What is the quietest anyone has gotten their MK3s?  

RE: What is the quietest anyone has gotten their MK3s?

Posted by: @rowdysmail

I've been working on trying to quiet down my printer as much as possible because I don't have anywhere in my house to put it that is not occupied. I haven't seen any current discussions focusing on the volume. 

Hello and welcome in the Prusaforum!

The simplest thing would be to put the printer in an enclosure, no matter which printer you use.

https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/user-mods-octoprint-enclosures-nozzles/show-your-enclosures/

RE: What is the quietest anyone has gotten their MK3s?

What particular sound that it makes do you or others find annoying?

Some time ago I did some sound measurements and reported them here in the Forum.  I forget the approximate numbers, but the machine I have is not that loud.  IIRC, the loudest sound it makes is the bang-bang when doing the zero on the Y axis and the 'whoosh' when doing a non-print move on the Y axis.

I really don't have that much of an issue with noise.  The printer is in a home office across the hall from a bedroom, and unless you listen for it, you really don't notice it.

I do have an enclosure on order, but for temperature stability and not for noise.  However, I know that they do reduce the level of sound.

RE: What is the quietest anyone has gotten their MK3s?

If it's loud, try placing it on a solid surface or the floor and compare. A large, flat surface can resonate and amplify the printer vibrations significantly.

RE: What is the quietest anyone has gotten their MK3s?

Here are the numbers I have. I took all these measurements from the location in my home. And I used my phone which I don't if it is acuate to an actual dB so I included some references and made sure that all of these are at least consistent. 

air filter on 1 - 42dB

air filter on 3 - 48dB

AC running - 50dB

Dryer running - 53dB

Keyboard - 80dB peaks

Regular, on table no changes - 65dB 75 peaks

Stealth, on table no changes - 55dB 68 peaks

Regular, on table with zeal pads under the stock feet - 55dB 62 peaks

Stealth, on table with zeal pads under the stock feet - 51dB 61 peaks

Regular, on table with stepper motor isolators on x and y - 64dB 71 peaks

Stealth, on table with stepper motor isolators on x and y - 54dB 64 peaks

Regular, on slabs w/ isolators, zeal pads, high density anti-vibration pads under slabs and table feet - 47dB 51 peaks

Stealth, on slabs w/ isolators, zeal pads, high density anti-vibration pads under slabs and table feet - 47dB 51 peaks

So now the loudest part is the part cooling fan. I think post some pictures of my current set up later.

RE: What is the quietest anyone has gotten their MK3s?

@bobstro

Thanks, that was one of the first things I did. Then I went on a quest to find max isolation and dampening. 

RE: What is the quietest anyone has gotten their MK3s?

I forget my exact numbers, but these are slightly lower than what I remember from when I did similar measurements with the phone at approximately one meter from the device.

Of course our home office has a fairly high background noise level with fans in several devices and an adjacent equipment closet.

RE: What is the quietest anyone has gotten their MK3s?

@jsw

I just have one big great room in my house and it is in there. And I work from home/cook/read/watch tv in the same space. Hear the constantly varying weeers whooshs gets extremely tiresome when I have a print that takes a day or more. I think at this point I'm going to have to buy or make an enclosure to get it any quitter.

Where did you get yours and how do you like it?

RE: What is the quietest anyone has gotten their MK3s?

You've posted in the MK2S with MMU section about the MK3S.  Which is it you want help with?

RE: What is the quietest anyone has gotten their MK3s?

The term "quite" is pretty subjective. Of course to reduce the overall dB is a first step. But I found out that some noises ketches my attention all the time and bothering me like:

* Fast/changing movements
* Ratlling sounds
* If any fan is turning on/off again
* Any high frequency sound

This I had to address separately and remove/reduce them as much as possible

RE: What is the quietest anyone has gotten their MK3s?

Posted by: @3delight

You've posted in the MK2S with MMU section about the MK3S.  Which is it you want help with?

So have. But suppose this does apply to both I have the MK3s now and MMU2s on order. 

RE: What is the quietest anyone has gotten their MK3s?

Biggest difference to noise reduction I found is as Bobstro said, put it on a solid surface, in my case a granite chopping board and place this on sorbothane hemispheres.

This has isolated the printer acoustically from anything it sits on, in my case the biggest IKEA sounding board in my house, a large table which happens to be hollow!, it used to just amplify the noise and then the legs just conducted it into the next biggest sounding board, a wooden floor supported on wooded joists (Typical UK construction).

You could hear the printer through the whole house.

Not anymore though. 😀 

Agree that the part cooling fan is the noisiest, but PETG I only have it running at 18% so quieter than full, but still, the way PRUSA check for RPM by periodically giving it a long pulse (Full 5v) and checking the return pulses, drives me nuts.