I just received my new Creality Ender 3. I was going through and checking/adjusting everything for alignment, and I noticed that when you "auto home" the print head, the nozzle stops off the front of the print bed by 5-10 mm.
Is that normal?
Is it perhaps by design to allow purging the nozzle without dumping on the bed?
It doesn't appear that there is any way to adjust the Y stop switch without making modifications to it. It also didn't look like there was any easy way to move the bed either.
Many printer's X/Y endstops are not at the origin of the build plate/heated bed. In the firmware, an offset is defined from the build plate origin to the endstop locations. This is normal, nothing to worry about.
When you hook up your printer to your computer over USB, and install a program that can interface with the printer (e.g. PronterFace, OctoPrint, Repetier-Host, etc.) through a so called terminal, you can send the print head to the origin with command G1 X0 Y0 (or you can put that line in a G-code file and print the file, be sure to have homed the printer first with G28). You will then see the head move to the origin, which should normally be the left front corner as the firmware compensated for the endstop offsets. If the print head is not at the origin after these commands, you could recalibrate the endstop offsets.
Yes, this is the "intended" behavior, as the home in relation to the physical limit position is not placed correctly about 7.5 mm into the bed in both X and Y.
to correct this, please look at the Recalibrating Home-position for the Ender3
It is intentional for the head to start slightly off the build plate.
If it did start on the build plate you could crash the nozzle when the bed is not levelled. Note the level varies with temperature and build plate type. If you switch from PLA to ABS etc you should relevel the bed.
Having just had the innaccurate z-end stop switch cause a deep gouge across my stock build plate, I strongly recommend getting an ABL (auto bed leveller).
