April 19, 2025
Description
Nice printer, yet so loud! Sadly I don't have a garage so it's in my flat, and my wife is gonna kill me unless I quiet it down.
The loudest were the two fans underneath, so I decided to replace them with two larger ones, 80 x 10mm fans I bought on AliExpress, and to remove the bottom panel and power supply cover. Power supply cover was remixed from this: https://www.printables.com/model/810236-power-supply-cover-ender-3-v3-se Of course, I had to raise the printer a bit due to the new larger fans, so I printed some feet (because the original ones were glued to the bottom cover). Now my Creality dry box is louder than the printer itself!
You also need:
PLA filament (or stronger, but there's no need for that)
TPU filament for the feet (or use original ones from the bottom cover)
4 M3x10mm and 4 M3 nuts for the power supply fan
4 M3x10mm and 4 M3 nuts for the power supply cover (or 4 hot inserts)
4 M3x10mm and 4 M3 nuts for the mainboard fan
3 M3x25mm and one M3x30 for the mainboard fan holder
4 M3x10 for the feet
2 fans (2x24V or 24V+12V) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002710558937.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.17.634d1802bHC9w7
Mount the fan on the mainboard fan holder. Remove the three screws on the mainboard and screw the mainboard fan holder tightly.
Remove the power supply (look at Creality Wiki for how to change the power supply) and its cover. Unplug the fan. If you're using hot inserts, this is the right time to put them in. Mount the power supply fan holder to the power supply and plug in the fan. It is not 100% the same plug, but it will fit; only the safety latch is not the same.
The power supply fan (that usually kicks in a couple of minutes after you turn the printer on, regardless of whether you're printing something or it's idling) will turn on less frequently and will turn off when it cools down the power supply.
I like to be on the safe side, and that did not feel right, so I decided to use two 24V fans connected to the mainboard so they would run all the time… To be sure that the power supply won't die on me due to the lack of cooling.
All that is left now is to quiet down the print head, and there are a lot of projects here to do that.
*edit - I found that simply by replacing the fans (model fan and hotend fan) I get the silence I need. As they are about 3 USD a pair (2510 and 4010 fans), I will have them stocked up and replace them as needed ;) The hotend fan does revolve at 7000 rpm instead of 12.000 but I did not notice any change in the quality of the print.
The last thing is the linear bearings that are just too loud, and I plan to change them with these polymer bearings:
*edit - I did, and they work! It is now even quieter! The bed is not as level now (the front row has minus blue values, two middle rows are in the green, and the back is in blue plus). This does not bother me, as the machine does auto-leveling quite well.
Happy silencing ;)
*Disclaimer: Do this at your own risk. Be sure to have all the parts before you start. If you break something, don't blame me. :D
License:
Creative Commons — Attribution — Noncommercial — Share Alike
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