Soundproofing a Form 2

I live in a small flat and have decided that my Form 2 would be better if it could be put into a soundproofed cabinet so that it could be run overnight. Has anybody tried this and if so what problems did you find?

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I’ve got 4 printers running in our small apartment (3 FDM and one Form 2) the Form 2 is for sure the least noisy one :smiley:
I’ve just ordered 4 x Enclosures with 4040 and 3030 extrusions which will be enclosed with acrylic. I’ll also place carbon filters to ventilate and filter out fumes from ABS/Nylon printing as well. Otherwise I think the most easy thing to do is probabably to buy two LACK tables from ikea, create some extensions in between them and then enclose that. It should be large enought I think.

We put it in an acrylic box and attached a fume extractor to the top. It’s so quiet you almost can’t hear it in a standard work environment.

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Does heat become a problem? I have mine on the bottom shelf of my workbench and am considering adding walls with sound proofing foam to the sides and back, and a swing open door to the front. I’m worried that completely enclosing the unit will cause temperature issues.

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If you poke a few holes in the front for cross flow, having a fume extractor should also extract the higher temperature air by pulling the environment’s cool air across the printer. We haven’t had any issues as a result of higher temperatures, even without deliberate cross ventilation :slight_smile:

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I might try this acrylic box! Otherwise I’ll do one out of plywood and soundproofing. Acrylic looks funner though. :smiley:

Considering Formlabs added a heater in the Form 2 to preheat the resin, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few extra degrees temperature actually helps.

There are 3 reasons to put the thing in a cabinet.

1- less noise
2- easier to filter any toxins out of the air.
3- reduce extraneous light sources for longer resin life and better print quality.

The acrylic box doesn’t really serve the purpose of reducing light.

I bought a used steelcase cabinet I found with dark grey and black interior.
I mounted a large carbon filter inside with the Form 2 and ducted it outside the cabinet to a whisper quiet axial flow 4" fan.

I sleep in the same room as the Form 2 and it only wakes me up when it stops running, because of a problem that causes a phone alert.

A 60" tall cabinet also allows you to use the lower shelves to store your resin cartidges, and your resin tanks when not being used.

The fan I bought also comes with a temperature probe that I can set to let off an alarm should the cabinet get too warm inside.

filter-1

I stuck the lamp in there for the picture, otherwise its too dark inside to photograph nicely.

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