Making a quieter printer (anti vibration advice)

Hi Guys

I need to look into getting rid of the vibration noise on my printer (currently using an I3 which is already quieter then my old i2)

I already have the printer sitting on some foam which then had hard foam on top to try kill most of the noise.

but i have noticed if i lift the printer off the desk while printing the noise difference is crazy its near silent.

Im going to look into some kind of vibration matting, just wondering if any one has another solution that may help?

recently had the neighbor banging the wall at 10:30 at night due to the printer noise going on and family members complain about the bleeping noise (Y axis moving back ) from next door rooms.

it may be as simple as placing the printer on top of a floor mat that has a lot of fluff to it and then on the desk. what may be happening is the desk is acting as a resonator, and allowing vibrations to travel far. did you know that foam is mostly air, and used in front of some kinds of speakers (well at least a long time ago). foam will not reduce the vibrations.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2013 05:21PM by jamesdanielv.

Go to the hardware store and buy an anti-vibration/noise mat for a washer/dryer.
It did the trick for me.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2013 07:36PM by rhmorrison.

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Bob Morrison
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Foam is the right idea, but you will need to experiment to find the density that best cancels out the main frequencies the printer emits. I've also found surfaces like plywood seem to act as a resonator and amplify the noise the printer makes a lot more than other surfaces.

i printed a set of feet that used half a rubber ball i wish i could find them again they worked great, but i lost them in the last move.

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

Make a acoustic box for it like they use for dot matrix peinters

for my prusa I use some old bushings from my longboard trucks. On my new machine I plan on bolting the whole thing down on a thick piece of mdf board. My nema 17s all came with vibration dampers, im going to attach those to the bottom of the frame and then bolt the other side to the mdf board.

Don't forget to take what ever it is sitting on into account. Something many miss.

All the isolation in the world will not help if you essentially have it sitting on a hollow box that resonates all the vibration into sound.
For noise reduction..The bigger and heavier the table, the better it is.

Thick MDF, chipboard, concrete.. All good.
Avoid metal or thin wooden bench tops of any kind.

My RepRap is siting on a chunk of kitchen worktop left over from when I had my kitchen remodelled. This is screwed to an old metal TV stand, which does move a bit, but no enclosed resonant spaces.
Result.. one room away, I can't hear if it is working or not at 4AM, with the doors open between rooms. Right beside it, I can watch TV on my tablet with the puny little internal speakers.

You know bubble wrap? Makes an excellent noise canceler for me, especially the thicker types. You'd need a sheet of wood between the printer and the bubble wrap.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

or make printer with stronger/heavier base/construction. it will print better, be quiter etc etc...

I use two types of foam. Nearest the printer, I use a closed cell foam (think EVA foam like in tennis shoes), and directly on top of the table I use an open celled polyurethane with a very low durometer and slow recover. I got the open cell PU foam from a vacuum cleaner manufacturer and it works extremely well. There is a HDPE lined paper backing that is on the bottom of the open celled foam. The HDPE is what is in contact with the table top, basically allowing any residual vibration to not be transferred parallel to the table top and totally minimizing the amount of resonance that can be transferred to the table. If you're in the US an pay for the shipping, I'll send you enough to cover your I3 base if you wish.

Hamster of Doom is right though, even the best vibration isolation futile if you have your printer on a wooden box, or an empty filing cabinet.

Because you have an I-3, your also fighting your aluminum frames superior resonance. Aluminum and Titanium are the only 2 materials used to make plastic ultrasonic welder horns because they are near perfect transmitters of acoustical resonance. If you had a vibration dampener mounted in the middle of a structural aluminum part, it would help. Car manufacturer's do this to alter the tone of cheap plastic instrument panels. They call them "mastic patches" and "tune" the panels to sound like high grade hardwood when you tap them. Their mastic patches look a lot like a sheet of tar backed with tin foil.

To reduce the printer noise, you need to both dampen and isolate it.

The cheapest and easiest solution is to buy a mouse pad. They are non slip and can be had for about $1.

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that's a good one, i would have never thought of that one.

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

I printed a set of these isolators for my Prusa2, and it's much quieter. The noisiest parts now are the cheap LM8UUs and rattling from the binder clips holding my glass on.