I want to replace Fan and Stepper motor than run silent for UM 2

[mnidannydang 2]

Hi, I am just bought an old UM and i am newbie in 3d printing. I want to replace the fan and stepper motor for my UM 2, they seem to be old and loud when running. I tried to find online for these parts but not sure which one is compatible to the UM 2. I appreciate your time and help ! :D

[gr5 2,167]

I recommend you do neither.  Ultimaker looked into making it quieter and decided it was a bad idea and they have a team of engineers although they did get the steppers quieter on the S5, S3 and UM2+C.

 

The stepper is not the problem - it's the stepper driver.  The stepper driver is getting stepped fast, then pause, then fast, then pause and it causes a loud vibration.  It can be fixed by replacing the stepper driver with a smarter one (pretty much impossible - requires soldering and finding one that uses the same pins and even then you would need wires to send the stepper some messages to put it into quiet mode) that is quieter or you could replace the computer with Klipper (not trivial and not as quiet as also replacing the drivers).

 

Well the side fans - if they are much quieter your part quality will go down drastically.  Also they are 12V fans in series with 24V across them.  About 80% of modern fans can't do that as if one fan draws only 10V the other gets 14V and blows up or refuses to rotate or shuts down which then puts 24V on the other fan and... it's a mess.  These modern fans have little computers in them.  anyway it is possible to find fans that will work and are quieter but your part quality will definitely go down.  A lot.

 

The rear fan however is I believe 5V and easy to replace with a quieter one.  Just get one with the same screw sizes and rated for 5V.  I have actually done this on one of my UM2 series printers and should do the rest.  It will require some very simple soldering but that's pretty easy to do.

[mnidannydang 2]

On 4/1/2022 at 6:08 AM, gr5 said:

I recommend you do neither.  Ultimaker looked into making it quieter and decided it was a bad idea and they have a team of engineers although they did get the steppers quieter on the S5, S3 and UM2+C.

 

The stepper is not the problem - it's the stepper driver.  The stepper driver is getting stepped fast, then pause, then fast, then pause and it causes a loud vibration.  It can be fixed by replacing the stepper driver with a smarter one (pretty much impossible - requires soldering and finding one that uses the same pins and even then you would need wires to send the stepper some messages to put it into quiet mode) that is quieter or you could replace the computer with Klipper (not trivial and not as quiet as also replacing the drivers).

 

Well the side fans - if they are much quieter your part quality will go down drastically.  Also they are 12V fans in series with 24V across them.  About 80% of modern fans can't do that as if one fan draws only 10V the other gets 14V and blows up or refuses to rotate or shuts down which then puts 24V on the other fan and... it's a mess.  These modern fans have little computers in them.  anyway it is possible to find fans that will work and are quieter but your part quality will definitely go down.  A lot.

 

The rear fan however is I believe 5V and easy to replace with a quieter one.  Just get one with the same screw sizes and rated for 5V.  I have actually done this on one of my UM2 series printers and should do the rest.  It will require some very simple soldering but that's pretty easy to do.

Thank you so much for help. Moreover, do you have any links to the lubricant i could use for X , Y and Z?

[gr5 2,167]

The z screw needs grease.  Any grease will do.  Just a pea sized drop after you've cleaned it all off.

 

The X and Y rods (in the gantry)  need about half a drop of oil each.  Any light oil will do but some good things to search for on amazon:

sewing machine oil

3-in-1 oil

 

the z rods shouldn't be oiled supposedly.  Oil will just help dirt get into the bearings.  But in practice I find a very very tiny amount of oil sometimes helps.  This is true also of the smaller rods that go through the print head but again, I find that oil actually helps despite the bearings.  The 4 thicker rods in the gantry definitely need oil.  No ball bearings involved there.

[mnidannydang 2]

Thank you for your reply. Lastly, is there any components needs changing once in a while?

[gr5 2,167]

This printers last for decades.  These printers are tough.  You don't need much maintenance.

 

You should do maintenance once every 5,000 print hours (about 5 kilometers of filament or 50 spools).  I would say 95% of people never get to that level.  If you have the printer running 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, that will take 2.5 years.  Most people don't print that much.  I haven't reached those levels in 8 years of printing but many people do.  Maybe do maintenance at half that.

 

More often you need to add a drop of oil to the rods.  Maybe once every few months.  You can feel the head getting higher resistance if you push it around.

 

Maintenance:

 

remove the Z screw and stepper and clean screw over newspaper with WD-40. until shiny new.  Replace, regrease.  Test Z bearings while screw is removed.

 

Replace all the belts.  The 4 long belts come with the sliding blocks.  Replace the sliding blocks and the long belts at the same time you replace the short belts.

 

Inspect the feeders - remove covers.  feel the sharp spikes on the feeders.  Replace if dull.  Look for wear where the filament passes through.  Replace any parts that are worn.

 

That's usually all you need to do.  Really the belts go first but it takes several kilometers of filament.  About 5k or about 50 spools.