geekhack Projects > Making Stuff Together!
Acoustic Geometry for 3D Printed cases
Findecanor:
People put damping material such as foam or silicone inside their cases. Perhaps you could 3D-print a mould for an insert in plastic and cast silicone inside that. Silicone does not stick to anything (but silicone), but I dunno about types of foam.
I have been toying with the idea of having the entire bottom of a keyboard be a single piece of silicone, thus being both sound-dampening inside the keyboard and the keyboard's feet. But I dunno if that is a good idea or not.
Leslieann:
--- Quote from: bishopj7 on Mon, 27 June 2022, 12:11:20 ---help fill the empty space in a more material-efficient manner.
--- End quote ---
Honestly, the plastic in 3d printing is about the cheapest, most efficient method of filling that empty space.*
Foam or cotton works but that takes human time to do, can also be messy and not as nice looking to someone buying. Casting a silicone block looks and works well but go look up how much just the silicone will cost compared to the plastic it replaces... TONS more money and you still need mold release, cups, stir sticks, scale, and if necessary a degassing chamber, and it will increase shipping costs due to weight. In total it adds a LOT of cost. Worse still, none will likely have as much effect as different plastics, infill % and infill style. They would still help, but those really only help mitigate other bad choices, they shouldn't be the first choice.
Plastic is cheap, and yes, it will take a few more hours but they are machine hours and if you're talking an extra 3 hours on a 24-36 hour print, it's a negligible amount.
*Before you get too far down this hole,
Do some testing because this is one of the traps of 3d printing people often fall down. Draw up a simple cube, check how long that print time is now punch a hole through it and check print time again. We think of holes as reducing material because you're working from the perspective of it being solid, in a honeycomb object traditional "lightening" methods are out the window because every wall means extra plastic. I know it sounds counterintuitive but until that wall removes more than the infill, infill is faster and cheaper and you'd be surprised just how efficient that infill really is. Any time you try and reduce print time or plastic make two versions and run them through slicer, often the difference is negligible at best and sometimes it's better to give up a little plastic for a much faster print.
Leslieann:
--- Quote from: Findecanor on Mon, 27 June 2022, 16:56:22 ---People put damping material such as foam or silicone inside their cases. Perhaps you could 3D-print a mould for an insert in plastic and cast silicone inside that. Silicone does not stick to anything (but silicone), but I dunno about types of foam.
I have been toying with the idea of having the entire bottom of a keyboard be a single piece of silicone, thus being both sound-dampening inside the keyboard and the keyboard's feet. But I dunno if that is a good idea or not.
--- End quote ---
Silicone isn't really good for structure, nor is it very tough. It will chip/tear away little by little over time.
bishopj7:
--- Quote from: Findecanor on Mon, 27 June 2022, 16:56:22 ---People put damping material such as foam or silicone inside their cases. Perhaps you could 3D-print a mould for an insert in plastic and cast silicone inside that. Silicone does not stick to anything (but silicone), but I dunno about types of foam.
I have been toying with the idea of having the entire bottom of a keyboard be a single piece of silicone, thus being both sound-dampening inside the keyboard and the keyboard's feet. But I dunno if that is a good idea or not.
--- End quote ---
You know, I've considered seeing what would happen to the sound if I sprayed a coat of Plasti-Dip or something similar into the bottom... Might also give it a try to do some kinda janky silicone pour in one and test it out sometime.
bishopj7:
--- Quote from: Leslieann on Mon, 27 June 2022, 17:50:47 ---
--- Quote from: bishopj7 on Mon, 27 June 2022, 12:11:20 ---help fill the empty space in a more material-efficient manner.
--- End quote ---
Honestly, the plastic in 3d printing is about the cheapest, most efficient method of filling that empty space.*
Foam or cotton works but that takes human time to do, can also be messy and not as nice looking to someone buying. Casting a silicone block looks and works well but go look up how much just the silicone will cost compared to the plastic it replaces... TONS more money and you still need mold release, cups, stir sticks, scale, and if necessary a degassing chamber, and it will increase shipping costs due to weight. In total it adds a LOT of cost. Worse still, none will likely have as much effect as different plastics, infill % and infill style. They would still help, but those really only help mitigate other bad choices, they shouldn't be the first choice.
Plastic is cheap, and yes, it will take a few more hours but they are machine hours and if you're talking an extra 3 hours on a 24-36 hour print, it's a negligible amount.
*Before you get too far down this hole,
Do some testing because this is one of the traps of 3d printing people often fall down. Draw up a simple cube, check how long that print time is now punch a hole through it and check print time again. We think of holes as reducing material because you're working from the perspective of it being solid, in a honeycomb object traditional "lightening" methods are out the window because every wall means extra plastic. I know it sounds counterintuitive but until that wall removes more than the infill, infill is faster and cheaper and you'd be surprised just how efficient that infill really is. Any time you try and reduce print time or plastic make two versions and run them through slicer, often the difference is negligible at best and sometimes it's better to give up a little plastic for a much faster print.
--- End quote ---
The efficiency I'm most concerned with is the printing time - Turning up the fill density isn't off the table, but I'm hoping to keep myself under a 36-hour ceiling between the top and bottom prints to give me the best opportunity for print turnover as well.
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