Taz 3 noise and smell considerations

Hi,

I am on the verge of purchasing the Taz 3 and am starting to dream of all the wonderful things I am going to print with it. A couple of questions if someone could chime in though. I will make 3 separate threads as they are very different questions:

2 of 3) As a kid I have had alot of…experience with melting plastics and the related toxic smells produced by it. In all fairness setting plastic ablaze is a bit different than heating it to it’s melting point but it would seem to me that plastics would still give off a smell of some sort.

Is the smell from some/all materials available to be printed (at this time at least) worth placing the printer near an exhaust (like t’ing off of a dryer vent with an in-line fan) or is the smell if any not noticeable? Also, how loud is this printer? Is it comparable to:
A) A desktop laser printer
B) A paper shredder
C) A palm sander
D) Nine Inch Nails concert
E) Other
(I guess I’m saying do I need vibration dampening or an enclosure around it of some sort to keep the noise if any to a tolerable level with palm sander being a bit loud for the location it’s going to sit in)

Thanks!

The smell aspect depends on what you are printing. The PLA plastics smell sweet, like the sugar they are made from. ABS smells bad, but its not overpowering. I find I can tolerate small prints without the exhaust fan on, but larger prints are required fan items. PLA fumes are also much better for you than ABS fumes.

Noisewise it should be comperable to an AO-10x even though the TAZ is larger, so i can speak to that some. A well dialed in and tuned printer is about as loud as a paper shreadder or one of the louder laser printers. You can take steps to quiet them further, such as putting in cork layers between the NEMA motors and the frame, putting the whole thing on softer rubber anti vibration feet / pads, or placing it inside an enclosure.

Enclosure is more warrented for temperature control and exhaust gas routing than it is for noise in my oppinion.

Excellent points, thank you Piercet. From what I can see, the ABS is most likely the material I will be using due to it’s durability. I plan on making mod’s for my quadcopters and such. I am usually not bothered by smells but as a precaution a fan will undoubtedly be added. I’m sure there is a way to interface the fan control into the printer status.

Fortunately the room it will be going in is warm and stays the same temperature-wise. I see people having issues with shrinking and lifting due to drafts and such. As for the noise, I can see the dampening being more of a ‘because I can’ rather than a ‘because I have too’ but thank you for pointing out that the stepper motors being a particular source of noise. I will definitely look into that.

Just to reiterate what Piercet said the smell is tolerable. I don’t have a problem being in the same room and if its a long print I just close the door to the room. As for the sound my AO-101 is was fairly noisy but after modifying and printing out some dampening feet off of everything it was significantly quieter. I am sure if the TAZ is to noisy for you a similar application could be derived.

Also check out HIPS, which is reasonably strong and more lightweight than ABS. It is even less expensive than ABS and is easy to print.

-Jeff

Excellent, thanks for that!