What can be done about 3D printer noise?

Greetings Reprapers,
After building my first reprap, a Prusa i3 esc printer I realized a demoralizing flaw. 3D printers are loud to the point it make them hard to be in the same room with while doing anything productive. The most popular locations for 3D printers are in a workshop environment where dust is a huge issue, or a garage environment where climate control is non existent leading to issues with warping, visibility and humidity. I want to my next 3D printer to be quiet enough for me to studying or sleeping in the same room. So I pose the question,

What can be done to make 3D printers quieter and more bearable to be around?

I have started with a list of the major causes of noise and the like in consumer and hobbyist grade 3D printers such as repraps, the list currently includes:

- Motor whine
- Linear motion noise
- Fans
- Poor filament winding / filament tangling
- Fumes from molten plastic
- Electrical noises (not totally sure on this one)
- Vibrations
Please suggest more causes of noise and disturbance!

When it comes to the level of annoyance created by printers I find that high pitch and irregular sounds are the worst culprits,
for example a fan that hums is acceptable compared to a squealing stepper.

So I again pose my original question, What can be done to make 3D printers more bearable to be around?

My solutions so far include:

Motor whine - Higher Micro-Stepping and Sound Isolating Material
Linear motion noise - Polymer Bushings and Lubrication
Fans - Higher Quality Fans
Poor filament winding / filament tangling - Higher Quality Filament / Rewinding spools and Better mounting
Fumes from molten plastic - Enclosure with HEPA Filter
Electrical noises (not totally sure on this one) - Buy electronics that don't have moving parts, or coils
Vibrations - Rubber Feet, Cork Stepper Pads
Overall - Enclosure with foam padding

Suggestions are welcome!
How do you keep your 3D printer quiet (aside from putting it in another room)?

- Motor whine
Get some SilentStepStick - Trinamic TMC2100 Stepper Motor Driver

- Linear motion noise
put some lubricant on your linear rods (not WD40, is not a lubricant!)

- Poor filament winding / filament tangling
- Fumes from molten plastic

And how do either of these contribute to noise generation?

- Vibrations
put on felt feat, get Stepper Motor Damper Isolator Cork Gaskets or the better but much more expensive damping pad cushioning shock bracket

Quote
Dust
- Poor filament winding / filament tangling
- Fumes from molten plastic

And how do either of these contribute to noise generation?

I find that poorly wound filament tangles, and when it tangles it suddenly overcomes the tangles area making a good deal of noise in the process.

In multiple parts of my post I included making 3D printers more bearable along with less noise. Fumes, even from PLA, can give me headaches and I don't want to be breathing the fumes all night as I am worried about undiscovered adverse health affects.

The loudest noise from my printer is the fan on the LED power supply, gotta look at swapping that out for a better or passive solution, the hotend fan could be improved, noise from steppers is fine, except the clicks on the extruder which isnt always there depends on settings, but i'll probably try a direct extruder at some point, but don't seem to be having much issues from the bowden, so perhaps on the next printer, but the borg box is going to need dampers where ever they can be fitted, between rod supports & frame, everywhere I can, as it's looking set to be a noisy little B*******

Some irregularities can be solved by using the same speed for travel and print-moves.
A watercooled hotend would reduce fan noise or try to use one bigger fan for all the cooling. ( hotend and PLA parts )

Since I switched my delta printer electronics to the Duet WiFi with 256x microstepping drivers, it has become very much quieter. The main sources of noise now are the hot end fan, the electronics cooling fan, and the non-toothed idler pulleys. I already use a fanless power supply. So to make the printer even quieter I am considering the following:

- use PWM to control the electronics cooling fan. The Duet WiFi firmware already monitors CPU temperature and will soon monitor stepper driver temperature too, so this should be straightforward to implement. Also the drivers on the Duet WiFi generate less heat for the same current than previous electronics, so there is less need for cooling the electronics.

- use toothed idler pulleys, which I hope will be quieter. If that fails then I may look at redesignimg the carriages so that I can put a half twist in the belt.

- try to find a quieter 40mm hot end cooling fan.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

I've always found this site to be a good resource for quiet fans [www.quietpc.com]. Even if you don't buy from them, the specs list the noise data which is helpful.

In general, rest your fingers lightly on the surface on which the printer sits. If you can feel a vibration, get hold of some thick Sorbothane - most decent HiFi shops sell it. Cut some squares and put them under the printers feet. It worked wonders for my printer.

For cheap effective rubber feet I use 'Red Rubber Gasket Material' available at most (if not all) hardware stores. Works great for custom cutting printer feet and also works for many other uses, can be laser cut or easily cut with an xacto but resists tearing and seems 'sturdy for how easy it is to cut' compared to a lot of other materials I have worked with. It seems to compress evenly and allow for leveling of the machine much more than variable density foam rubber compounds used for protective packaging.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2016 05:14PM by Milton.