How to Level the Base

If it's your first time Start Here

When you assemble your Tornado for the first time, the instructions provided by Tevo are pretty poor. They do not sufficiently caution you about how to avoid crashing your hot end into the bed, and miss out on providing you the tips and tricks that make levelling easier. Your goal when levelling the bed for the first time is to get it dialled in enough to print parts to help you level it even better.

To perform this procedure you will need:

• The hex key wrench for the bed screws
• A piece of regular paper ( > 50mm (2+ inch) Wide by >100mm (4+ inch) Long)
• A piece of cardboard thicker than 4mm (or 1/8 inch)

1. Start with the Hot End well above the surface of the bed.
2. Assemble the bed as indicated in the instructions, but DO NOT home the Tornado or power it on.
3. Tighten the levelling screws until the bed is as far down as it will reasonably go without crushing the springs too much. Your goal is to get the bed below the point that the Hot End will reach when the head is Auto Homed. Further steps will bring the bed up to the right level to print at. When tightened sufficiently the springs will still have light visible between the coils. BE CAREFUL not to over tighten,
4. Check your Z Axis Limit switch. Make sure it is properly positioned to engage when the Z axis travels down.
5. Power on your Tornado. Leave your hand on the power switch so that you can turn it off if any problems occur
6. This step will bring the hot end to 0,0,0 as defined by the limit switches on the printer. If any of them fail, or you have an assembly error or defect be prepared to power off. On the screen Select "Prepare" --> "Auto Home".
7. If you assembled your Tornado properly and it's not majorly defective you should have your bed well bellow the Hot End and you are ready to start levelling the bed (your hot end should not be touching). It's now pretty safe to take your finger off the power button and get familiar with moving your Hot End around the bed using the control box:
   • "Prepare" --> "Move Axis" --> "Move X" --> "Move 10mm" will bring up a 'Move X: +000.0' interface. Move your X axis over 10 at a time to +310.0 (which is beyond the print area of 300). It should travel smoothly with no clicks, clanks or bangs.
   • Move it back to +150.0 which is the bed X Centre.
   • Pressing the button brings you back one menu level. Now navigate to "Move Axis" which again brings you back one menu level
   • "Move Y" --> "Move 10mm" will bring up a 'Move Y: +000.0' interface. Move your Y axis over 10 at a time to +300.0 (which is the mechanical limit). It should travel smoothly with no clicks, clanks or bangs.
   • Move it back to +150.0 which is the bed X Centre. You should now be at (150,150,0).
   • Now let's move in small increments. Pressing the button to bring you back one menu level. "Move 1mm" brings you back to "Move Y: +150.0". Move the Y by 1mm to 151.0. Now you have all the basic skills to move slowly or quickly across the bed.
8. Now we want to raise the bed by loosening the 4 corner screws. This is where we will use the cardboard. The goal is to get the bed closer to the Hot End, without getting too close. Place the cardboard under the nozzle and raise all 4 screws an even amount until the nozzle touches the cardboard and creates the smallest amount of resistance when you pull it out from under the Hot End.
9. Check that the bed appears level, as we are now going to move the Hot End around to the 4 corners. With the cardboard out, Move the Hot End in 10mm increments to (30,30,0) Front Left Corner. As you move it make note of how the distance changes between the Hot End and Bed. This will help you see how level the bed is and which corners are high. Stop and adjust as you go if the bed is way off. Do not move if there is any chance of hitting the bed.
10. Once you are at (30,30,0) Adjust this corner so that the cardboard makes contact and makes a small amount of resistance. Keep in mind that as you raise or lower one corner, it changes the other corners. Our goal here is to get a rough level on each corner.
11. Once you have adjusted the Left Front corner we will proceed to the Right Front Corner. Slowly move the X axis to (270,30,0). As you move it make note of how the distance changes between the Hot End and Bed. This will help you see how level the Right Side is relative to the Left Side.
12. Once you are at (270,30,0) Adjust this corner so that the cardboard makes contact and makes a small amount of resistance. Keep in mind that as you raise or lower the Right Corner, it lowers or raises the Left Corner. GO Back and forth between Steps 10 and 11 until the Front is Level Left Right.
13. Move Slowly over to (270,270,0) Adjust this corner so that the cardboard makes contact and makes a small amount of resistance.
14. Move Slowly over to (30,270,0) Adjust this corner so that the cardboard makes contact and makes a small amount of resistance. Again as you move it make note of how the distance changes between the Hot End and Bed. This will help you see how level the Right Side is relative to the Left Side. Repeat Steps 13 & 14 until the back is level.
15. Now you have achieved a very Rough Level. Move the Bed around between (30,30,0) -> (270,30,0) -> (270,270,0) -> (30,270,0) until you are satisfied that the bed is fairly well aligned using the cardboard. Move the Hot End back to the centre of the bed (150,150,0).
16. Now we need to heat the bed to 60c. A Warm bed expands a bit, and that changes the alignment. 50-60 Degrees is a typical first layer temperature for many filaments. The expansion difference between 50c and 60c is very small, and tuning for 60c is also good for printing at temps up to 90c.
17. Now that you have a warm bed with a Rough Level you can raise the bed to paper thickness level by turning each side an equal amount using the Hex Key. Because the bed is so much closer to the Hot End, Move VERY CAREFULLY. Repeat steps 9-15 with paper instead of cardboard. Step 15 may need to be repeated several times with the paper to get the best results.
18. After Step 16, move very carefully to (150,150,0). The centre of the bed is typically higher than the rest of the bed by a small amount. Make sure that the centre passes the paper test (depending on how level your bed surface is is, you may have to make a compromise where you are a bit tighter in the middle, and a bit lower at the sides. While levelling with this paper method is pretty good, levelling with a Dial Gauge (or auto bed leveller) provide better precision.

If You already have your printer aligned well enough to print but want to improve it

This procedure assumes that:

1. Your bed is well aligned enough to print a basic part.
2. You have purchased a Dial Gauge with decent accuracy
3. You have a piece of paper or feeler gap tool

The method that I recommend is to buy a "Triton 1" Dial Indicator 0.001" Graduation Travel Lug Back White Face", and print a Tevo Tornado Dial Indicator Mount for a 3/8ths Shank I used the one in the link and got it for $14.45 USD from Amazon Prime. In theory you could use any other 3/8ths shank gauge.

Optionally you may want to take this opportunity to print and install some Bed Levelling Knobs:

• TEVO TORNADO KNOB LEVELING
• Tevo Tornado Leveler Knob

Once you have that printed and assembled:

1. Centre (150,150,0) your Hot End on the bed (or over a flat non-bubbled starting point)
2. Heat the bed to 60c.
3. Adjust the centre to "Paper Thickness" so that you can feel the slightest resistance when the paper is pulled out.
4. Raise the Z +10MM. This is a good Z height so that we can more quickly move around the bed.
5. Snap on the Dial Mount. Set the Gauge to zero for this location
6. We will be using the locations (30,60,10) -> (270,60,10)-> (270,280,10)-> (30,280,10) to go around the bed and leave enough room to get access to the tops of the bed screws. These co-ordinates should also work for people printing on Ikea Mirrors, Home Depot Mirrors and many other base surfaces.
7. Start at (30,60,10) and level it to the Gauge zero that you set in the centre. You may find it faster to not go all the way to zero. Some people prefer to make the first adjustment to 1/2 the difference to prevent overcompensating.
8. Alternate between (30,60,10) -> (270,60,10) until they are aligned to Gauge Zero.
9. Move to (270,280,10) and level it to the Gauge zero. Again with the first adjustment on the back, you may find it faster to not go all the way to zero and bring it to 1/2 the difference to prevent overcompensating.
10. Alternate between (270,280,10)-> (30,280,10) until they are aligned to Gauge Zero.
11. Alternate between (30,60,10) -> (270,60,10) until they are aligned to Gauge Zero.
12. Alternate between (270,280,10)-> (30,280,10) until they are aligned to Gauge Zero.
13. Now all 4 corners should be relatively precisely aligned. Slowly (1mm at a time) lower the Z to 0. Confirm that the Hot End is "Paper Thickness" from the bed.