Prusa Enclosure damping extension bracket

The problem

As the proud owner of an original Prusa Enclosure and MK4s, I felt that the vibrations caused by the printer movements weren’t handled very well by the feet of both printer & enclosure.

I was inspired by the solutions provided by:

• Real #D Prints: https://www.printables.com/model/83918-prusa-anti-vibration-noise-sorbothane-feet
• Rob Ludwick: https://www.printables.com/model/264240-sorbothane-feet-for-official-prusa-enclosure

These were really good & elegant solutions but the problem was that I didn’t want to take the printer apart. So, I came up with a solution that uses the original enclosure feet, that’s very easy to install while at the same time using the sorbothane damping characteristics. 

So…yet another solution to reduce the vibrations of the original Prusa Enclosure! 

The solution

This is my approach to reducing the vibrations. I designed a damping extension bracket that fits the original enclosure feet verily nicely. You just lift the enclosure and slide one of these extension brackets under each enclosure feet. That’s it, no assembly required! 

Since I liked the shape of the original enclosure feet, I came up with a design that closely follows it. The dampening extension bracket have a nice fit to the enclosure’s original feet, aided by the cut-outs closely resembling the foam dampening material underneath the enclosure feet. 

My damping extension brackets use the sorbothane hemispheres to dissipate the vibrations and increase the damping of the enclosure/printer assembly.

Since the sorbothane hemispheres will cause stains, I added a coaster design to prevent your bench/cupboard/what-have-you from it. 

In order to place the sorbothane hemispheres at the intended position, I designed a clip-on bracket to facilitate this.

So which hemispheres to use?

I used the following hemispheres from IsolateIt:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0042U6ZDU?ref_=pe_386300_442618370_TE_sc_as_ri_0

These are the 1”, 50 Duro, Sorbothane hemispheres version. I use 2 of them for each damping extension bracket, so 8 in total. However, these have a maximum load of 4 LBS and the total printer/enclosure/filament spool assembly weighs about 19,2 kg (or 42,3 LBS).

Since 8 of these 50 Duro 1” hemispheres would only be able to handle a load of 32 LBS (max), that would not be sufficient. That why I designed something that prevents the Enclosure bottom plate from flexing too much and carry the remaining weight. That design can be found here:

https://www.printables.com/model/1291807-prusa-enclosure-square-feet-bracket

This design uses 4 additional 50 Duro 1” hemispheres, combining to a total of 12. The 42.3LBS is then spread across 12 hemispheres, which comes down to 3.5 LBS per hemisphere. This is well below the 4 LBS maximum rating.

If you just want to use the 8 hemispheres, I would advise to use the 1”, 70 Duro version.

Print settings

I used Prusament PETG Prusa Orange (I love that colour 😁) and used the following settings for the damping extension bracket:

• 0.15 mm Structural
• 40% Gyroid infill
• 6 perimeters
• No supports

These settings are definitely aimed at strength.

The bracket uses:

• 0.15 mm Structural
• 50% Grid infill
• 2 perimeters

The coaster uses:

• 0.10 mm Structural
• 25% Grid infill
• 3 perimeters

I used ironing for a nice smooth appearance of the coasters.

These are my settings but I’m an engineer who likes things to last…and I tend to be a bit on the conservative side 😉. Feel free to experiment!

Assembly tips

Note: if you have the LCD attached externally to the enclosure, make sure you lift the front-end first and place the damping extension bracket. You don’t want to crack the support and possibly demolish the display by lifting the rear end first! After this place the rear-end damping extension bracket. 

I used these very handy little things to lift the enclosure (the 42-62 mm versions):

https://www.printables.com/model/920145-adjustable-height-support/files

So how does it all work ?

Well, pretty good actually! For starters, the noise levels have dropped substantially, something I definitely didn’t expect. My whole setup (printer & enclosure) is very silent now.

The damping extension brackets lift the while enclosure a good 2 cm which potentially could lead to even more movement of wobbling…Not so however, the whole setup sits rock solid on top of the brackets! With big movements of the printer you can see the enclosure move on the sorbothane hemispheres, but it’s a very well dampened gentle movement. Not at all the jerky kind of movements I noticed before. 

So, very happy with this solution!

Have fun with this design and let me know when you use it. Love to see those pictures!

Happy printing!