Category: Resonance Tuning

Have you ever looked at your 3d print and wondered what those little patterns are in the sides of your print? It’s possible that they are artifacts from resonance in your X and Y axes. Resonance, meaning that your axis is vibrating, which means that your nozzle, which rides on the axis, is also vibrating, which means that you are transferring those vibrations to your print.

There are a few things you can adjust.

Most printers have off center holes in the bearings that the axes ride. This is done intentionally, so that you can adjust the tension. Make sure that your bearings are tight. Make sure that your belts are tight too. Try wiggling the motors, the print head, the bed, and the vertical supports. 

What does this have to do with resonance compensation? I’m a believer that you can’t solve a mechanical problem with software. If something is loose, don’t try to apply compensation, fix the problem.

Even after you have a mechanically solid machine, however, you will still have some resonance remaining in the system. I believe that this is what resonance compensation is for, not to mask underlying mechanical problems.

Ringing. Ghosting. Wavy walls. They all are the same thing and they all come from vibrations in your printer. A loose belt on a printer can cause a significant degradation of your prints. When I see that I have wavy walls, I start by checking to make sure that my belts are tight and that my rollers function smoothly and that they are tight too. From there, I cycle the motors back and forth, one axis at a time. Make sure that the look smooth. The human eye is not great at approximating large distances, but fantastic at noticing small changes, such as a roller that has a slight bump in it at a certain point in the axis.

Once I am convinced that my printer is mechanically as good as I’m able to make it, I pull out my software tricks. I enable resonance tuning in Klipper and run the resonance tuning test part. I typically get different values for the x and y axis, as they tend to resonate at different frequencies. This does a pretty good job of removing any remaining vibrations out of the system.