Best vibration absorption for table?
I realize I may be asking a religious question here, but while I have seen people espouse the use of a large concrete slab for under the mk3's that's less applicable given the massive footprint of the XL. I currently have my printers sitting on a large slab of butcher block (maple) and for the MK3s I have them sitting on a smaller block of medium density foam. For the XL I could I guess pour a small slab of concrete into mold on the table top, but I was thinking of just putting a slab of MDF with some silicone washers underneath to isolate it. Any opinions from those who know about such things? Is it best to damp vibration with squishy stuff or heavy rigid stuff? If I had to do the concrete slab approach I guess pouring a 30cmx30cmx2.5cm slab wouldn't be impossible (I'd leave holes in the mold so I could bolt it down to the table)
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
I'm planning on 4 ea 16" paving stones (24" would be better if I can find them). I hadn't considered making a mold and pouring my own. Bolting it to the table is a really good idea.
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
I cannot tell for the bigger PRUSA printers, but initially my MINI+ was really loud. The desk was amplifying printer sound.
Then I followed the advice of younger son and placed an old gym mat between MINI+ and desk, and immediately priniting got really silent. You can hear into smartphone video I captured last night close from the side further below.
This is how I started, later I did cut gym mat to the size needed:
https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/user-mods-octoprint-enclosures-nozzles/octopi-holder-for-prusa-mini/#post-584569 
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
Best is something heavy on top of a shock absorber. I think pavers should be available at least in 50x50cm size, maybe even 60x60 when you go looking for it.
I'm using a 40cm paver for my MK3S, on top of some Oehlbach shock absorbers ( https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00CEY9PWY - designed for loudspeakers, each can handle 25kg which should be enough). Works very well even with the IKEA Lack enclosure.
(The reason for using something heavy to place the printer on is so it doesn't move, because printer movement will introduce artifacts, and prevent you from going fast)
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
Yes, heavy on shock absorbers is the correct answer. Old news.
https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/postid/432334/
Do note, that the Ikea Lack is a drum - hollow on the inside...
Don’t trust forum advice.
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
OK so my current build is going to be a cast high-pressure concrete (5000psi) slab 525mmx660mmx25mm with 4 included 1/4-20 clearance holes in it for safety hold downs to the butcher block below. The hold down bolts are floating in dragon skin silicone bumbers I cast (made the molds last night on the mini+ so the bolts are fully isolated from the slab and the whole slab rests on silicone pads underneath that the bolts go through (cast a hole in the middle). Since that will stick out the front of the counter I printed some corner fillets to go in the mold ( did them in 2 colors so the line where the concrete stops is the color change). Per the concrete manufacturer I added a steel mesh inside (yes way, way overkill, but per them without one it would fracture on curing).
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
I love it and I'm jealous. After all, if you're going to spend 4k on a printer, set it up RIGHT!
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
Do note, that the Ikea Lack is a drum - hollow on the inside...
No problem in case there is a gym mat between 3Dprinter and desk, listen to youtube video sound in my previous posting. The red feet for Ikea Lack desk are there only for regaining 180mm print height, without maximal print height was reduced to 151mm by Lack desk.
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
I learned from other posting's youtube video, that it is best to put concrete slab on top of absorber for three reasons:
https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/english-forum-awesome-prints-hall-of-fame/noise-reduction/#post-597952
- avoid deformation of gym mat
- more evenly distribution of concrete slab and printer weight on gym mat
- fire prevention in case hot printer stuff gets in contact with below printer (slab instead of gym mat)
I searched for 40x40x4cm concrete slab and found only one with two corners missing in garden.
But the form was nearly perfect to put MINI+ on top (with my OctoPi holder).
In order to regain 180mm maximal print height I had to 3Dprint blue 4cm extensions for the red Ikea lack table raising:
https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/general-discussion-announcements-and-releases/ikea-lack-table-raising/#post-595882 
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
If you look at some of the posts on this topic for the Mk3, marble or other stone countertops made a good surface. Kitchen remodel contractors will apparently give a good deal on scraps in many cases.
and miscellaneous other tech projects
He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking. -- Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
^^ If you live in Europe where you have access to Bauhaus or similar hardware stores, have a look on their online shops for stone and concrete tiles. They have limited choice but usually they have a number of natural stone slabs in 30x30, 40x40 or 45x45 cm sizes for next to nothing, less than 5 EUR or something like that.
Mk3s MMU2s, Voron 0.1, Voron 2.4
RE:
I live in Germany and bought the 40x40x4cm concrete slab in "Hagebaumarkt" hardware store. I did remove both corners because that was needed in garden long ago, now it was just luck that the removed corners were such a great fit for MINI+ printer plus OctoPi holder. I just make a printables.com model from OctoPi holder just now:
https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/user-mods-octoprint-enclosures-nozzles/octopi-holder-for-prusa-mini/#post-585175
OctoPi (plus Pi camera holder) can be used for other 3Dprinters as well.
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
Obviously it's location-dependent, but here in the US where everything is big, our major hardware stores (home depot and lowes) both regularly stock large paving slabs. 16" (~40cm) and 24" (~61CM) pavers are common. At around $4 and $10 respectively, they're cheap enough that there's no excuse not to use one.
So far, every printer I've bought has arrived packed with a bunch of closed-cell foam. There's usually a large square sheet of it on top, and that makes a perfect insulator to go between the slab and the desktop. Here's hoping the XL comes with free foam as well 🙂
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
I realize I may be asking a religious question here, but while I have seen people espouse the use of a large concrete slab for under the mk3's that's less applicable given the massive footprint of the XL. I currently have my printers sitting on a large slab of butcher block (maple) and for the MK3s I have them sitting on a smaller block of medium density foam. For the XL I could I guess pour a small slab of concrete into mold on the table top, but I was thinking of just putting a slab of MDF with some silicone washers underneath to isolate it. Any opinions from those who know about such things? Is it best to damp vibration with squishy stuff or heavy rigid stuff? If I had to do the concrete slab approach I guess pouring a 30cmx30cmx2.5cm slab wouldn't be impossible (I'd leave holes in the mold so I could bolt it down to the table)
The point concrete, marble, whatever, is for mass loading. The point of foam, silicone, sorbothane, rubber feet, is isolation.
The two concepts can be used in conjunction with each other, but MFD doesn't have enough mass to it for the first usage.
RE:
Obviously it's location-dependent, but here in the US where everything is big, our major hardware stores (home depot and lowes) both regularly stock large paving slabs. 16" (~40cm) and 24" (~61CM) pavers are common. At around $4 and $10 respectively, they're cheap enough that there's no excuse not to use one.
So far, every printer I've bought has arrived packed with a bunch of closed-cell foam. There's usually a large square sheet of it on top, and that makes a perfect insulator to go between the slab and the desktop. Here's hoping the XL comes with free foam as well 🙂
Yes, when I was getting mulch over at Home Depot I did find the 24” pavers so went with one of those and just hammer drilled the bolt holes. This is certainly an impressively heavy damping mass. A friend is a mechanical engineer who does NVH reduction for aerospace (she did the NVH mitigation for the Hubble repair mission) so pinged her about the best isolation damper material and based on some research papers the majority of the resonances are centered around 50 and 350hz. I 3D printed and casted isolation washers and fender washers in 10A silicone. I have cast my own high-pressure concrete into a mold (I tried putting a 3D printed prusa logo buck into the concrete to make a cool visual but the concrete stuck to the PC leaving a big tear out (despite a 3 degree draft angle and mold release lube), so I think I will laser cut the logo in 2-color acrylic and pour a coating of epoxy resin to seal the surface of the paver with the logo sealed in it.
pro tip: if you hammer drill the pavers, make sure the back is fully supported or you will blow huge chunks off the underside and then get to purchase a replacement (luckily the broken one serves as a nice support for the replacement to be drilled on)
RE: Best vibration absorption for table?
So Update to the project. Got the slab (24"x24" (61x61cm) it weighs around 25kg and plan to put an epoxy pour on top (because why not go over the top). I printed a Prusa Logo to embed in the epoxy (it is glued down).
I was excited to get started, so hammer drilled some holes for the safety hold down bolts, but then suddenly realized that the epoxy would run out the holes 🤫 , so SLA printed some plugs that are clear (And the top is 3mm so should match the pour depth) so if any stays after I pour and drill the holes out (from the bottom) they will not be noticeable.
