MK4 vibration noises  

RE: MK4 vibration noises

Hey Scott,

I have the EXACT same thing. I contacted Prusa Support about this a few days ago and I will let you know how the discussion goes.

To give you some peace of mind: I have a pre-assembled printer, so this does not necessarily have to be your fault in assembly.

RE: MK4 vibration noises

Thanks! I look forward to your answer!

I hope there is a solution to solve this!

RE:

Place the finger on the screw holding the fan door hinge. Apply the tiniest amount of pressure, the tiny tiniest.

In my case the little rattle disappears when I do that. Pressing other spots doesn't reduce the noise, only that one hinge screw. Screwing it in completely also doesn't help. Weird.

In my case this noise is very quiet and short, it happens only on 45mm/s X axis moves (perimeters paralel to X axis), on specific areas of the axis (small spot 1/4 from the right side) and most of the time it's covered completely by fan noise or other printer noises. I barely notice most of the time, sitting about 1m from the printer.

Given that it doesn't appear on higher nor lower speed moves, I assume the IS firmware + profiles will "fix" this just because the speed values will avoid this small point where it rattles.

The Z axis resonance though? Oh my god it's way louder than my MK3S+. Not only that, but it randomly goes quieter, louder, rattles at random heights, buzzes, calms down, changes depending on direction of the moves... And only when moving it manually with controls or during the initial lowering for the probing. Never when going fast, never during actual printing.

And this noise actually annoys me due to how unpredictable it is.

RE:

Hey Shushuda,

I can 100% confirm everything you described!

For me, I don't mind the noise as my printer lives in a seperate room and cabinet. Even the Z-Axis noise you described, which is just as annoying on my machine. I just want to make sure nothing is loose or broken.

I will try and introduce a rubber washer in the screw holding the fan door to see if that helps.

On another note, as you both seem to have inspected your Nextruders quite closely: Do you also recognize a "clicking" noise when it is retracting?

RE: MK4 vibration noises

Not exactly clicking, but a sort of squeak. I also had this kind of noise on MK3S+, so I just take it as "yep, it's just filament rubbing against plastic or gears going fast against the plastic insert in the gearbox cover". You can try redoing the gearbox calibration in the wizard. The one that tells you to slightly unscrew the cover, then screw in a proper order. I had to redo mine and screw them tighter to reduce the noise. What I currently have I just accept as normal as I'm just used to these specific sounds. Some filaments make more squeaking noise, some less, btw. If it's not squeaking, then it's a dull "thunk" sound, hard to describe. It doesn't bother me anyway.

As for the nextruder creaking, I've actually took a second look as mine started suddenly rattling loudly on certain Z axis movements (don't ask me why lmao). I suspect either the LoveBoard or the right side cable cover vibrates against surrounding parts. Both can't be screwed in more tight without breaking them, so I just deal with it for now. It doesn't happen during printing so far. If it ever does, I'll take it to customer support, as the noise is absolutely horrible when it happens and intriduces a lot of vibration. We'll see.

Posted by: @alveon

Hey Shushuda,

I can 100% confirm everything you described!

For me, I don't mind the noise as my printer lives in a seperate room and cabinet. Even the Z-Axis noise you described, which is just as annoying on my machine. I just want to make sure nothing is loose or broken.

I will try and introduce a rubber washer in the screw holding the fan door to see if that helps.

 

On another note, as you both seem to have inspected your Nextruders quite closely: Do you also recognize a "clicking" noise when it is retracting?

RE: MK4 vibration noises

Ok, I may have some tips for you!

I had an horrible rattling sound on the Z axis on the first rpints, and even they recommand to not lubricate the Z axis screw, I did and it solve all the Z sounds.

I talked with the chat regarding my X axis vibrations noises, and the person told me several thing to check because she suspected a bad bearing.
I finally had to completely dismount the Nextruder and print head to release the bearings and check them one by one to see if I could localise which bearing may be in cause. None of them seemed to be bad, and I rebuilt the whole thing but turned 90° each bearing to test, and very carrefully thightened the plastic parts that maintain them. When testing the printer again, every vibrations were gone, and I heavily suspect that I overtightened those plastic parts (it happened to me few years ago when assembling my MK3s).

I think that it's really important to to compress/crush the bearings overtightening the bearing covers, and that it's as important as bearing orientation...

I hopt it would help! (And sorry if my english is not perfect, I'm French - as it was a good excuse...)

Posted by: @shushuda

Place the finger on the screw holding the fan door hinge. Apply the tiniest amount of pressure, the tiny tiniest.

In my case the little rattle disappears when I do that. Pressing other spots doesn't reduce the noise, only that one hinge screw. Screwing it in completely also doesn't help. Weird.

In my case this noise is very quiet and short, it happens only on 45mm/s X axis moves (perimeters paralel to X axis), on specific areas of the axis (small spot 1/4 from the right side) and most of the time it's covered completely by fan noise or other printer noises. I barely notice most of the time, sitting about 1m from the printer.

Given that it doesn't appear on higher nor lower speed moves, I assume the IS firmware + profiles will "fix" this just because the speed values will avoid this small point where it rattles.

 

The Z axis resonance though? Oh my god it's way louder than my MK3S+. Not only that, but it randomly goes quieter, louder, rattles at random heights, buzzes, calms down, changes depending on direction of the moves... And only when moving it manually with controls or during the initial lowering for the probing. Never when going fast, never during actual printing.

And this noise actually annoys me due to how unpredictable it is.

RE: MK4 vibration noises

it gives me some peace of mind to know I am not the only one with issues. so far, I have:

Z axis terrible resonance. it seems to be the worst when going towards the bed for probing and when raising for filament changes. during actual print it's not too bad. the motor vibrates a lot. I wonder if this has something to do with imperfect tightening of the Z-axis motors. their method for getting the screw into the center of the top piece is shoddy at best.

X/Y rattling. when printing I have pretty bad rattling during quick moves in alternating directions. long & slow movements are fairly quiet. the X/Y axis are pretty smooth when being moved by hand.

nextruder click. this was driving me completely insane. I'm glad to see that others have noticed as well. is there a solution for this? I was thinking maybe it was filament slippage and maybe it had something to do with the tension on the idler screws. one of my springs is noticeably more tense than the other even when they are visibly tightened the same amount. I tried equalizing the pressure from the screws and it did not make the click go away, so that must not have been the issue...

RE: MK4 vibration noises

For me i solve the clicking by doing the following:

1. unscrewing the frontplate from the extruder and removing it carfully. Cleaning and regreasing the gears with the prusa grease which comes with the mk4 and assamble it. 

2. recalibrate the gears.  You can do it before you tight the frontplate screws comlete . You find it: control => Gears calibration(the last point). Follow the instruction 

3. It is very important dont tight the screws to much. 

In my case, the old lubricant of the gears was black/dirty. I therefore suspect that the gears have ground on the plastic ring that is in the front plate. It may also be necessary to repeat the calibration. It is important that the screws are not too loose and not too tight when calibrating. Just loose enough so that the metal ring does not slip down and just tight enough so that the gearbox can align itself.

I also have the vibrations of the Z-axis. I haven't found a solution yet to minimize them or get rid of them.

According to support, this is supposed to be normal. lol 

Posted by: @joshuagranger13

it gives me some peace of mind to know I am not the only one with issues. so far, I have:

Z axis terrible resonance. it seems to be the worst when going towards the bed for probing and when raising for filament changes. during actual print it's not too bad. the motor vibrates a lot. I wonder if this has something to do with imperfect tightening of the Z-axis motors. their method for getting the screw into the center of the top piece is shoddy at best.

X/Y rattling. when printing I have pretty bad rattling during quick moves in alternating directions. long & slow movements are fairly quiet. the X/Y axis are pretty smooth when being moved by hand.

nextruder click. this was driving me completely insane. I'm glad to see that others have noticed as well. is there a solution for this? I was thinking maybe it was filament slippage and maybe it had something to do with the tension on the idler screws. one of my springs is noticeably more tense than the other even when they are visibly tightened the same amount. I tried equalizing the pressure from the screws and it did not make the click go away, so that must not have been the issue...

RE: MK4 vibration noises

My Z axis made horrible noises, too loud to accept, also printing was failing. For details see - https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/english-forum-original-prusa-i3-mk4-general-discussion-announcements-and-releases/mk4-current-owners-issues/paged/9/#post-666245

RE:

Ok, as the vibrations noises came back, I disassembled all the X axis and removed the bearings from the rods. I noticed that compared to Misumi bearings, original bearings have a tiny little play when they are mounted on the rod. And that is what make all the noises. A good bearing should not have any play when sled on the rod. So I changed bearing for Misumi ones and now all noises have disappeared.

So if your bearing have a little play (it’s easy to notice, when they are not perfectly adjusted, they slide too easily when the rod stand up and fall down by their own weight. Moreover, if they have play you can make them « wiggle » a little bit) I think you should replace them with Misumi ones.

RE: MK4 vibration noises

I assembled the MK4 kit 2 weeks ago. With the Z calibration I noticed that the movement triggers strong vibrations. After some testing I found that the drive shaft of the left Z motor is out of round. The right motor runs absolutely round and smooth. Since there is little movement of the Z motor when printing, it has almost no effect on the result. I think that's where the vibrations are coming from.

RE: MK4 vibration noises

Hello, which Misumi Bearings can i take as a replacement for the Original Prusa? Which one are the Right? Thanks 

Posted by: @scott-18

Ok, as the vibrations noises came back, I disassembled all the X axis and removed the bearings from the rods. I noticed that compared to Misumi bearings, original bearings have a tiny little play when they are mounted on the rod. And that is what make all the noises. A good bearing should not have any play when sled on the rod. So I changed bearing for Misumi ones and now all noises have disappeared.

So if your bearing have a little play (it’s easy to notice, when they are not perfectly adjusted, they slide too easily when the rod stand up and fall down by their own weight. Moreover, if they have play you can make them « wiggle » a little bit) I think you should replace them with Misumi ones.

RE: MK4 vibration noises

Hi! I purchased LMU8 bearings like those on this link : Misumi LMU8

RE: MK4 vibration noises

 Okay. Thank you. 👍 

RE: MK4 vibration noises

If you have problems with vibrations and Y-axis noise, there is a solution that I applied to myself. Here's how to find the problem: gently move the Y carriage up and down while listening carefully. If there is any clicking sound which signals some play in the LM8UU bearings is the only solution. Dispose of the Y-carriage bearings including the smoothed 8 mm rods in the dustbin. Then order new 8mm x 330mm rods and new, really good quality LM8UU bearings from your local professional CNC machine parts supplier. The rods supplied by Prusa are in minus tolerance and any complaint is pointless, Prusa Research simply does not have other bearings and rods.

RE: MK4 vibration noises

And how to know the clearance of the LM8UU bearings? The bearing must hit the axis of the sliding rod without a problem. On the contrary, if you try to rotate the bearing in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the rod, it should be relatively more difficult. It would be better to do this radial rotation during the simultaneous axial movement of the bearing. If the bearing moves radially without resistance, this indicates future ball-to-rod clearance problems.

RE:

Hi!
After changing LMU8 bearings and rods to Misumi ones, noises seemed to have disapear.
But since few weeks, I notice that I got resonating noises at specific speeds (about 50mm/s in straight direction).

Does anyone have the same problem?

Am I the only one to have such resonating noises? I don't see anyone complain about that.
Maybe I'm too sensitive about noises (as my computer is really close to my printer).

RE: MK4 vibration noises

I have this noises at my MK4. 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sYQ-DCmwKf1rLtDBlREJWKTKCDfhgDRC/view?usp=drivesdk

Posted by: @scott-18

Hi!
After changing LMU8 bearings and rods to Misumi ones, noises seemed to have disapear.
But since few weeks, I notice that I got resonating noises at specific speeds (about 50mm/s in straight direction).

Does anyone have the same problem?

Am I the only one to have such resonating noises? I don't see anyone complain about that.
Maybe I'm too sensitive about noises (as my computer is really close to my printer).

RE: MK4 vibration noises

And does it disturb/annoy you? If no, I may have a problem ahah!
You should try to increase first layer speed a little (I think I go with 30mm/s on my first layer), to see if it resolve the noises.