Reducing 3d Printing Ghosting

Ghosts are shadows on your 3d prints. In this video, I look had the causes of ghosting, which is sometimes call ringing and a range of solutions. I produced a number of test prints on my Creality Ender 5 and evaluate upgrades to the Ender 5 to reduce ghosting.

The techniques covered in this video apply to all slices and FDM style printers, ranging from the Monoprice Select Mini to the Prusa i3 MK3.

After watching the video please leave any suggestions for viewers or corrections to my content in the comments. By participating in the comments we will all continue to learn together.

The models used in the video come from Makers Muse and excellent 3d Printing YoutTube site and Thingiverse. Here is a link to the Makers Muse YouTube site:

Here is a link to the Ender 5 bed supports:

Irv

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[Druidus]

Thanks a lot for your insights and even more for your positiv attitude of ‚let’s learn something together‘. The world needs more people like you.

[RomanoPRODUCTION]

You explain clearly and kindly. I will now put everything on concrete floor 💝
Edit: I am afraid of ghosts

[russwoodward]

Fantastic. Thanks. I will also check out Makers Muse on your advice.

[GiantRobo]

Still holds up, great content! I'm trying to go Low and Slow on som printers .... now that I have a few ....dont need absolute maxxed out speed on all my machines. Input shaping is still a bit meh for me ....heading out to learn more on that topic though.

[michaelsworkshop]

Great video. I have had excellent results sitting the printer's legs onto pieces of neoprene or similar spongy closed-cell foam rubber. You can find it cheaply in some computer mouse pads, or in sheets at home improvement stores. It absorbs the vibrations created by the printer, and also can absorb vibration from the table if located on a wooden floor (preventing skips in the prints when the floor or table experiences bumps or vibrations). The printer vendors ship the printers with thin rubber stick-on feet, which is better than nothing against a table or hard surface, but not nearly as good as this style of foam. Very cheap shock absorption and worth adding to improve print quality!

[tomcypher]

Thanks! Although, a lot of guys (including myself) state, that the printer should be able to vibrate freely. And this is why we add vibration dampeners to the printer feet - to isolate it's vibration and make it happen as if the printer was floating in space (sort of)

[woodwaker]

Thanks for all of the good information and the references to Angus at makers muse - another great channel. You provide a great service and share well.

[jongalletley]

When I tried to print the supports on my Ender 5, I also ran into the problem of the supports being 1mm too long to print. So I turned the supports at a diagonal and was able to print them both (though, I forgot to remove the clearing strip and one of them has an awkward stripe).

I actually printed 2 sets of supports, my first ones I installed the way you have them, and it split (was using cheaper filament and reprinted in better stuff). But when I went to get the files again, I realized I had put the supports on backwards! When putting them on correctly, they grip from the inside of the frame, not the outside (so, left goes on left when you're facing the printer). I haven't noticed much of a difference, but it's something I wanted to point out. I too have a cheap table, but am waiting on a delivery of some sturdier legs.

Love your channel, I've learned a ton in the few short weeks I've owned my printer!

[BLACKSYNTH]

Great Videos DrVax ! Subbed. I have my Upgraded Cr10sPro on a shelf but the shelf is mounted to the wall with extra brackets you could sit an elephant on it. appart from that I made a wall mounted Spool holder as the biggest source of vibration of this kind of printer is the spool mounted to the frame. that helped a ton! tight belts and wheels! just enough that theres a fair amount of resistance when moving axiz with the motors unlocked. I also printed TPU dampeners for under my Printers feet. that helped too. I often now print 120mm/s with an aceptable amount of ghosting. I have a hemera and volcano on it so I do like to print fast! one now its direct drive instead of bowden and the direct drive did not increase ghosting which is not what I expected.

[SpotterSky]

Thanks DrVax for making me smarter :)
There is always something new to learn!

[billkaroly]

Great video. I think the belts can contribute to ringing as well. I just built an enclosure for my Tevo Tarantula Pro and realized I need the add weight on top of the box and to the table. I think I am going to pour a cement counter top to my table.

[succuvamp_anna]

Great video, also love how it looks like you did this in one take too.

[EsotericArctos]

I use the same supports for my Ender 5 Pro, which has the same setup. The Ender 5 Plus, with the larger print bed, has the dual Z Axis rods.
I got them to fit on my Ender 5 print bed though. I had to do them one at a time, but I did print them on my Ender 5 (220x220x300 build capacity).
Those supports really do make a big difference to vibrations in the printbed. I also found a flat stone slab was almost as good as a concrete floor :).

[nerdgirlsdprinting]

This is correct what DrVax said. But they is also a other way to do this. You can do in the settings on the 3D printer. For the speed and jerk settings as well. Also you will need to have the eeprom enabled in the firmware to save the settings so you don't have to keep going back in and changing them every time you turn the printer on and off.

[Yimaj]

Thank you for all the help. I learned a lot from you.

[jakefromstatefarm]

Those bed supports will help when you print something really large and the weight of all that filament is sitting on the bed.

[johnkelley]

Thanks for sharing this r. VAX! It is something I will need to remember.

[ryandowney]

Just the last few weeks I have suddenly started having the worst trouble with really bad rippling (also called "ghosting" or "ringing"). The thing is, I am getting the rippling now with the SAME GCODE files that I was using before and did not get rippling, so I know that it is NOT in my slicer settings! But most of the suggestions I find when I search for it are all about those settings (which I'm already doing in my slicer settings anyway).
I have made sure might mybelts are at a good tightness, I even added belt tensioners to adjust them. I just replaced my X axis stepper motor and no change. I have the Y axis on order (for some reason the 42-40 dual shaft that the Ender 5 uses on the Y is almost impossible to find). I have checked my rollers and they are smooth and at a good tightness on the crossbars but still roll freely.

One other thing that started happening at the same time that I hadn't seen before was on long runs I get layer shift near the end. Again, my belts aren't the problem. But that layer shifting could be caused by the stepper motor controllers overheating and stalling for a little to cause the shift. Could the motherboard be going bad and that is causing my rippling too?

[KiR_d]

Hello, DrVax!
You've didn't mentioned dampers (printed or made out of styrofoam) that can be put under 3d printer's legs. I've didn't succeed with that yet but I've tried just one time with the package's styrofoam pieces. Probably they're not thick enough. This theme has the theory that dampers' layers shifts opposite to a vibration. Of course it's a matter of "try and error" method as I understand. Because you need to get a proper softness (or rigidity) that will be working best. If you have a time to investigate this then it could be a topic of your further video.
P.S. I think it can be checked with a high speed recording (when it's visible how it vibrates) with a proper setup.

[iggorr]

Linear Advance is the solution for this :D