Level in corners ... but not in middle, where most gets printed

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I spend a lot of time on bed leveling the glass bed of my Ender 3 V2, using a piece of inkjet printer paper so that there's some friction at each corner. But there always remains a slightly larger gap in the middle. It's also visible if I place a steel ruler across, with a light behind. Not much, about the paper's thickness, gradually decreasing on each side, but presumably enough to cause trouble?

I eventually persuaded Creality to ship me a replacement but after a couple of months I've concluded that's the same, so must be a general problem?

Q1: Do others (with any bed) have same issue?

Q2: Why are most leveling instructions focused on the corners, where very little filament gets placed?

Q3: Given that all my prints are quite small ( typically a footprint of under 100mm square, and often half that), should I always shift the model in the slicer (Cura in my case) from its central default to near the front left corner?

To get as much feedback as possible on this long standing vexation I've also posted in Reddit's Ender 3 category. I hope that's OK?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ender3/comments/oqn70i/level_in_corners_but_not_in_middle_where_most/

Terry
 
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I had this same issue with my e3v2 and following advice from other sources I ended up shimming the center of the glass with folded tin foil. It worked for me so it may be worth a shot. I also changed out the original bed clips for mini bulldogs in each corner to spread the clamping force across the whole glass plate.

Ultimately though, I just bought a bltouch. Now I just check the level every now and again and let the probe sort the rest.
 
Soldato
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I had loads of issues with the stock creality glass bed . I ended up purchasing a new bed off the rain forest , a Hictop
Far better quality and dead level so first layer prints are top notch. Only trouble is they are currently out of stock.
I was going to go down the bltouch route but read that quite a few people were having issues so didn't bother.
Stuck with the Hictop bed, upgraded yellow springs.

Also check out the ender3V2 on Reddit it only has ender 3 V2 users and I've found it more helpful than the ender3 sub
 
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Thanks for all the helpful replies.

For now, I'm trying kitchen foil. bltouch sounds a bit too complicated, and one more thing to maintain. If I ever treat myself to a second 3D printer I will be in the market for a ready-to-run model with fully automatic leveling. Is there one yet on sale at a hobbyist price?
 
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Only 2 that come to mind for me is the creality cr6-se and the anycubic vyper. Both around the £300 mark though. But I'd be amazed if any bed is truly leveling free.
 
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Update your firmware to enable Mesh Bed Leveling.

It'll take a probe of a number of spots on your bed (so a bit like the leveling your used to but you move the hot end instead of bed wheels) and it'll create a map of the build plate and it's deformities. It'll use this map to adjust the print head to the bed as it's printing and even it's way up after X number of layers.
 
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