Silencers for NEMA 17

thingiverse

I wanted to reduce the noise from my 3D printer and I thought it would be a fun project for MAKERS to create silencers with the materials I had on hand. I searched online for the exact dimensions of the NEMA 17 stepper motor and drew the dimensions and hole locations using CAD software, printing them out on paper. I then took a piece of tubing from an old tire (about 1.35 mm thick) and glued the drawings onto the rubber. After cutting everything out, I used a punch to make the 5 mm holes. I know the 25 mm center hole wasn't perfectly precise, but it's not a big deal since you can't see it that much! After cleaning off the excess glue, my silencers were ready. At this point, all I had to do was attach them between the steppers and their support using the screws that were already there. On the other side, on the Y axis, I will add 4 rubber washers and 4 metal washers with longer screws. On the X axis, I think I'll just use one silencer on the stepper side. I'm waiting for a new TPU filament to arrive. As soon as it does, I'll try printing it and replacing these rubber silencers because maybe they're too hard. It will be necessary to measure the noise level in dB to determine which ones are best. For this project, you can find 4 STL files with different thickness silencers: from 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm, 1.0 mm and 1.2 mm. If you like this project, replicate it and send me your impressions by posting your photos. Good silent prints! Currently, with the inclusion of these silencers, using squash balls instead of feet and stock fans, placing the microphone in front of the X axis stepper motor, the app I downloaded for Android (Sound Meter) gives me a peak of 61 dB against the 84 dB that I had before making the changes.