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[IKB]

Hi Guys,


So I have finally gotten around to designing and building a custom enclosure for my Lulzbot Mini 3D printer, spurred on by the enclosures we have just made at work for our two Lulzbot Taz 5s, the reason for wanting one at home is I have a lot of printing I want to do for various projects and only being able to print during the day is really beginning to hamper things, where as we run our work printers day and night. At work we don't have to worry about noise, as we work in an industrial unit, so there are no neighbours to disturb, but at home, the printer is quite loud when compared to the silence of a house at night, so I need my printer to be as silent as possible, hence the enclosure, which has other benifits:

• Dust exclusion
• Heat retention (Keeping the printing environment warm is good when using high warp materials like ABS, it also helps spooled material relax and feed better)

My enclosure was initially designed as a simple box of 500 x 500mm foot print, 650mm tall, with 6mm thick clear Polycarbonate sheet walls, it had two handles on the top to enable me to lift it on and off the printer to gain access, this was all based on my wanting to keep things simple and not build a door, plus my printer is pretty small, how heavy can a medium sized enclosure really be? Plenty heavy is the answer, so much so in fact that I now have the frame for a door and am work on the mounting hardware at the moment.


My enclosure is made from the following parts:

• 3D Printed Corner Pieces - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1100779
• 3D Printed Door Hinges - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:728205
• 3D Printer Handle - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1107453
• 2020 Aluminium Profile - http://www.aluminium-profile.co.uk/index.html
• Acoustic Foam - https://www.easyfoam.co.uk/
• Polycarbonate Sheet - http://www.plasticstockist.com/Default.aspx (I bought my material off work, which was left overs from the big Taz 5 enclosures)

So far the enclosure has been somewhat successful, although the noise is reduced, it is still not enough, the whole unit vibrates with the printer and sound is escaping this way, hence why I have acoustic foam in the list of parts, I am planning to completely line the inside of the cabinet with 12mm thick acoustic foam, which should do the trick, that only leaves a few other things to do:

• Mount door on hinges
• Add handle to door
• Magnetic catch for door
• 3D print air ducts to vent electronics enclosure inlet outlet vents to outside world
• Mount webcam properly
• Install permanent LED lighting inside unit

More to come soon,


Alex
[size=78%] [/size]

[richald]

Alex,

Mounting your enclosure on some compliant rubber feet might help a little
with the noise and vibration when printing.

Richard

[IKB]

Hi Richard,

Yes, like the feet idea, I think I might try some heavy duty draft excluder first, as this can be install all around the bottom edge eliminating any gaps which would let sound escape.

Alex

[g6swj]

Alex,

Really an extension of Richard's observation...

If the printer is sitting directly on the base of the enclosure does this act as a sounding board? Maybe worth seeing if you could mount printer inside enclosure on something that stops vibrations being transmitted to base - some of the hard packing foam type stuff that you get with some electrical goods these days may work?

Or could you just drape a quilt over the whole things overnight?

Jonathan

[essex2visuvesi]

On my 3D printer I added self adhesive rubber feet to the bottom. Also the firmer the base the quieter and more accurate it is.  I moved min from my computer desk to a worktop in the kitchen and now its quieter and also the print quality was improved noticably

[derekwarner]

  ........... "I moved min[e] from my computer desk to a worktop in the kitchen"

Has it improved your cooking or culinary skills e2v?...............

Derek

[IKB]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies, the printer has adhesive rubber feet from the factory, the reason it is sitting on the bed is, this is the most effective way I have found of killing vibrations being transmitted through the floor into the room below.

From my observations so far, the issue is sound being emitted by the printer hits the inside of the enclosure and makes it reverberate like a speaker, some of the sound is absorbed, as energy from the sound waves is used to rattle the panels, the left over wave energy is then being transmitted by the external panel surface.

Alex

[IKB]

Hi Guys,


So the foam arrived today and with high expectations I installed it into the cabinet and moved the printer about to asses the impact it was having on volume. On one hand the overall volume of the machine has been greatly reduced, but my aim is to be able to stand outside the room, with the door closed and not be able to hear the printer working and I still could.
Whilst the printer was whirring away, I felt different parts of the structure to try and figure out where the source of the problem was, it was quite evident that the Aluminium frame is vibrating, but not from the panels, as the foam has killed that source of vibration, the printer appears to be shaking the MDF base, which in turn is vibrating the aluminium frame.
There is also some noise escaping from the two cooling vent holes, but this will improve when I have printed ducts to go between the printer electronics enclosure and the outside world, but apart from that, it looks like I need to separate the enclosure frame from the MDF base board in some manner, or sit both the printer and the frame on a piece of rubber, this has the advantage of keeping the cooling vents in line as well.


Alex

[tsenecal]

use thin flat weather stripping between the frame and the base.

[IKB]

Hi Guys,

So after rummaging around at work, a mate of mine gave me some large self-adhesive rubber feet for the enclosure, I tried these and there was a reduction in the vibrations, but the rubber was just a bit too stiff. I also found an old reel of Neoprene foam rubber strip and stuck this all the way a round the base of the enclosure, this was much more effective but it is still failing the, "Stand outside the door test".
So I went searching on the internet, convinced that I could not be the only one with this problem and I was right, one of the most common complaints about this printer is the noise in comparison to it's bigger brother, the TAZ 5, of which we have two at work and they are much quieter:

https://forum.lulzbot.com/viewtopic.php?t=2800

But a solution was at hand, the mini has a sheet metal frame and the y axis stepper motor is mounted directly to it, causing the frame to resonate, many people have bolted on an astrosyn damper and say the resulting reduction in noise is amazing and at £4 a piece from www.ooznest.co.uk, I should have some installed in a couple of days.

http://ooznest.co.uk/Stepper-Motor-Damper&currency=GBP&language=en?gclid=CjwKEAjw8Jy8BRCE0pOC9qzRhkMSJABC1pvJ60Fcutgauu-2SsTKa5d5k439NgXObhEIjVDGDZzzxhoC4Y_w_wcB

Hopefully this will bring the reductions that I am hoping for, I am also looking into an article I read about adjusting the current limit on the motor drive board, which should help dull the noise.

Alex

[IKB]

Hi Guys,


Note to self, when ordering stuff, it helps to actually pay for the items in the shopping basket, thought the Nema motor dampers were taking a long time to arrive... oops 


Second time around, dampers ordered and they turned up on Friday, so this afternoon I set to installing the new damper into the printer, which was a very straight forward affair only taking about 10 mins, but what a difference, it is like a completely different printer with the Y-axis damped, which was the worst offender being mounted directly to the sheet metal frame.
Large moves of the the Z-axis are still noises, but this is only an issue when the printer is starting a print, but once it gets into a print, even without the enclosure on, it is so much quieter.


I am now planning to install these dampers on the rest of the motors, the only problem i that the other motors are much more difficult to access and without stripping the printer completely, the only way to easily access the motors is to take an angle grinder  to the frame, so I need to consider some options there, but one way or another it will happen.


Alex

[essex2visuvesi]

those dampers look interesting.
I put these in mine and they made a noticeable difference:-





http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281285157404

[IKB]

Hi Essex2visuvesi,


Yes, I came across those when I was searching for the dampers I have, they might be a good alternative to hacking the frame up to install the larger dampers, as all the other stepper motors are bolted to 3D printed parts. which are in turn bolted to the sheet metal frame, so the vibration noise is not nearly as bad.


Alex