Wow

This thing is loud. It’s way louder than my Taz 5. Is it supposed to be this loud? It’s really almost a deal breaker. I have had my Taz since February and it’s still in the room with no enclosure. The noise of the Taz doesn’t even bother me. I often watch movies while my prints are printing. The mini is at least twice as loud as the Taz. It is definitely going to need some sort of enclosure. Do I have a defective unit? I only ask because I haven’t read or heard of any other complaints about the noise. When this thing first started moving it shocked me how loud it was. I really wasn’t prepared for that at all. My printing room is the spare bedroom right next to my bedroom. Most nights if I have a long print to do, I’ll leave the Taz running with the door to the room closed. I don’t even think that’s an option with the mini.

Other than the noise level, I have been extremely impressed with this machine. The setup was way faster than the Taz. Not having to level the bed was a definite plus. The auto bed leveling and nozzle cleaning were cool to watch, but it did scare me the first time that I hit the home button and the z axis went up. I immediately hit the power button and turned the machine off. I thought that it must have been wired backwards. Lol, I guess I’m just used to the Taz homing towards the bed and not away from it. The rocktopus that I printed on this unit as a first print was leaps and bounds ahead of the one that I printed on the Taz as a first print. I would say that it was probably a good month before I learned to level the bed properly and get awesome prints on my Taz. With that bit taken out of the equation, this machine prints beautiful prints right out of the box. If they can bring these functions to the Taz 6 without raising the price point too much, they will surely have a winner on their hands. And maybe this ease of use will attract more people to 3d printing. This is by far the best experience that I’ve had out of the box. I just need to find a way to make it quieter.

Put it on the foam that it came with or a thick towel folded up a few times and that will make it quieter or maybe try using an enclosure.

It sounds like these dampers might make the Mini much quieter.

https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/astrosyn-dampers-amazing/1861/1

They’re 6mm thick though… so not sure if they’ll fit on the Mini.

The Minis are noisy compared to the Taz. I wouldn’t say my mini is obnoxious by any means, but it is louder than the Taz. I did install the dampers on my Taz and it made a big difference so, I would think they would really help out the Mini. They are worth the money.

I also got my Lulzbot Mini yesterday, and the noise is a problem. I put it in a closet in my tiny apartment, which makes it usable, but I’d like to reduce the high-pitched noise further.

The loudest axis is the Z axis - luckily it usually moves very slowly so I doubt it’s much of a problem.
The second loudest is the Y axis - it screams when doing high speed infill. Luckily it looks like an Astrosyn damper can be installed for it.
The X axis is also noisy, but unfortunately there isn’t enough clearance for an Astrosyn damper. Anyone have luck with the really thin cork dampers?

I could also build an enclosure, and then put that in my closet, I guess…

The plan for the next version of the Mini has “Quieter” as one of the changes… any idea of how that’s going to happen?

Just bought some NEMA 17 stepper dampers on the way back. Hopefully it will solve the noise problem :sunglasses:

Line the inside of the box with sound absorbing fame resistant foam, such as dynamat (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00020CAUG/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=1944687642&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00020CB2S&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0P09G9P19VYQQ53XHAF3) , and place the entire printer on top of an anti vibration pad.
http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Fox-W1322-Anti-Vibration-24-Inch/dp/B000OQTV2I/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1436737907&sr=1-1&keywords=vibration+isolation

The second loudest is the Y axis - it screams when doing high speed infill. Luckily it looks like an Astrosyn damper can be installed for it.

The X axis is also noisy, but unfortunately there isn’t enough clearance for an Astrosyn damper. Anyone have luck with the really thin cork dampers?

I put Nema stepper dampers on both the X and Y axis motors (you’re right that the Z axis doesn’t move enough to be worth it). To get one on the X-Axis, I had to grind off where a screw hole poked inward using a Dremel.

The Y-Axis is all but silent now. The X-Axis noise has been reduced by about half. Putting it inside an old (2D) printer cabinet/shelf (on foam) has reduced it maybe another 50 percent, but the damn thing is still loud enough that I need noise-canceling headphones if I want to work while I print. I’ve got some noise-reducing foam on the way to line the cabinet with.

I’ve also read that you can reduce the amount of power to the motors, to just above what they need to move. Supposedly that cuts down on the noise too.

The plan for the next version of the Mini has “Quieter” as one of the changes… any idea of how that’s going to happen?

Proper dampers on the motors and feet. Maybe an enclosure. A friend of mine has the Robo3D, and while I don’t like the print quality much, it’s quiet as a mouse.

I have tried this small self hacked dampers and found them improving X and Y axis a lot.
Probably not as good as the Astrosyn dampers, but a good start.

Later I fugured that I can further improve by placing the Printer on a ceramic tile which rest on soft foam on my bench.
This isolated the vibrations of the Printer from the bench.

All the Best
Frank

I can say from experience that after enough printing it gets significantly quieter. Like well over half as loud. This has happened with both of the Minis I’ve owned.

I just installed one of http://www.ultibots.com/nema-17-damper-astrosyn-my17rmdamp/ on only the Y-axis. Took about 10 minutes. Fired up the printer, commanded the Y axis to move, and … I thought something was wrong. The Y axis is nearly silent now. $8.95 well spent.

Edit: Have had the printer for about a week.

Just did the same mod. Holy crap what a difference…

I see the new Mini will have the damper installed at the factory.

My Mini got WAY quieter after I printed with it for a while.

Installing a damper on the x axis of a mini is doable, but requires a modification of the model…
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