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I have a Creality CR-6 SE running Community firmware. It's printing mostly well, in part because it's improvisationally enclosed (sheets of cardboard between it and the closes window to reduce draft, which was killing my prints on bad days). To make it moderately shock-resistant it's placed on a 50x50 cm concrete tile which is placed on 3 mm of foam. The foam reduces vibrations being redirected to the tile while the tile is heavy enough not to care either way.

CR-6, concrete tile, foam

Now it has to move because I want to move my desk into the same room as the printer.

This means 2 things:

  1. My and my printer will be getting their required ventilation from the same window, but sitting in the same room as a printer for 8+ hours a day isn't a great idea if we breathe the same air. Either I need to scrub the printer exhaust or pipe it out (totally doable, it's not that far).
  2. Either I have to sit very quietly or the printer has to be placed somewhat shock-proof. The floor itself is of wood and on the first floor, so there's some minor bounce in it. It's not 100% level and it gets (slightly) worse if you stand next to it.

I've been thinking about making a towered enclosure (roughly like the famous Lack approach). However, if I construct a tower, the increased position vector between ground and printer could make the printer shake. Besides, a simple Lack won't work because PLA won't like being confined. Where other materials like getting hot, PLA likes to be ventilated. The obvious solution would be a couple of fans that can be shut-off and covered, but maybe I'm thinking too complicated already. Either way, that's a fixable problem.

See-through sheet work is likely going to be done with 2mm plexiglass (acrylic, PMMA).

I'm currently printing PLA 100% of the time but the enclosure should be able to handle PLA, ABS, and PETG. There's a Raspberry Pi available, so requiring different settings for different materials is not a problem either.

So I can fix all problems, except the shock one. More fans mean more vibrations, so it will get plenty of shocks by itself. Add the shocks of me walking past it, especially if the printer is in a tower, and you can wait for failed prints.

I've seen people put their printers on springs, but is that the best way to deal with it in enclosures? Would it make sense to put the tower on top of the existing foam/concrete base or would it be better to catch the shocks as close to the printer as possible?

agarza
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Mast
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  • Feel free to comment on any-and-all parts of the question, but questions require focus and the focus is on the shocking part (do we need a tag for that?). The rest is context. – Mast Oct 28 '21 at 13:12
  • I am guessing the foundation of concrete tile and foam is from CNC Kitchen (I have the same setup). You mention 3 mm, which in the CNC Kitchen video shows a 50 mm foam. Have you thought about increasing the thickness of foam to increase shock absorbance? Personally, I have 75 mm of foam and it reduces vibration and noise considerably. – agarza Oct 28 '21 at 14:24
  • @agarza I picked a piece I still had around, the tile is from my backyard :-) – Mast Oct 28 '21 at 16:38

1 Answers1

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First, let's get your physics straight:

To make it moderately shock-resistant it's placed on a 50x50 cm concrete tile which is placed on 3 mm of foam. The foam reduces vibrations being redirected to the tile while the tile is heavy enough not to care either way.

No. The concrete tile gives your printer mass by adding its own to it. Mass by itself results in shifting the point resonance (and thus ringing) occurs, and in conjunction with a flexible mounting (the foam) results in the resonance window getting shifted out of the window where it can be problematic. Nothing about redirecting.

Now, to your problems:

Enclosure

If you want an enclosure, you can mount it directly onto the concrete tile, or you include the buffered concrete in the enclosure. Totally up to you. If you exhaust it, just adding a big PC fan to the back and then a flexible tube to the window to get rid of warmth if you need would be enough.

Dampener

3 mm is way too little. You should get at least one of those rubber mats from the home depot that is put under washing machines. Those thick rubber pads are usually 10 to 20 mm thick and would decouple the printer movement very well from steps on the floor. You might even want more of a different, softer foam between that rubber pad and the concrete tile.

Trish
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  • Considering the weight of the concrete tile, leaving close to the ground would be preferred. With a combination of thick pads (I know the kind, my washer and dryer have them too), thinner foam and tile, either the whole thing is going to wobble (which can be reduced by more tile) or it should be stable enough for printing purposes, correct? Would the type of (thin) foam make any difference? – Mast Oct 29 '21 at 07:43
  • extra slabbs would squish the foam more. You might add a baseplate on standoffs under it to decouple it a tad more, if your combined decouplers don't do enough. – Trish Oct 29 '21 at 08:16