MINI enclosure - anti-vibration
Hi,
I just started building an enclosure for my mini using the IKEA Stuva. It's a little big but looks quite nice.
The only thing is, the MINI seems to run just at the right frequency to get the whole enclosure to vibrate loudly, especially when moving fast.
I have seen other post using a concrete plate or a rubber mat to dampen the vibration. Has anyone any experience with that for the MINI or even for the MINI and Stuva combination?
RE: MINI enclosure - anti-vibration
To dampen vibration, you need mass. For a small CNC router I have, I made a torsion box and filled it with sand, and then screwed the router to that base. I have big rubber feet under the box to help prevent any residual vibration from transferring.
To prevent transfer of vibration from one mass to another, you can use rubber.
Pete
RE: MINI enclosure - anti-vibration
A small concrete paver work as well. Cheap as dirt. I've got some notes on what I did for my Mk3 here, as well as links to Stefan's excellent CNC Kitchen videos on YouTube.
RE: MINI enclosure - anti-vibration
Whatever you do, make sure you have a VERY flat surface. The Mini frame has a ton of flex in it, and you can easily throw off the axes by not having a flat surface for it to sit on.
Pete
RE: MINI enclosure - anti-vibration
Thank you both. I have tested a rubber mat. That is already a huge improvement. I will definitively test the concrete as well soon.
RE: MINI enclosure - anti-vibration
@michaelhe
With weight, you need to make sure it is actually attached to the printer. Otherwise, as is the case with rubber, you are just preventing the transfer of vibration, not the creation of it. So it will do nothing to improve prints (but will help with sound) until you get mass on to the printer itself.
That said, you shouldn't have that much vibration coming from the mini. Are you sure it's working ok?
RE: MINI enclosure - anti-vibration
@pete-b3
Again, thanks for all the tips. I will keep them in mind when I try the concrete.
Unfortunately I had quite some issues with my mini and until now I have not checked everything. I will check all screws and connectors when I've got some spare time soon. Since the mini is my first own printer I don't know how loud they usually are. Mayber I could take a short video of it printing and compare to others.
RE: MINI enclosure - anti-vibration
@michaelhe
What issues are you facing with MINI? Maybe we can help, or at least offer obvious "have you tried turning it of and on again" advice 😉
I get quite loud noise from keyring on included USB stick, it bangs onto surface as printer vibrates. If you still use it, try different USB stick or remove that ring. Stupid reason and took me a while to find the source.
RE: MINI enclosure - anti-vibration
@crawlerin
Thanks. Oh yes, the usb keyring I have read about that and removed it a while ago. That did help. It seems like I'm having some issues with the Z assembly. When I move the extruder manually from left to right I can see the nozzle getting further away from the printhead. I have read about that in a different post and will try to reattach the whole Z assembly more carefully.
The most vibration and noise occures for me with larger prints. After the first (very quiet) layer (I suppose the printer is running slower for that one) all the solid bottom layers are quite noisy. I'll try to take a short video this weekend maybe with that it's a little bit easier to explain.
RE: MINI enclosure - anti-vibration
@michaelhe
If your distance between nozzle and bed is unequal, gantry is not mounted perpendicular to bed. It's kind of a weakness of this system, and the fact it's mounted through plastic box does not help. Tightening screws in right order and/or shimming it will help. I had this OK, but had to play with screws and T-nuts a bit because mine was sloping back to front.
First layer is slow, usually 50% of other layers. Sure, post video with sound, maybe somebody catches up on it and goes "oh yeah I have heard that, it was ..." or similar. I have either X idler bearing rattling, or belt is colliding with something there because I have some black shavings falling out of X end plastic piece. Need to reprint new revision of that plastic part.
RE: MINI enclosure - anti-vibration
@michaelhe
If your distance between nozzle and bed is unequal, gantry is not mounted perpendicular to bed. It's kind of a weakness of this system, and the fact it's mounted through plastic box does not help. Tightening screws in right order and/or shimming it will help. I had this OK, but had to play with screws and T-nuts a bit because mine was sloping back to front.
First layer is slow, usually 50% of other layers. Sure, post video with sound, maybe somebody catches up on it and goes "oh yeah I have heard that, it was ..." or similar. I have either X idler bearing rattling, or belt is colliding with something there because I have some black shavings falling out of X end plastic piece. Need to reprint new revision of that plastic part.
I had a number of alignment issues which I mostly fixed this evening. Needed shims, but also some gentle persuasion 🙂 I also ordered a USB extension, which worked out well.
Pete
RE: MINI enclosure - anti-vibration
Ok, I tried to get the gantry more leveled which definitively helped a lot. Still have a little shift on my bed (see picture) but it' getting there. What I realized is that the printer seems to get more quiet after some prints where I used the full build plate. So there might in fact have been some stuff in some bearings or at the belts.