Clicking noise while moving tool heads
Hello,
since I got my XL 5TH (with original Prusa enclosure) half a year ago, it makes more and more clicking noises while moving the tool heads. The attached audio is an example. Here, you hear the clicking quite often.
- It is not tool head specific, it happens for all 5 tool heads. Not filament specific
- It is no extruder clicking - I can locate the source at the left rear
- Z-axis hast no influence
- It seems to be a combination of x and y position
- Fast movement=high clicking rate, slow movement=slow clicking rate
This is not about overall noise - the printer is pretty quite and I installed several anti-vibration mods. Maybe it has something to do with the x/y system, faulty idlers, bearing damage, mechanical problems with enclosure, belt, ...?
The machine was not too heavily used, so there should be no wear yet.
Has someone encountered the same problem or has a hint?
Kind regards,
Zwacki
RE:
I'm unable to listen to your audio. Can you film it and upload to you tube?
Have you greased your bearings yet?
RE: Clicking noise while moving tool heads
It is an ogg vorbis file. Media players should be able to play it...Bt downloading works?
RE: Clicking noise while moving tool heads
Update: Clicking appears also if no tool head is picked.
RE: Clicking noise while moving tool heads
I had exactly the same issue. It turned out that the tool head mount for extruder 1 (first on the left) had broken - see attached picture. It was just touching the belts I think and making a clicking sound when the left side belt moved. Reprinting and replacing (PITA) that mount seemed to resolve the issue
RE: Clicking noise while moving tool heads
This is a good hint. I don't see a broken holder, but the source of the clicking noise is definitely at the left rear side and it might be, that the belts touch some parts of the mounts. I will remove the enclosure and check it in the next time.
Thank you!
RE: Clicking noise while moving tool heads
Be sure to try and move it a bit to make sure that the vertical part is connected, in my case just looking at it with everything docked it looked OK but when I went to do something else I noticed that it had sheared off where the bottom zip tie goes around.
RE: Clicking noise while moving tool heads
Very weird.
I removed the enclosure and the noise disappeared. No broken parts detected. After reassembling the enclosure, the clicking is still absent.
It was mechanical tension, I suspect. Next time I will loosen the 4 screws slightly and check, if it helps.
Still clicking
Update:
After a short while, the noise slowly came back. Even when I removed the enclosure, it was there. For example, it got worse during the last 3-hour-PLA print (thermal influence?) and still I can locate the source at the upper left side, maybe at the belt pulleys. As the vibration goes through the entire printer, it is difficult to locate it exactly. But it doesn't seem to come from the stepper motors.
There are no broken parts near the tool docks, the belts aren't touching anything, no cables wiggle and make the noise. It is still independent from the used tool head, so the noise definitely comes from the x/y system.
If you want to have an idea how it roughly sounds in reality, take one of the long PTFE tubes at the back, bend it up and let it snap to the other tubes.
I would be grateful for further ideas...
Another audio file
Some days ago I recorded another audio file of heavy clicking. I enhanced the sound a bit to hear it better.