibrate e-steps and flow rate

E-steps tell the firmware how far to turn the extruder motor for each millimetre of filament. If they're off, every print is under- or over-extruded. Calibrate once per extruder; then tune flow per filament.

You need

• A ruler or calipers and a fine marker
• A way to send G-code (OctoPrint, Pronterface, or your printer's terminal)

Steps

1. Heat the hotend to your usual printing temperature.
2. Send M503 and find the line M92 X… Y… Z… E93.00. The E value is your current e-steps.
3. Mark the filament exactly 120 mm above where it enters the extruder.
4. Send M83 (relative extrusion), then G1 E100 F100. Wait until it finishes — about a minute.
5. Measure from the extruder to your mark. If it reads 20 mm, it extruded exactly 100 mm.
6. New e-steps = current × 100 ÷ (120 − measured). Send M92 E<new> then M500 to save.
7. Repeat once; you should be within 1 mm.

Then calibrate flow

Print a 20 mm single-wall cube in vase mode with your line width set to, say, 0.45 mm. Measure the wall on all four sides and average. New flow = current flow × 0.45 ÷ measured. Set this in your slicer's filament profile (Cura: Flow; PrusaSlicer: Extrusion multiplier; Orca/Bambu: Flow ratio).

Klipper

Klipper uses rotation_distance instead of steps/mm. New rotation_distance = old × actual extruded ÷ requested. Edit it in printer.cfg and restart firmware.

Tools for this