We found the BEST belt tension for 3D printers

In this video,we find out what is the best timing belt tension for your printer and how it affects print quality and accuracy.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:30 Background Knowledge
02:40 Common Tension Chart
02:55 Tension & Accuracy
05:31 Tension & Quality
08:43 Best tension verified
09:30 Tune the belt
09:55 Further improvement
10:23 Tension & Ringing

[gordonwong]

It felt like I put an academic paper through a text-to-speech application, very well-researched with a clear methodology.

[jaysonlee]

Normally I will block all text to speech videos, but the quality of the information here is so good that I am subscribing!

[lennynnnnnn]

Not a fan of the robot voice, but the content earned a sub! Interesting stuff.

[schizophrenicgaming]

Another thing to consider is using the correct idler: many printers use smooth idlers on the toothed side of the belt. This will cause resonance.

[pXnEmerica]

Can you run pulleys with gears vs the "flat" bearings? Most of my ripple was removed by changing idlers to toothed bearings. Not sure who thought belt teeth bouncing over a hump would be a good idea?

[josephpk]

I hang a 20g scale weight from the center point of my X axis belts, then use the measurement between the 2 sides of the belt as a reference point to start with. For my Y axis belt, which is a vertical mount, I use a DIY 3D printed - open ended - wedge that fits between the belt and the rail - and use the deflection of the 2 sides of the wedge to get a reference point. As I run through prints, I use these reference points to adjust belt tensions. It takes time, but now I have a stable belt tension setup and my prints get great results.

[MihaiDesigns]

Thanks for sharing such an informative study with precise real-world measurements.

[MiGau]

This should have more than 52k views, it's great.

[eddietheengineer]

Really nice research and testing! It's good to have thorough experimental data on this.

[reinierwelgemoed]

Great video. I would have liked to see the effect of microstepping taken into consideration aswell

[warmup]

One of the most educational videos I've seen on 3d printers! Has anybody tried the ender 3 v2 for an optimal tension, couldn't find data for that in the given link

[SianaGearz]

I think the smooth idler on Prusa is a design error that emphasises belt pitch artefacts.

[bluerider]

This is great stuff. Can you do the same training and development for the Prusa XL and Core One?

[rbgohome]

For technical precise parts or dimensional accuracy...
GT2 means 2mm per tooth shape phase/cycle. Actually the belt tension should be such that
length_of_belt / 2 == number_of_teeth
OR
number_of_teeth * 2 == length_of_belt.
If the tension gets weaker over time you should replace the belt, not get the tension up again.

[Queracus]

i mean 2 - 4 seems like a winner here, but it seems to be tested on snail printing speed. Everyone is pushing the machines to the limit where accelerations and deceleration are much bigger than what was shown in the axis simulator. In those cases your belt will start to slip on low tension.

[MatteoSpinelli]

this is interesting but you have to also consider the radial force that the motor shaft can actually sustain (which depending on the pulley position might not be that much).

[jeffschmidt]

Do these experiments apply to CoreXY printers as well?

[isprithul]

Can't wait to see gcode based input shaping!

[EngineeringNibbles]

Very nice for voron v0! Looking forward to upgrading my motorsa

[DJacKnifeAlpha]

It's always an exciting day to be into 3d printing! Thanks for sharing!