You know, fiddling with settings might actually eliminate any leftover problem frequencies! Maybe there are some sensors you can use to determine resonances, and software to compensate for it? If not, here's a great video idea :D
Yea the whole point of using sand to dampen sound is that it converts vibrations into heat through friction, when you "stabilize" the sand with resin and remove the friction aspect, just creates a new medium for sound to travel through
Your epoxy granite will have its own resonant frequency, because it is stiff. I think the whole point of the sand is that its lose and will move about and not resonate. Now you've just got 2 different materials with 2 different resonant frequencies, coupled together. Hopefully they overlap and still help a bit.
This is exactly the problem. You want sand as it has no resonance at all and is a great damper over basically all frequencies of interest. Also, sand fills the voids well but his cement will shrink a little as it sets and you lose the intimate sand to metal contact. All he has done is change the resonance by adding mass but has likely not introduced appreciable damping. I appreciate however that he has holes in the system and the sand would work it's way out eventually.
hard to say - the increased density of the epoxy + sand will dampen the vibration amplitude and frequency of resonance on the other hand sand without epoxy could dissipate energy via friction overall I would say increased density has a greater effect
While I never build a CNC or anything that needed to have low ringing/high vibration resilience. My instinct would also be to use something that can move on its own and is only slightly coupled. Like Rubber or silicon. But then again, every build I have seen so far uses resin and sand/gravel. But all the other builds have their CNC standing on the ground or a very strong table. So I guess the feed are the biggest "problem".
Both affect the vibrations in this dynamic system. The increased mass increases the inertial force and the sand increases the damping effect since it is not perfectly bound by the epoxy (both of which increase resistance to motion).
Tom! As a percussionist, I highly recommend using some drum mutes/dampening pads! You can grab a couple of snare mutes that are essentially like little sticky gel pads and slap them on the outside of the extrusions. Or you can fill the inside of the legs with loose sand which should do a better job of absorbing those frequencies. OR you can even encase the bottoms of the legs in a little bit of silicone (mold a foot around them and put a slightly more resilient rubber pad on the bottom underneath the silicone mold perpendicular to the end of the extrusion and the silicone, and epoxy the two together). Any/all of the above can help a lot with dampening the ringing if you’re not already adequately satisfied with how it currently is. Hope this helps!!
Well done! I did exactly the same on a custom build that I currently assemble. Your problem is indeed the stand. The CNC should be heavy on the bottom and get lighter the higher you go. You have a very rigid machine now, on a flimsy undercariage. You will see how shaky it will become, once the machine is up and running and you do some highly dynamic stuff with repetitive direction changes, like boring or adaptive clearing. Maybe you have some possibility to attach the legs to the adjacent walls with some wooden spacers. This should fix it. But in any case, it is a great build 👍
That Ballscrew is huge haha. Using huge ballscrews isn´t always good because it adds a lot of angular momentum to the axis, wich will impair acceleration a lot. 16mm Ballscrews are already way overkill for a hobby machine judging by the static and dynamic load they can take.
@@muzzarobbo not entirely true; a ballscrew that uses "gothic arch type" ball tracks can be preloaded with a single nut. on a rolled screw this is the preferred method due to inconsistencies in the shape of the screw; a double nut on a rolled screw is more likely to bind up. if you want to use a double nut, the best thing would be to get a c5 or c3 precision ground ballscrew. the size of the ballscrew impacts acceleration but even a 60x60 mm 400 W servo should have no issues accelerating this ballscrew with 1 G of linear acceleration. the inertia of the system just needs to be close enough to the rotor inertia such that the servo control loop remains stable at those speeds
i thought 4 point contact ballscrews like precision ground ones are quite expensive compared to cheap rolled ones? i use a double nut on rolled ballscrew with no binding issues@@ikbendusan
Good job! I think you'll find it helps a lot more than you think. Resonance or vibration is only part due to stiffness (lack of...), you also need to consider the accelerated mass. Doubling the tightly coupled mass of a beam lowers the resonance frequency, sure - but the important part is that the beam impact load moment of inertia goes up to a factor of mass increase squared. Doubling the mass means that the same impact force now gives four times lower beam displacement. This helps a lot on all vibrations and momentary impacts that are NOT perfectly synced to the resonance frequency. At (the now lower) resonance, the same amount of impact force has the same displacement as before though
Excellent overview of the benefits related to increasing mass. It is my understanding that the stiffness of the overall system increases. I think he could have increased mass further if the mix was compacted in layers. The mixture didn't seem fluid enough to settle with just a few taps.
Tip for pouring from containers like the ones your epoxy came in: hold the bottle sideways, so the hole in the handle is "eye to the sky" This way you dont get the typical glug glug that slows down pouring and makes it more dificult to be precise.
What a fitting video! Just yesterday I decided to fill the column of my milling machine to reduce vibration and increase weight. I used a product called "Durfill" by Durcrete which is a cement glue based engineering concrete for filling structures and building machine bases. It expands slightly when curing to fill gaps and self levels. It's less of a mess than dealing with epoxy resin.
@@Sven_Hein ahh thanks, I will have a look to see if I can find that here in sweden too. I'm having thoughts to make a concrete bottom part for my machine so I can have a built in coolant system.
The objective is to remove chatter: Eliminating "ringing" created by tool cutting edges contacting the workpiece at a harmonic of the frames natural frequency is one reason to fill the extrusions. Another reason is to increase the overall mass of the machine... this alone can be a significant improvement. I guess that's why you don't see many portable Bridgeport mills! 😜 Really looking forward to the rest of the series; I don't think you are going to be disappointed with the finished machine.
The mass of the sand probably has more of an effect on damping than the loose sand itself. Additionally, loose sand would end up finding ways to get out and would make a mess.
I'd assume the dampening properties of the sand are cancelled out (or atleast reduced) by the expoxy holding all the grains together. The sand cant absorb the frequencies by moving around.
Hi Tim. I've been considering epoxy granite for my CNC build, however I strongly believe that the Sikaflex 290DC deck caulking that we use at work for cruise liner Teak decking will be a good alternative choice. My reasoning is down to how these dampening materials work; converting vibration into heat through friction. Epoxy granite alters and shifts the resonant frequencies within the system to longer wavelengths which are less intrusive than the higher "ringing" plain Aluminium produces. Sound dampening materials in audio applications tend to use dense flexible materials such as rubber or polyurethanes which are very good at converting vibration to heat. Sikaflex polyurethane caulks are single component and much more convenient than mixing up dry aggregates and epoxy, which is an attractive benefit.
Interesting that you filled up the rails with epoxy granite. I did something similar when I was putting together my own CNC router to cut down on the vibrations during milling. Instead of just the rails though, I made a mold for the whole base of the CNC and poured a mix of 20% epoxy and 80% sand into it. And it worked well. I basically wrapped an aluminium frame in epoxy-granite for my CNC machine. One thing you might want to think about is shaking out the air bubbles and gaps in the epoxy granite a bit more. I rigged up a DIY vibration table for this, attaching a cement vibrator to a plywood board, and let the mold vibrate for the entire curing time. I'd think filling in the gaps in the aluminum grid structure on your CNC with epoxy granite would make the vibration dampening even better. Just my two cents from building my own CNC machine with epoxy granite for the past year.
Do not constantly vibrate during the curing process this causes the sand to settle to the bottom of the mixture. This is a big no no when mixing regular cement. You can actually see it happen if you put a vibrator into the mixture and not by vibrating the entire structure. The mixture around the vibrator becomes watery if you leave the vibrator stationary.
Paving slabs, across the beam bottoms, heavy, stable and could be used as a shelf for stuff! Would probably benefit from bedding on closed cell foam/other stuff, and securing!
I have done the same thing with my welded machine, but I compacted in the epoxy sand mix as I filled it and that made a noticeable difference. One tube I had to fill sideways and could not compact, which resulted in a noticeably less uniformly and densely damped tube (you could hear the difference when you hit it at different positions).
0:14 note that this measurement does not necessarily suggest there is a dip or bump in the middle of the extrusion, it may well be that the rail or the reference surface it is mounted to is twisted, which is a far more annoying problem to deal with. the way to measure this is with a precision spirit level, usually with a resolution of 0.02 mm/m or 0.05 mm/m. if you decide to dive into the deep end and research all the possible sources of error in a linear motion system, know that you'll probably either have to accept that you won't be making very accurate parts or that you'll be spending a lot of time getting it right... i've been there. lol
Currently working on a cnc build as well with an extrusion based table/enclosure. To cut down on vibrations and to make the table much stiffer im attaching mdf panels to the sides of the table. Also contemplating using some rubber like gasketing or some sort of putty between the mdf and extrusion. Regardless, stoked to see where this goes! Oh and also something worth checking out is services like jlcpcb, pcbway (pretty sure they do sponsorships) and rapid direct. If you have any weird brackets or mounts you wanna make, you can just shoot them some cad and some money and you'll get back freshly machined pieces. One other idea, where you have linear rails, you could just get a slab of mic-6 and mount your linear rails to that. Mic-6 is usually pretty darn flat and not too expensive. Anywho looking forward to the rest of your build!
Don't be disappointed Tom. Any added mass will help dampen frequencies in the range of your cutter speed rpm. Rubber or metalastic feet will also help. I think you should try it and see......fine tune the clearance on your axis guides. Loving the content.
I'd bolt the entire thing to the ground or a concrete block, with rubber gasket between aluminium and concrete. I'd also put lightly coupled (or gasketed) bracing between the middle of legs and the uprights, reducing the number of long lengths that can resonate.
Here is what’s happening: filling the cores increased the mass and lower the resonant frequency. But to dampen the vibrations, you need to dissipate that energy somehow and for that, you need loose sand. I think you’ll be fine, but you could try filling the legs with loose sand and compare them to see how it changes. I did this awhile back with some speakers stands I have. I filled one with some very dry, fine Masons sand and compared the sound by swapping stands with one that wasn’t filled. I didn’t expect any difference, but it really sounded significantly better. So, I don’t know if it would make a difference in machining quality but it does make a difference. If nothing else, maybe it will help to make it quieter when operating. You should also try to use some strips of sound dampening mat, like they use for car audio. You don’t need much, just a strip on each extrusion. Just be sure to put it where you’ll never need to remove it because it really sticks.
I really love your approach! But .. I would go for High-density polyurethane foam to create a sturdy base, and reduce the weight. I'm no scientist or expert, but this is what came to my mind. Maybe it won't win from the sand / epoxy mix. Another way to go, but ends op very heavy is to fill the profile with concrete. As this is not flexible, it could crack, so I think this is eventually a no-go. Keep up the good work Tom!
The natural frequncy of the central 2 beams in the bending mode is quite low still. You can help reduce ringing further by adding vertical (or triangular) support columns underneath the center 2 beams, supporting their centers from the floor. This should increase the lowest natural frequency of the center beams at least by a good amount (I am guessing 4 or 8 times), which should reduce ringing. This only helps the up and down bending vibration mode though. To also reduce the in and out of plane bending vibration node you could add 3 short support beams in between the beams on the platform, supporting the centers of the beams from the side.
Tim, good job, I am keenly capturedin your videos about this as I only just finished my CNC mill (I wish I had a CNC to build the frame mounting parts as that would have eliminated my inaccuracies in making the fixtures and it would not have taken 6 years). You will definitely see an improvement in cut quality with your improvements, but making some chips will be the biggest tell. From the video it looks like rigidity from the grooves/T slot fixtures maybe your weakest point causing flex on the gantry and you may need to increase the gantry mounting strength with a drilled & bolted hole through Y axis mounting + to support this the gantry feet & fixturing could be bulked up. Love the videos.
I would think that Constraint Layer Dampening would work really well for damping the internal vibrations, easiest and most affordable way to do that would be the sound deadening used in cars. You'd want to get the stuff that has a goey viscoelastic layer on one side and a thick foil layer on the other side. It's incredible how effective it is at damping sound and ringing in solids. I have no idea if anyone has done that with a CNC machine but it should work! Also I would have left the sand dry and only added resin to the ends so it can't escape, seems like if you make the sand a solid structure then it's reduced its dampening effect and it's only lowering the resonant frequency, and hasn't increased the decay rate Good luck!
Do you really need to rigidly mount the frame to the feet? Maybe adding some rubber to the mounting-points could dampen the vibrations traveling from the main frame into the base/legs.
I would suggest to further stiffen the lower structure (that can't be filled with sand), for example by simply introducing more cross beams or diagonal beams. This should greatly reduce vibrations in the system.
Use dry sand on the the vertical legs. its pretty much self compacting and should pour in like water if the sand it totally dry. iv had bags of kipn dried that were not dry before hahah
Don't want to be negative but 8:40 really summarized why people are questioning this. A HUGE lead screw, big extrusions, filled with sand/epoxy and tested with a hammer in the very unscientific "ring test." 😂 Seriously. Build it and see how it performs before over "engineering" solutions to problems that might not even exist.
Like you said, you can always add weight to the base, and you can also make a dampener on top of the gantry for specific possible problematic resonant frequencies. Like they do in tall sky scrapers.
I've been thinking about building a cnc with these extrusions too and I was thinking about filling them with some kind of damping material. Like greenglue or some liquid rubber type stuff that sets and becomes solid material that actually damps the vibrations rather than just adding mass
Listening to the internet... My cnc machine stand same issue, used some gell blocks and some sound deadening foam/foil stick on stuff and job done. cost me 40 quid and took ten mins to do
Perhaps you can try adding the material they use in deadening vibration in high end car sound systems. I think they sell that stuff in rolls and you might be able to attach it to the underside of your build-plate or other convenient areas.
80x80 extrusion on the gantry at 45°. Large 10mm or so triangular plates bolted on from the sides to further improve the rigidity of the gantry. I think some sand blasting media is more dense, especially if you mix different grain sizes. It can be packed more densely by tamping with a rod.
Just an idea to add to the masses, but a lot of machining tools have cast iron bases to absorb vibrations. I would think mounting the CNC on one of those plates would help with the vibrations in the legs, hope this helps!
Try steel or lead shot plus loose dried sand in the base. This should give you an acoustically dead stand, and make the tool bottom heavy. Right now you are top heavy and that will amplify any vibrations. You may also want to replace the uprights with square 80x80s. They will be easier to fill and give you a bit more contact area and stability at the corners. Lastly, you may want to use additional angle braces or plates to increase the rigidity of your extrusion joints
The theory behind EG is to use different size aggregate, sand - 10mm pebbles, this breaks down the vibration a lot faster, stops the vibration from travelling because of all the different size objects to go around
There is always tradeoffs when designing such a machine. Take your gantry axis for example. You can use very low rails to increase rigidity but then often loose out on drive-stiffness by needing coupling over to the leadscrew (like you have). Alternative is using taller guiderails where the leadscrew can fit under and the coupling nut carrier can then interface directly with the axis for a stiffer drive position. In the end I do not know which is more rigid but I went for the second option on my machine based on simulations in the CAD.
The sand is not just for resonant frequency, but also to help counter the movment of your gantry/cutting apparatus.most mass to live means sudden changes in inertia affects your whole setup less. Chatter will kill your bits and cutting heads.
You can fill the smaller areas of extrusions by loading the epoxy granite into refillable caulking cartridges and pressure/squeezing it into the extrusion. If you want more rigidity, you can use steel rebar implanted into the epoxy granite.
2 things... rubber feet for an air compressor and I think the pitch of your ball screw is a little to high ... i could be wrong but you should look into that and double make sure your gonna be happy with that pitch :) good luck!
You have to ask yourself a few questions if you want to go damping resonances. First one is which resonance will be a problem when running the machine. Next one is which mode of vibration were you hoping to dampen and will the method you chose do that. Increasing the mass will lower certain frequencies but to dampen a mode you have to actually get the vibration into the dampening material. Your structure has many modes of vibration, only a few will be dampened, many will just be at a lower frequency with more modes (higher order) at higher frequencies. Maybe a cad model will show you the frequencies if it can do modal analysis. Lowering some structural frequencies will likely bring unwanted modes down into your are of operation although it may also make some problem frequencies move down into a state where they aren’t a problem.
The mass of the sand definitely will lower the frequencies involved. you could 3D-print some T-slot sand buckets which can be moved around to show. A small mass damper system could be made in a similar way, but getting it tuned in might be a pain.
Maybe inserting rubber/elastic "cushins" between the bed and the legs could help isolating them from each other? Of course that means another cumbersome disassembly and reassembly... But if you still decide to do it, don't forget the screws connecting the two halves together would also need some mini-cushins!
The biggest mistake was mixing sand with epoxy. Loose sand acts like a dumper, it does not move like a single weight, but the movement of grains relative to each other dampens vibrations. Moreover, loose sand fills the empty spaces more tightly. In fact, you had to print the ends of the profiles (which you did anyway), paste them on epoxy, and pour loose sand between them. Now you just added masses to the profiles, which is of course positive, but not as good as it could be.
The sand will help the most with the high frequencies represented by localized flexing of the walls. The lowest frequency modes represented by the whole thing going back and forth in bulk wont care as much about the epoxy fill; the high frequency modes would be the most annoying ones to deal with for the machining process though; there is a lot of energy injected into the system at your spindle rpm * number of cutting teeth; not really a whole lot in the lower audible range of a few 100hz where most of the leftover response seems to be. Thats just armchair philosophy though, don't have hands on experience. But it seems like a worthwhile upgrade to me.
Pretty sure a lot of resonance would be removed by bolting a sheet of MDF or similar to one of the sides of the base, since MDF is elastic it's a great vibration sink.
You could have used iron filings or small ball bearings? If you Made an iron filing/ epoxy slurry you could have poured in like the sand. If doing the ball bearings you could drop in then pour the standard epoxy. With bearings you could possibly cap ends and pour in the bearing. That way you can recover and use again. Alternative solution for hollow sound is to use expanding foam to fill voids and damp the sound a little.
B&q sell lead flashing for roofing that you could attach to the outside of the legs to damp them, a tight layer of some sort of tape, then wrap qith the lead flashing, then another tight layer of tape. Lead sheet is quite good for damping because it has high density, meaning the energy required to move it is high and it has a very small amount of area under the elastic deformation part of its stress-strain curve (this is a representation of the amount of energy able to be stored in its elastic deformation)
The point of the sand is to act as attenuation for the resonant frequencies of the extrusion, it's not really about the weight. The granules inside the cavity move around with the vibrations and dampen the effect by absorbing some of the energy. The same principal as a deadblow hammer (plastic mallet filled with lead shot).
What you could do for the legs is use motor mix . It is much thinner than concrete but not as thin as straight epoxy so it would would flow into the legs much easer. But wouldn't flow out as long as you had end caps on the bottom. if you are worried about them ringing.
Mate, the idea of using sand it’s that stays loose (dat absorb vibration better) I made my farrier anvil stand and filled whit loose sand, that work perfectly
I think the sand is not meant to add mass (which would just decrease the resonance frequecies) but to dampen the vibrations, and for that it needs to be able to dissipate energy i.e have lots of grains rubbing on one another, but the epoxy could be preventing that from happening. I don't build cncs and the sand epoxy thing might be common but if there's a problem I see it here
Maybe adding strips of heavy rubber to the outside of the legs would dampen the vibration. Something like horse stall mats cut into strips and bolted to the extrusion?
Cross brace the legs and weigh them down or bolt them down to make it super rigid. And cross brace the gantry to the table. It will be solid and overbuilt. And I am excited to see you indicate everything in square and parallel
my understanding, and it can totally be flawed and wrong but... I thought best results for deadening sound and vibration was by having the sand loose as that allows the sand to move and shift absorbing the vibrations. so wouldn't epoxy'ing it in place mitigate most of that effect. It does sound a lot less ringy but I'm guess you'll always have some of that as it is metal.
Perhaps the ringing is coming from the contact between the heads of the fasteners and the inner surface of the t slot of the mating beam. I suggest testing various durometer rubber washers under the heads of the fasteners to dial in the perfect damping. (not "dampening" if you're going to use this in a video)
I wonder if using water-proofing mix would be better than using epoxy granite. That mix has rubber in it which is excellent for absorbing vibrations. Epoxy granite makes the whole structure more rigid but I wonder if it really does anything to absorb vibrations. You could also use cement mixed with plasticiser but that may corrode the aluminium extrusions.
Maybe try assembling the chassis with different types of material. Since materials vibrate at different frequencies. You could find a 2 or 3 materials to assemble that can cancel each others frequency out.
I wouldn't worry to much about the legs/base ringing. You have significantly increased the mass and rigidity of everything the linear rails are directly attached to. This will will greatly decrease relative motion between each axis, which is what you really care about. If all three axes, work piece itself, and the cutter remain rigid to one another it doesn't matter if the machine as a whole bounces all over the place. There are some assumptions in there of course, but the idea goes a long ways. If down the road the vibrations in the legs becomes annoying you can do something about it then. Great build!
Maybe try to Wrap a Rubber mat or Rubber Tape around the legs? The Rubber could absorb the virbrations and also isolate the Sound or reduce the frequency. I guess even normal Tape would Help notacibly.
I'm thinking bolting it down after might make a big difference too. Either to the floor, or to a concrete block if you don't want to make holes in the floor.
You could enclose the base by mountig steel plate on the legs, and then fill the void with epoxy granite. That will make the whole cnc a lot heavier but here heavy weight is your friend.
Drill holes in the legs and cross beams and fill with straight epoxy. Gonna be TOP HEAVY and Wiggle. Should have filled them B4 reassembly... Cool Project to learn from. thank you
I'm no CNC expert but you should/could just add some diagonal braces from the sand filled bed to the legs, one on the short end from 1/2 way along the cross bar down to one of the legs, and maybe pairs on the longer sides, that will increase the resonant frequency significantly hopefully way above that of the steppers in motion. I wonder if you could even brace the two centre beams at 45 down to the end or side leg cross brace rails....(move them up to suit and don't fixate on keeping the sides and ends at the same height like you have)
While the way you mixed the epoxy was a great idea, I wonder if it would have been easier (and maybe cheaper) to fill the legs with bonded sand like Petrobond or even Kinetic Sand. There are also a few different kinds of casting sand (Sodium silicate sand) that can be poured easily and then cured to a "hardened state" with the addition of CO2. As for the legs, I think it is less about the weight and more about the long, hollow surfaces that allow for vibration. May want to look at car-deadening mats (like Dynamat) and paints (like Spectrum's Liquid Sound Deadner) that could be added to help lessen resonance.
Judging from the Bambu A1 printer initialization sequence prior to printing, it sounds as if they fixed it in software by sweeping the head through different frequencies and measuring the vibration. Do folk do this with CNC machines?
Where is the vibration coming from? Which part of the extrusion? If it’s the little parts that stick out that you bolt everything onto, that tightening will decrease vibrations.
Maybe diagonal steelwire or braces between the legs. It seems like you now have more weight on spaghetti legs. And I dont know what type of machine feet you have but stiff dampers could also maybe help further.
As a piano tech, I'd say you did a great job eliminating the frequencies that cause the most trouble. In pianos, that is.
Now he probably can reach all the gcode notes.
Haha, good point this would be an amazing piano now :D
You know, fiddling with settings might actually eliminate any leftover problem frequencies!
Maybe there are some sensors you can use to determine resonances, and software to compensate for it? If not, here's a great video idea :D
@@purvel : There are companies out there specialising in eliminating resonance in machinery... witchcraft?
Next up, how to build an aluminium CNC piano
I recommend to fill the legs with fine loose sand. It absorbs vibration much better
i think its gonna be hard to remove the epoxy sand mix
@@Supmah2007 the legs are still hollow.
Yea the whole point of using sand to dampen sound is that it converts vibrations into heat through friction, when you "stabilize" the sand with resin and remove the friction aspect, just creates a new medium for sound to travel through
Did you ram the sand down or just let is fall down?
@@TheRattleSnake3145 You want it loose
Those custom-fit sand funnels are incredibly satisfying
Your epoxy granite will have its own resonant frequency, because it is stiff. I think the whole point of the sand is that its lose and will move about and not resonate. Now you've just got 2 different materials with 2 different resonant frequencies, coupled together. Hopefully they overlap and still help a bit.
This is exactly the problem. You want sand as it has no resonance at all and is a great damper over basically all frequencies of interest. Also, sand fills the voids well but his cement will shrink a little as it sets and you lose the intimate sand to metal contact. All he has done is change the resonance by adding mass but has likely not introduced appreciable damping. I appreciate however that he has holes in the system and the sand would work it's way out eventually.
@@rob66181 Added mass of different resonant frequencies is almost guaranteed to dampen vibrations.
Epoxy granite wont resonate it behaves like a piece of stone
@@wizrom3046 Yes it does, most solid objects do. If you hang a rod of stone or concrete from a string, and tap it, it will ding. Thats it resonating.
@@ratgreen actually it doesnt. The epoxy is much less dense than the stone particles so the whole thing absorbs energy and is very low resonance.
Doesn't the fact sand moves help absorb vibrations? But won't the epoxy keep it from moving?
hard to say - the increased density of the epoxy + sand will dampen the vibration amplitude and frequency of resonance
on the other hand sand without epoxy could dissipate energy via friction
overall I would say increased density has a greater effect
While I never build a CNC or anything that needed to have low ringing/high vibration resilience.
My instinct would also be to use something that can move on its own and is only slightly coupled. Like Rubber or silicon.
But then again, every build I have seen so far uses resin and sand/gravel.
But all the other builds have their CNC standing on the ground or a very strong table. So I guess the feed are the biggest "problem".
Yeah the fact that the epoxy prevents dissipative losses means the sand is just ballast
Both affect the vibrations in this dynamic system. The increased mass increases the inertial force and the sand increases the damping effect since it is not perfectly bound by the epoxy (both of which increase resistance to motion).
i agree with you, to me thats one reason sound travels much longer distance in water then air
Tom! As a percussionist, I highly recommend using some drum mutes/dampening pads! You can grab a couple of snare mutes that are essentially like little sticky gel pads and slap them on the outside of the extrusions. Or you can fill the inside of the legs with loose sand which should do a better job of absorbing those frequencies. OR you can even encase the bottoms of the legs in a little bit of silicone (mold a foot around them and put a slightly more resilient rubber pad on the bottom underneath the silicone mold perpendicular to the end of the extrusion and the silicone, and epoxy the two together). Any/all of the above can help a lot with dampening the ringing if you’re not already adequately satisfied with how it currently is. Hope this helps!!
Or Dynamat for car sound insulation on the legs might work.
Well done! I did exactly the same on a custom build that I currently assemble.
Your problem is indeed the stand. The CNC should be heavy on the bottom and get lighter the higher you go. You have a very rigid machine now, on a flimsy undercariage. You will see how shaky it will become, once the machine is up and running and you do some highly dynamic stuff with repetitive direction changes, like boring or adaptive clearing. Maybe you have some possibility to attach the legs to the adjacent walls with some wooden spacers. This should fix it.
But in any case, it is a great build 👍
It's generally considered best practice to mix the epoxy parts before you mix it with a filler. That way you can be assured of good mixing.
That Ballscrew is huge haha. Using huge ballscrews isn´t always good because it adds a lot of angular momentum to the axis, wich will impair acceleration a lot. 16mm Ballscrews are already way overkill for a hobby machine judging by the static and dynamic load they can take.
yeah lol i've assembled a like 4m axis on a cnc machine and it aint have ballscrews that big
yeah waaaayyy too big, if you want to reduce backlash you need a double nut as well, they preload the threads to provide greater axial stiffness.
@@muzzarobbo not entirely true; a ballscrew that uses "gothic arch type" ball tracks can be preloaded with a single nut. on a rolled screw this is the preferred method due to inconsistencies in the shape of the screw; a double nut on a rolled screw is more likely to bind up. if you want to use a double nut, the best thing would be to get a c5 or c3 precision ground ballscrew. the size of the ballscrew impacts acceleration but even a 60x60 mm 400 W servo should have no issues accelerating this ballscrew with 1 G of linear acceleration. the inertia of the system just needs to be close enough to the rotor inertia such that the servo control loop remains stable at those speeds
i thought 4 point contact ballscrews like precision ground ones are quite expensive compared to cheap rolled ones? i use a double nut on rolled ballscrew with no binding issues@@ikbendusan
Good job! I think you'll find it helps a lot more than you think. Resonance or vibration is only part due to stiffness (lack of...), you also need to consider the accelerated mass. Doubling the tightly coupled mass of a beam lowers the resonance frequency, sure - but the important part is that the beam impact load moment of inertia goes up to a factor of mass increase squared. Doubling the mass means that the same impact force now gives four times lower beam displacement. This helps a lot on all vibrations and momentary impacts that are NOT perfectly synced to the resonance frequency. At (the now lower) resonance, the same amount of impact force has the same displacement as before though
You just described drum tuning in the most scientific way possible.
Excellent overview of the benefits related to increasing mass. It is my understanding that the stiffness of the overall system increases. I think he could have increased mass further if the mix was compacted in layers. The mixture didn't seem fluid enough to settle with just a few taps.
Tip for pouring from containers like the ones your epoxy came in: hold the bottle sideways, so the hole in the handle is "eye to the sky" This way you dont get the typical glug glug that slows down pouring and makes it more dificult to be precise.
It doesn’t sound the same at all! Sounds much better!
What a fitting video! Just yesterday I decided to fill the column of my milling machine to reduce vibration and increase weight. I used a product called "Durfill" by Durcrete which is a cement glue based engineering concrete for filling structures and building machine bases. It expands slightly when curing to fill gaps and self levels. It's less of a mess than dealing with epoxy resin.
You mean durafill?
@@NiclasGudmundsson no, I used Durfill from Durcrete, a German manufacturer of ultra high performance concrete.
@@Sven_Hein ahh thanks, I will have a look to see if I can find that here in sweden too. I'm having thoughts to make a concrete bottom part for my machine so I can have a built in coolant system.
The objective is to remove chatter:
Eliminating "ringing" created by tool cutting edges contacting the workpiece at a harmonic of the frames natural frequency is one reason to fill the extrusions.
Another reason is to increase the overall mass of the machine... this alone can be a significant improvement.
I guess that's why you don't see many portable Bridgeport mills! 😜
Really looking forward to the rest of the series; I don't think you are going to be disappointed with the finished machine.
Would loose sand dampen vibration better than the weight of the epoxy granite?
imo increased density due to epoxy added has a greater effect than friction within loose sand.
You're all going to give Tom a complex and his next video will be testing like 30 different materials for frequency and stiffness.
The mass of the sand probably has more of an effect on damping than the loose sand itself. Additionally, loose sand would end up finding ways to get out and would make a mess.
@@yetanotherdan This reminds me of the whole marble machine madness for those that know.
@@ChrisValin-w6o not enough mass
MY only real concern right now would be that this is a little top heavy. Cool idea for a design though!!
Perhaps stiffen the frame with framing lumber like 2 by 6 or 2 by 8?
I'd assume the dampening properties of the sand are cancelled out (or atleast reduced) by the expoxy holding all the grains together. The sand cant absorb the frequencies by moving around.
Hi Tim. I've been considering epoxy granite for my CNC build, however I strongly believe that the Sikaflex 290DC deck caulking that we use at work for cruise liner Teak decking will be a good alternative choice. My reasoning is down to how these dampening materials work; converting vibration into heat through friction. Epoxy granite alters and shifts the resonant frequencies within the system to longer wavelengths which are less intrusive than the higher "ringing" plain Aluminium produces. Sound dampening materials in audio applications tend to use dense flexible materials such as rubber or polyurethanes which are very good at converting vibration to heat. Sikaflex polyurethane caulks are single component and much more convenient than mixing up dry aggregates and epoxy, which is an attractive benefit.
The fact it still rings may be attributed to the hollows that still exist in the corners of the aluminium extrusions.
Interesting that you filled up the rails with epoxy granite. I did something similar when I was putting together my own CNC router to cut down on the vibrations during milling.
Instead of just the rails though, I made a mold for the whole base of the CNC and poured a mix of 20% epoxy and 80% sand into it. And it worked well. I basically wrapped an aluminium frame in epoxy-granite for my CNC machine.
One thing you might want to think about is shaking out the air bubbles and gaps in the epoxy granite a bit more. I rigged up a DIY vibration table for this, attaching a cement vibrator to a plywood board, and let the mold vibrate for the entire curing time.
I'd think filling in the gaps in the aluminum grid structure on your CNC with epoxy granite would make the vibration dampening even better. Just my two cents from building my own CNC machine with epoxy granite for the past year.
Where can i see your build?
Made my CNC base out of structural concrete and i love it.😊
Do not constantly vibrate during the curing process this causes the sand to settle to the bottom of the mixture. This is a big no no when mixing regular cement. You can actually see it happen if you put a vibrator into the mixture and not by vibrating the entire structure. The mixture around the vibrator becomes watery if you leave the vibrator stationary.
Paving slabs, across the beam bottoms, heavy, stable and could be used as a shelf for stuff! Would probably benefit from bedding on closed cell foam/other stuff, and securing!
Good idea.
Great video Tom! Getting rid of all that vibration is indeed very important 👍
I have done the same thing with my welded machine, but I compacted in the epoxy sand mix as I filled it and that made a noticeable difference.
One tube I had to fill sideways and could not compact, which resulted in a noticeably less uniformly and densely damped tube (you could hear the difference when you hit it at different positions).
0:14 note that this measurement does not necessarily suggest there is a dip or bump in the middle of the extrusion, it may well be that the rail or the reference surface it is mounted to is twisted, which is a far more annoying problem to deal with. the way to measure this is with a precision spirit level, usually with a resolution of 0.02 mm/m or 0.05 mm/m. if you decide to dive into the deep end and research all the possible sources of error in a linear motion system, know that you'll probably either have to accept that you won't be making very accurate parts or that you'll be spending a lot of time getting it right... i've been there. lol
Currently working on a cnc build as well with an extrusion based table/enclosure. To cut down on vibrations and to make the table much stiffer im attaching mdf panels to the sides of the table. Also contemplating using some rubber like gasketing or some sort of putty between the mdf and extrusion.
Regardless, stoked to see where this goes! Oh and also something worth checking out is services like jlcpcb, pcbway (pretty sure they do sponsorships) and rapid direct. If you have any weird brackets or mounts you wanna make, you can just shoot them some cad and some money and you'll get back freshly machined pieces.
One other idea, where you have linear rails, you could just get a slab of mic-6 and mount your linear rails to that. Mic-6 is usually pretty darn flat and not too expensive.
Anywho looking forward to the rest of your build!
For future reference, a bit of heat will soften threadlocker.
Don't be disappointed Tom.
Any added mass will help dampen frequencies in the range of your cutter speed rpm. Rubber or metalastic feet will also help.
I think you should try it and see......fine tune the clearance on your axis guides.
Loving the content.
I'd bolt the entire thing to the ground or a concrete block, with rubber gasket between aluminium and concrete.
I'd also put lightly coupled (or gasketed) bracing between the middle of legs and the uprights, reducing the number of long lengths that can resonate.
Here is what’s happening: filling the cores increased the mass and lower the resonant frequency. But to dampen the vibrations, you need to dissipate that energy somehow and for that, you need loose sand. I think you’ll be fine, but you could try filling the legs with loose sand and compare them to see how it changes. I did this awhile back with some speakers stands I have. I filled one with some very dry, fine Masons sand and compared the sound by swapping stands with one that wasn’t filled. I didn’t expect any difference, but it really sounded significantly better. So, I don’t know if it would make a difference in machining quality but it does make a difference. If nothing else, maybe it will help to make it quieter when operating. You should also try to use some strips of sound dampening mat, like they use for car audio. You don’t need much, just a strip on each extrusion. Just be sure to put it where you’ll never need to remove it because it really sticks.
cannot wait for part 3.... the structure is sturdy :)
Thread locker. Every bolt, every time. Learned through hard experience!
I really love your approach! But .. I would go for High-density polyurethane foam to create a sturdy base, and reduce the weight. I'm no scientist or expert, but this is what came to my mind. Maybe it won't win from the sand / epoxy mix. Another way to go, but ends op very heavy is to fill the profile with concrete. As this is not flexible, it could crack, so I think this is eventually a no-go. Keep up the good work Tom!
The natural frequncy of the central 2 beams in the bending mode is quite low still. You can help reduce ringing further by adding vertical (or triangular) support columns underneath the center 2 beams, supporting their centers from the floor. This should increase the lowest natural frequency of the center beams at least by a good amount (I am guessing 4 or 8 times), which should reduce ringing.
This only helps the up and down bending vibration mode though. To also reduce the in and out of plane bending vibration node you could add 3 short support beams in between the beams on the platform, supporting the centers of the beams from the side.
the sand-epoxy dough looks edible enough, wonder how that taste like
gritty
cockles on a cold wet stoney brit beach
Looks like kinetic sand one had as a child
It tastes like eating chips at the beach on a windy day
Probably tastes like cancer
Tim, good job, I am keenly capturedin your videos about this as I only just finished my CNC mill (I wish I had a CNC to build the frame mounting parts as that would have eliminated my inaccuracies in making the fixtures and it would not have taken 6 years). You will definitely see an improvement in cut quality with your improvements, but making some chips will be the biggest tell. From the video it looks like rigidity from the grooves/T slot fixtures maybe your weakest point causing flex on the gantry and you may need to increase the gantry mounting strength with a drilled & bolted hole through Y axis mounting + to support this the gantry feet & fixturing could be bulked up. Love the videos.
I would think that Constraint Layer Dampening would work really well for damping the internal vibrations, easiest and most affordable way to do that would be the sound deadening used in cars.
You'd want to get the stuff that has a goey viscoelastic layer on one side and a thick foil layer on the other side. It's incredible how effective it is at damping sound and ringing in solids.
I have no idea if anyone has done that with a CNC machine but it should work!
Also I would have left the sand dry and only added resin to the ends so it can't escape, seems like if you make the sand a solid structure then it's reduced its dampening effect and it's only lowering the resonant frequency, and hasn't increased the decay rate
Good luck!
Do you really need to rigidly mount the frame to the feet? Maybe adding some rubber to the mounting-points could dampen the vibrations traveling from the main frame into the base/legs.
Wow! You are so smart and strong! This machine will change the world!
If I recall, New Yorkshire Workshop's CNC build featured concrete, so you're going in the right direction!
That was a great build !
yea, i´m also waiting for part 3 ...
I would suggest to further stiffen the lower structure (that can't be filled with sand), for example by simply introducing more cross beams or diagonal beams. This should greatly reduce vibrations in the system.
I think there’s a making of a drummer in you Tim!
Where is part 3? I check back every week 😂
Use dry sand on the the vertical legs. its pretty much self compacting and should pour in like water if the sand it totally dry. iv had bags of kipn dried that were not dry before hahah
Don't want to be negative but 8:40 really summarized why people are questioning this. A HUGE lead screw, big extrusions, filled with sand/epoxy and tested with a hammer in the very unscientific "ring test." 😂 Seriously. Build it and see how it performs before over "engineering" solutions to problems that might not even exist.
Like you said, you can always add weight to the base, and you can also make a dampener on top of the gantry for specific possible problematic resonant frequencies. Like they do in tall sky scrapers.
I've been thinking about building a cnc with these extrusions too and I was thinking about filling them with some kind of damping material. Like greenglue or some liquid rubber type stuff that sets and becomes solid material that actually damps the vibrations rather than just adding mass
Your videos are like asmr for engineers ❤
Listening to the internet... My cnc machine stand same issue, used some gell blocks and some sound deadening foam/foil stick on stuff and job done. cost me 40 quid and took ten mins to do
Perhaps you can try adding the material they use in deadening vibration in high end car sound systems. I think they sell that stuff in rolls and you might be able to attach it to the underside of your build-plate or other convenient areas.
80x80 extrusion on the gantry at 45°. Large 10mm or so triangular plates bolted on from the sides to further improve the rigidity of the gantry. I think some sand blasting media is more dense, especially if you mix different grain sizes. It can be packed more densely by tamping with a rod.
Just an idea to add to the masses, but a lot of machining tools have cast iron bases to absorb vibrations. I would think mounting the CNC on one of those plates would help with the vibrations in the legs, hope this helps!
Try steel or lead shot plus loose dried sand in the base. This should give you an acoustically dead stand, and make the tool bottom heavy. Right now you are top heavy and that will amplify any vibrations. You may also want to replace the uprights with square 80x80s. They will be easier to fill and give you a bit more contact area and stability at the corners.
Lastly, you may want to use additional angle braces or plates to increase the rigidity of your extrusion joints
Thank you! We make same frame. Waiting for Part 3!
The theory behind EG is to use different size aggregate, sand - 10mm pebbles, this breaks down the vibration a lot faster, stops the vibration from travelling because of all the different size objects to go around
There is always tradeoffs when designing such a machine. Take your gantry axis for example. You can use very low rails to increase rigidity but then often loose out on drive-stiffness by needing coupling over to the leadscrew (like you have). Alternative is using taller guiderails where the leadscrew can fit under and the coupling nut carrier can then interface directly with the axis for a stiffer drive position. In the end I do not know which is more rigid but I went for the second option on my machine based on simulations in the CAD.
The sand is not just for resonant frequency, but also to help counter the movment of your gantry/cutting apparatus.most mass to live means sudden changes in inertia affects your whole setup less. Chatter will kill your bits and cutting heads.
You can fill the smaller areas of extrusions by loading the epoxy granite into refillable caulking cartridges and pressure/squeezing it into the extrusion. If you want more rigidity, you can use steel rebar implanted into the epoxy granite.
To be honest, I wouldn't worry too much about the resonancy, sound is just sound. I really think you're good on rigidity.
Sound proofing material felt washers The main issue is hollow pieces but they are metal on metal which can transfer sound / vibration
2 things... rubber feet for an air compressor and I think the pitch of your ball screw is a little to high ... i could be wrong but you should look into that and double make sure your gonna be happy with that pitch :) good luck!
You have to ask yourself a few questions if you want to go damping resonances. First one is which resonance will be a problem when running the machine. Next one is which mode of vibration were you hoping to dampen and will the method you chose do that. Increasing the mass will lower certain frequencies but to dampen a mode you have to actually get the vibration into the dampening material. Your structure has many modes of vibration, only a few will be dampened, many will just be at a lower frequency with more modes (higher order) at higher frequencies. Maybe a cad model will show you the frequencies if it can do modal analysis. Lowering some structural frequencies will likely bring unwanted modes down into your are of operation although it may also make some problem frequencies move down into a state where they aren’t a problem.
The mass of the sand definitely will lower the frequencies involved.
you could 3D-print some T-slot sand buckets which can be moved around to show.
A small mass damper system could be made in a similar way, but getting it tuned in might be a pain.
Maybe inserting rubber/elastic "cushins" between the bed and the legs could help isolating them from each other? Of course that means another cumbersome disassembly and reassembly... But if you still decide to do it, don't forget the screws connecting the two halves together would also need some mini-cushins!
I am guessing the Cnc wasnt as easy to build as expected
Well if you ever give up RUclips, there’s hope as a percussionist
The biggest mistake was mixing sand with epoxy. Loose sand acts like a dumper, it does not move like a single weight, but the movement of grains relative to each other dampens vibrations. Moreover, loose sand fills the empty spaces more tightly. In fact, you had to print the ends of the profiles (which you did anyway), paste them on epoxy, and pour loose sand between them.
Now you just added masses to the profiles, which is of course positive, but not as good as it could be.
Epoxy-granite acts differently - the epoxy absorbs the energy as the vibration waves travel between the sand grains and the epoxy.
The sand will help the most with the high frequencies represented by localized flexing of the walls. The lowest frequency modes represented by the whole thing going back and forth in bulk wont care as much about the epoxy fill; the high frequency modes would be the most annoying ones to deal with for the machining process though; there is a lot of energy injected into the system at your spindle rpm * number of cutting teeth; not really a whole lot in the lower audible range of a few 100hz where most of the leftover response seems to be. Thats just armchair philosophy though, don't have hands on experience. But it seems like a worthwhile upgrade to me.
Good video i loved your 3D Printed extrusion parts and funnels they look super handy and smart!
Definitely sounds better. Will it make a difference? No idea. But it does sound better.
Print spacers in TPU to put between the 8080 extrusions and the legs to help blocking the resonance
Pretty sure a lot of resonance would be removed by bolting a sheet of MDF or similar to one of the sides of the base, since MDF is elastic it's a great vibration sink.
You could have used iron filings or small ball bearings? If you Made an iron filing/ epoxy slurry you could have poured in like the sand. If doing the ball bearings you could drop in then pour the standard epoxy.
With bearings you could possibly cap ends and pour in the bearing. That way you can recover and use again.
Alternative solution for hollow sound is to use expanding foam to fill voids and damp the sound a little.
B&q sell lead flashing for roofing that you could attach to the outside of the legs to damp them, a tight layer of some sort of tape, then wrap qith the lead flashing, then another tight layer of tape.
Lead sheet is quite good for damping because it has high density, meaning the energy required to move it is high and it has a very small amount of area under the elastic deformation part of its stress-strain curve (this is a representation of the amount of energy able to be stored in its elastic deformation)
The point of the sand is to act as attenuation for the resonant frequencies of the extrusion, it's not really about the weight. The granules inside the cavity move around with the vibrations and dampen the effect by absorbing some of the energy. The same principal as a deadblow hammer (plastic mallet filled with lead shot).
Read up on input shaping. It is being used on 3D printers to avoid resonant frequencies.
What you could do for the legs is use motor mix . It is much thinner than concrete but not as thin as straight epoxy so it would would flow into the legs much easer. But wouldn't flow out as long as you had end caps on the bottom. if you are worried about them ringing.
Mate, the idea of using sand it’s that stays loose (dat absorb vibration better)
I made my farrier anvil stand and filled whit loose sand, that work perfectly
Its the principal on “dead blow hammers”
I think the sand is not meant to add mass (which would just decrease the resonance frequecies) but to dampen the vibrations, and for that it needs to be able to dissipate energy i.e have lots of grains rubbing on one another, but the epoxy could be preventing that from happening. I don't build cncs and the sand epoxy thing might be common but if there's a problem I see it here
Maybe adding strips of heavy rubber to the outside of the legs would dampen the vibration. Something like horse stall mats cut into strips and bolted to the extrusion?
maybe add between leg and main frame?
Appropriate Barry Mounts would be my first choice.
The narrow legs, in fact all of it could’ve been filled with leveling cement. It’s very liquid and smooth, and much nicer to work with than epoxy.
I'm thinking about using high strength concrete...
Ive used molten lead.
@@philiprogers5772 I'm too lazy to deal with epoxy. I can't imagine messing around with lead.
@@philiprogers5772 That's going to play havoc with his 3D printed funnels :)
@@-vermin- Lol, also I wonder if the expansion and contraction would cause deformities.
Cross brace the legs and weigh them down or bolt them down to make it super rigid. And cross brace the gantry to the table. It will be solid and overbuilt.
And I am excited to see you indicate everything in square and parallel
Loose sand absorbs vibration way better than epoxy sand combos.
That's what I was thinking: you don't see deadblow hammers with epoxied shot in them
my understanding, and it can totally be flawed and wrong but... I thought best results for deadening sound and vibration was by having the sand loose as that allows the sand to move and shift absorbing the vibrations. so wouldn't epoxy'ing it in place mitigate most of that effect. It does sound a lot less ringy but I'm guess you'll always have some of that as it is metal.
Perhaps the ringing is coming from the contact between the heads of the fasteners and the inner surface of the t slot of the mating beam. I suggest testing various durometer rubber washers under the heads of the fasteners to dial in the perfect damping. (not "dampening" if you're going to use this in a video)
I wonder if using water-proofing mix would be better than using epoxy granite. That mix has rubber in it which is excellent for absorbing vibrations. Epoxy granite makes the whole structure more rigid but I wonder if it really does anything to absorb vibrations. You could also use cement mixed with plasticiser but that may corrode the aluminium extrusions.
Maybe try assembling the chassis with different types of material. Since materials vibrate at different frequencies. You could find a 2 or 3 materials to assemble that can cancel each others frequency out.
I wouldn't worry to much about the legs/base ringing. You have significantly increased the mass and rigidity of everything the linear rails are directly attached to. This will will greatly decrease relative motion between each axis, which is what you really care about. If all three axes, work piece itself, and the cutter remain rigid to one another it doesn't matter if the machine as a whole bounces all over the place. There are some assumptions in there of course, but the idea goes a long ways. If down the road the vibrations in the legs becomes annoying you can do something about it then. Great build!
Maybe try to Wrap a Rubber mat or Rubber Tape around the legs? The Rubber could absorb the virbrations and also isolate the Sound or reduce the frequency. I guess even normal Tape would Help notacibly.
I'm thinking bolting it down after might make a big difference too. Either to the floor, or to a concrete block if you don't want to make holes in the floor.
the ringing is not so bad, resonance is what you have to watch out for, and adjust you rpm's for.
You could enclose the base by mountig steel plate on the legs, and then fill the void with epoxy granite. That will make the whole cnc a lot heavier but here heavy weight is your friend.
Drill holes in the legs and cross beams and fill with straight epoxy. Gonna be TOP HEAVY and Wiggle.
Should have filled them B4 reassembly... Cool Project to learn from. thank you
Nice work Tim!
I'm no CNC expert but you should/could just add some diagonal braces from the sand filled bed to the legs, one on the short end from 1/2 way along the cross bar down to one of the legs, and maybe pairs on the longer sides, that will increase the resonant frequency significantly hopefully way above that of the steppers in motion. I wonder if you could even brace the two centre beams at 45 down to the end or side leg cross brace rails....(move them up to suit and don't fixate on keeping the sides and ends at the same height like you have)
While the way you mixed the epoxy was a great idea, I wonder if it would have been easier (and maybe cheaper) to fill the legs with bonded sand like Petrobond or even Kinetic Sand. There are also a few different kinds of casting sand (Sodium silicate sand) that can be poured easily and then cured to a "hardened state" with the addition of CO2.
As for the legs, I think it is less about the weight and more about the long, hollow surfaces that allow for vibration. May want to look at car-deadening mats (like Dynamat) and paints (like Spectrum's Liquid Sound Deadner) that could be added to help lessen resonance.
Judging from the Bambu A1 printer initialization sequence prior to printing, it sounds as if they fixed it in software by sweeping the head through different frequencies and measuring the vibration. Do folk do this with CNC machines?
what about spray foam in the legs to deaden them?
Where is the vibration coming from? Which part of the extrusion? If it’s the little parts that stick out that you bolt everything onto, that tightening will decrease vibrations.
Maybe diagonal steelwire or braces between the legs. It seems like you now have more weight on spaghetti legs. And I dont know what type of machine feet you have but stiff dampers could also maybe help further.