Rigid Mount MK4 Printer Base?  

RE:

Posted by: @eastcoastjoe

I see a lot of folks looking at squash ball modifications/feet and other vibration isolators.  However, I'm thinking this is going to allow the printer itself to potentially move even more than stock.  I know this will make things quieter, but I'm more interested in the 'best' prints possible.  So I was thinking instead to get an extra larger paver and rigid mount the printer to the paver.  I was thinking to drill 4 holes through the paver and make a rigid screw connection to the aluminum base of the MK4 using the same t slot nuts that are used for mounting feet.  Has anyone tested this?  

The key factor here is if you just introduce a very effective spring (which is the case for many self printed feed from PETG etc) or if you actually install proper vibration dampeners which do actually transform vibration energy into heat and thereby actually reducing movement. 

Squash balls should actually fall into the latter category but the easiest, most effective and possibly also cheapest solution is to combine mass with dampeners by buying a slab of stone or concrete which fits your setup and a dampener mat you can buy for wasching machine (can be easily cut to the size you need for your stone/concrete slab). Put the dampener mat at the bottom, the concrete slab on top and on top of that your printer. 

Voila, much less vibration noise, less vibration movement and better quality.

If you hard screw your printer to the floor, you won't dampen your vibrations, rather send them through the entire building. I am not even sure if its improving print quality as peak loads will not be able to be compensated by moving the rigid structure as a whole a little bit on a slightly flexible foundation, but rather by distorting the frame as there is no other way where they could go. 

RE: Rigid Mount MK4 Printer Base?

In short, in the best case, you want your printer foundation to give in before your printer frame does. The best way to do is with vibration dampeners, not with hard screwing the printer to your building. Its not the printer moving as a whole which reduces print quality, actually print quality can be just fine even as the whole thing bounces like a tennis ball. What reduces print quality is frame or extruder distortions.

That's the theory. If you want to test it for science though; I'd be enlightened to see a practical comparison of approaches. Just be aware that Input Shaper performance can be impacted by such a change (is there a way in the meanwhile to recalibrate IS for MK4s?)

RE: Rigid Mount MK4 Printer Base?

You might want to take a look at Wobbly 3D printer makes for better parts! and You made me do this… by Thomas Sanladerer. A little over the top, but nice to watch 🙂 

RE: Rigid Mount MK4 Printer Base?

A while back "CNC Kitchen" came up with a good solution of a large concrete paver with a piece of 3/4 inch foam, (the kind often used while shipping fragile items) underneath the paver. This not only quiets the printer noise, but also dampens a lot of the vibrations. The math is a bit above me, but there is probably a way to eliminate specific vibrations by changing the density of the foam. I've been using this paver with the foam underneath it, under my 3D printers, in an enclosure with good results. Just using the paver and foam made a lot of the surface defects less noticeable. For me the hardest part was finding a paver that was big enough for the printer to fit on and still be able to get it inside the enclosure. 

RE: Rigid Mount MK4 Printer Base?

Isn't that dampener mat engineered for the weight of a washing machine? I'm, pretty sure it won't work as effectively as you think, on a 15 pound printer. 

RE: Rigid Mount MK4 Printer Base?

A washing machine drum is also not nearly as heavy as a complete washing machine. Primarily because much of its weight comes from a concrete weight. Not to dissimilar to the concrete slab below the printer. 

The overall printer isn't the cause of the vibrations, its the motion system and primarely the weight of the extruder. That is of cours pretty low, however the unbalanced g-forces are higher on a 3d-printer than on a washing machine. Both machines, ideally, have a concrete balast above the dampening mat. I do think that the dampening mat should make a pretty big difference. Admittedly for my Mk3 I only have a stone slab resting directly on my BROR shelf, but my Voron 2.4 is resting on a concrete slab with a dampening mat below and it makes a big difference. That printer is much heavier but its extruder is not.

If you have a concrete slab below and an Mk3/4, we are already potentially talking about 30 kg or so.