Prusa i3 MK3S+ Build log and the road to "the quieting"

[thenated0g]

I have been enjoying resin printing for the past year with my little $99 Photon Zero but i am repeatedly running into build area problems. After @Wayne 's and the lostwing guys recomendations for the prusa printers (and getting back into fpv i am finding everything needs to be 3dprinted) i finally decided to grab one of the MK3S+ kits.
One issue i have been having, even with my little resin printer, is that the noise of the printer is noticeable while we are trying to sleep so i havent been printing at night, which really cuts down what i can print. So i have been researching ways to quiet them down. I am going with a pretty well used IKEA Lack stack setup with a few mods of my own i have seen on other builds.

My printer will not be shipping for a few weeks, but im going to start working on the enclosure. It will be 3 end tables. One for the prusa and one for my photon.

The Lack end tables were only $12 each. I ordered 3 of them and shipping (to northerncalifornia) and tax came out to about $60 total for the setup.

I will be placing 16" pavers under each of my printers, with felt pads in between the paver and the lack tables.
Here is a nice video on that setup

The standard lack stack usually involves plexiglass on all 4 sides as seen in this picture, with the front having moving doors to access the inside:


I am going to modify that by changing the 3 non door sides to wood and putting some sound dampening egg crate style foam on the insides and possible on the top as well.


And than the usual led strip lights inside.

Ill have to monitor the internal temps, if it gets too hot ill add some vents.

More posts after i getting assembling it.

 

[Chris]

Very Nice.
I have found that just having nice Feet under the printer quiets it down CONSIDERABLY... I printed standoffs and used foam rubber stuff on the bottom. Quite often I have had 3 printers running all night and not heard them. And 2 of those are the old Robo R1+s.. Not known for their silent operation... A good heavy table will help too. Mine are on pretty heavy desks...
I thought about making a stack just like that a few years ago, but never got around to it. Plus, I don't print ABS very much so I don't need a good enclosure.

 

[thenated0g]

My finished shop is right under our bedroom and i also have the printer on top of a thin wood workbench i made so pretty sure its magnifying the sound greatly. This is also part of my deep cleansing of my shop and garage. Need to get rid of a bunch of unused items so this will help me reorganize.

 

[thenated0g]

Pretty impressive with the war and everything that's going on that it only took like 4 days to get from Europe to my house via FedEx.
Everything sorted really nicely into baggies that follow the instruction booklet. While it was kind of intimidating seeing so many parts, the instructions and the way it sorted makes each page you go through the instruction book really easy and manageable and not overwhelming, so pretty impressed with that so far.

 

[Nigel]

Gummy bear management is key.

 

[Wayne]

Yeah, but they are always stale!!

Is it done yet?

 

[thenated0g]

@Nigel Ha, havent even opened the bag yet.
@Wayne No taking my time working on a plane, putting this together, and charging up all my nimh planes for sunset. Sydney had a bad cold this past week so ended up spending a lot of time in minecraft instead of my shop.

 

[thenated0g]

Starting to look like something. Currently working on the Extruder/hotend which i have been told is a PITA. The instructions even say its the hardest part.

 

[Raymond Gaskins]

Nate,
You will be very pleased with this printer. I spent more than twice the approximated time assembling mine, but it worked like a champ. Spend lots of effort with the calibration of the z axis. Once you dial it in it prints better than any other 3 d printer I have used. I have been running mine night and day printing an ASK-14 and recently a Savage Bobber from STL files purchased from PlanePrints.
Plan to assemble them this weekend and to fly them soon.
I had no experience with 3d printing before January 2022 and first bought an AnyCubic Vyper and Chiron. They are ok but I like the Prusa direct extruder system better. Time spent assembling the printer will greatly help any service or adjustments you may need to make.
Best,
Raymond Gaskins

 

[Raymond Gaskins]

Wayne,
My gummies were fresh but not as fresh as candy from Aloft!
Raymond

 

[thenated0g]

@Raymond Gaskins The direct extruder was what sold me as i really want to print flexible material. Already got a raspberry pi 4 setup with octoprint. Let me know how the planes do. I would like to try that at some point. First prints will be the prusa Lack hardware.

 

[Raymond Gaskins]

This printer really does a great job with TUPA which is strong and can easily print such items as tires for the planes I am printing. I have only used the included steel build plate so far and got great first layer adherence with cleaning the print with 99% isopropyl alcohol. Make sure you use a glue stick before starting your TUPA prints as getting the plate unstuck from the build plate is very difficult without it. Using the same build plate with many brands of PLA only required cleaning the build plate with isopropyl alcohol. I occasionally clean the plate with a few drops of dish detergent if first

 

[Raymond Gaskins]

Layer adhesion suffers.
Raymond Gaskins

 

[Nigel]

With the Prusas all you need to do is clean the bed occasionally. No glue or anything required. Quite nice. If I'm printing in colder air (which I normally am) I bump up my bed heat 10 degrees and my filament by 15 and it prints great.

 

[thenated0g]

I added the textured build plate to my order, thats the one you dont need to use windex or glue sticks for PETG and Flexible filaments. So i can just swap them out depending on what im printing with the magnets.

 

[thenated0g]

Extruder almost done, A very enjoyable puzzle. It's amazing how the parts fit together. Having said that, if I ever have to take it apart, I'm going to find a way to drive across the Atlantic Ocean and punch Joseph prusa in the face.

 

[gp49]

It took my older son about 3 days of leisure time to build our i3 MK3Si Prusa last month. He did a great job and it was up and running after a couple minor adjustments. No surprises. Instruction were pretty good although he did decide to buy better tools for the job. The only problem was that some of the sst hardware screws are soft and easy to cross thread if the mating nuts are not quite fitted correctly. Our enclosure (Ikea tables) will be assembled together this weekend with one small modification so far. We decided to replace the table top, that the printer is sitting on, with a solid piece of wood - nice solid feel.

He has taken over my gallon of IPA for cleaning of the bed in-between prints. So far PLA, light PLA and Polycarb filaments are a breeze. Finally yesterday he was able to squeeze in a little enclosure for one of my Lemon receiver that will go into my Passaj.

 

[Wayne]

I'll second the statements about the print quality. If you have quality issues, it is probably the filament you are feeding it. I do buy the Prusament when it goes on sale, it is really good stuff! But we have been using a lot of the e-sun and Poly Maker and they are also top of the line producers.

We should have our first shipment of Poly Maker in very soon, we will be adding it to the web site soon.

 

[Nigel]

I have the Mini+, and first tried running it on filament that had given me no issues before on a Robo. Proceeded to pull my hair out for the next week trying to troubleshoot. Tried Prusament and haven't had a single issue since. They like the fine tolerance filament.

 

[thenated0g]

@gp49 Nice to hear so many people like the prusa. I am just taking my time with the build. 30 minutes here and their. Honestly the most trouble i have had to far was getting the build plate geared tension band mounted under it and screwed in to the bottom of the plate. What kind of stuff are you guys printing? Bringing anything to sunset you printed?

@Wayne thats great news! ill for sure be ordering filament from you guys. I got a full roll of PLA and PETG from prusa and a half roll of Flexible stuff. Cant wait to start trying it out.

@Nigel Good to know. I will stick with recommended stuff.

I think one of the first personal design projects i want to tackle after testing is to start iterating on a removable vertical stabilizer setup on flying wing style ships. That is always a problem for me. Im thinking something like the way they are removable on the NCFM Blutos.