Squash Ball Foot Rectangular for 2040 Extrusion

The design

This is a squash ball foot in rectangular shape for 2040 extrusions, like used on printers like the Creality CR-10. Extrusions have rectangular shapes and printers built with them also share this visual style. So I wanted squash ball feet to match that shape. Although you won't find a rectangular squash "ball", at least the housing should be rectangular.

The use case

You thought you have silent motors and silent fans and that's all you can do to reduce your 3D printers noise? Then get squash ball feet. I didn't do measurements, but on my regular desk the feet seem to reduce vibrations I didn't even know my printer has. The moves of the print head are barely audible when I sit two metres next to my printer. If you invested days or weeks and money to silence your printer's fans, then getting squash ball feet is a must. It's not a mile, it's only a small step you just have to do also after messing around with your fans. Most squash ball feet print quickly. This design needed 1:40h per foot, so about 6-7 hours for all four. That's a managable amount, especially if you do them one after another or two by two.

The print and the build

• Before you buy or print anything, check if the extrusion slots are free where you plan to place the feet. Sometimes cabling goes through the slots, usually this can be moved elsewhere.
• Get four double yellow squash balls. You get them cheap for around 2-4 bucks a ball.
• Print the squash foot four times, with the flat side on the build plate. No supports, brim or raft needed. If you want a two color print like in the pictures, change the filament on 19mm height, that's like in the pictures, or somewhere around. Just check in your slicer's print preview where you like the color change.
• Use 8-16 M5x10 screws and 8-16 M5x10x6 T-nuts to fix the feet to your extrusions. I used four screws and nuts by foot, that makes 16 screws and 16 nuts in total. Probably two per foot is enough, that would make 8 screws and 8 nuts in total.
• Remove whatever feet your printer has.
• Screw the feet into the corners of your bottom extrusion frame. On a CR-10, like in the pictures, there are 2040 extrusions on the sides, and 2020 on the front and on the back. For this case, two screws can go into the front 2020 extrusion, and two in the sideways 2040 extrusion, like in the pictures.
• Maybe you have to move some cabling. On my CR-10 V2 I had to move the cabling on the back from the bottom to the inside, you can see it in the pictures.
• When the feet are screwed into the extrusion, stick the balls in and enjoy your printer.

The remix

You have another idea and want to remix it or base your design on this one? You find the *.step and *.FCStd (FreeCAD) file in the thing files. I'd be grateful if you ping me, if you find an optimization or an alternation.

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