Noise levels

[bruce 0]

I've watched just about every Youtube video there is on the Ultimaker but I can't quite figure out what to think of the noise levels. What I want to know is how likely I would be to annoy the downstairs neighbours (and my sleeping family too, I suppose) in my wood frame apartment building if I had one of these things chugging away late in the evenings.

Obviously some builds are noisier than others, but I wonder does anyone find themselves tweaking running speed to reduce vibration? Can you configure the software to run fast but corner gently, like the quiet mode on some hard drives? Could you place it on some sort of padding to reduce transmission of noise into the building structure, or would that cause print problems?

I'd be curious to hear any noise-related observations or experiences people have with an Ultimaker or similar printer.

Thanks,

- Bruce

[owen 17]

Hi

They are fairly quite. I run mine in my shop. Your neighbours probably wouldn't be able to hear it. You could stand it on something soft to pad vibration. Marlin firmware does make it run quieter as does printing slower though I doubt you would need or want to.

[konrad 0]

My wife can't sleep if UM works next room (one door in between). But if I move UM so that there are 2 doors between UM and sleeping room you can't really hear anything even during quitet of the night and with UM working at 250% of nominal speed. I doubt if neighbors will ever notice the machie unless it falls down from my desk

[cyclone 0]

It doesn't make the loud grinding sounds the original cupcake did but it does make bleep-bloop type sounds that most people compare to the sounds of "movie computers" from the 60's. I'm not sure what exactly is making noise, it must be the steppers but It's hard to pinpoint.

My cupcake updated with polulo drivers is nearly silent now. (Much quieter than the UM.) But it does run at a fraction of the speed the UM does. I presume running the UM at 30-40 mm/s would quiet it considerably.

-b

[Daid 288]

It's silent compared to a CNC milling machine ;-)

I regally watch TV with my Ultimaker running in the same room, you can hear the Ultimaker but the TV makes more noise (My ultimaker is standing on isolation material, reduced the noise quit a bit)

[bruce 0]

Thanks for the responses. Sounds like noise might be manageable, if I can get spousal approval to buy the thing. I just have to figure out what value of X to use in the equation, "but Honey, we can make X!" Some sort of educational toys for our ongoing experiment in biological 3D self-replication, perhaps.

And as a bonus, maybe I can work with Daid's idea and justify a CNC milling machine to make covering noise for the printer! Sweet. Then on to the laser cutter and the pick and place and and and...

[ian 32]

i was playing with the idea to park it on my office table between me and 3 other engineers.

would that work,

If i put down a nice soft blanket on the table and rested the ultimaker on that, would it be pssible or would the engineers kill me for the vibration and noise ?

Would it also be possible to sound proof the ultimaker a little ?

build a skeleton with cardboard and stirofoam around the structure ? with view gaps built in to monitor progress ?

Ian

[owen 17]

Yeah, you could do that. Usually want quicker access more often than that might provide though.

[Daid 288]

You could. But my co-workers would kill me if I tried. I personally wouldn't want to listen to the machine all day long. (Knowing my some of co-workers, the machine would run none-stop)

[ian 32]

would be a cool idea for a christmas present for ultimaker ownsers, a warm winter sound proofing jacket ?

Ian