Upgrade your FlashForge Creator Pro's Feet

Comparison between air compressor foot (mounted) to the stock foot (held)

 If you look at the FFCP's rubber feet, they are definitely lacking compared to some other more modern printers. I believe if I can remove some of the resonances and vibration by adding a better quality foot, maybe I can change my resonance compensation algorithm down and run higher accelerations.

I initially started to design some feet out of TPU, and use a washer inside to spread out the weight, but I've been pretty busy with my Voron project. As a result, I decided to spend $10.00 on air compressor feet and drill the holes in the bottom of the printer out a bit bigger to fit larger bolts.

Anyway, here's what you need to do it:
M6 x 1.0 x 25mm Bolts (x4)
M6 x 1.0 Nuts (x4)
#6 Washer (x4)
(This kit has all the hardware listed above, and an appropriate allen key)
Air Compressor Feet (x4)
10mm Wrench
Pin Punch (Actually super important)
Mallet / Hammer (For hitting the punch)
Drill Bit Set (I assume most people have drill bits, but this is what I use anyway)
Drill (I use a 50 year old Sears corded drill, and it's invincible so I don't really have any suggestions)

I used more tools than I thought I did.

So the idea here is that maybe with better feet that are newer and have a bit more mass to them, they will absorb more vibrations and better couple the printer to the table, to make your table the limiting factor. This does have the unintended consequence of raising your printer's center of gravity, but we're scientists here. I'm hoping to collect vibration data with an accelerometer and compare it to the old feet.

As far as going through with the mod, here's the order of operations I used:

1. Turn your printer over on its' side and remove the old feet.
2. Take a pin punch and put it in the center of the hole and smack it with the mallet or hammer decently hard. What you're doing it removing the insert nut that's gripping onto the metal chassis pretty good, so it does take some banging. It might get stuck on the punch when it comes out. I just used needle nose pliers to pull it off in the confined space. This is super important because it's next to impossible to drill through the nut inserts because they're hardened steel, and will just trash your drill bits. If it doesn't come off, you can use a smaller 5/32" bit and it will help remove some of the material that's holding it on.
3. Use a 15/64" drill bit to drill out the now-threadless hole in the bottom of the printer. It will go very easily.
4. Insert the bolts into the rubber feet, and then line up the washer on the opposite side of the hole, and tighten the nut. They should both be 10mm so you can use a ratchet on one side and a wrench to hold the other one.
5. Tighten them all until they're decently tight, and then you're done.

CONCLUSION:
Unfortunately I somehow lost my original data showing the resonance test with the original feet, but I have the ones for the air compressor feet. I do have my previous values for input shaper though.

It appears that the major resonance peaks are basically the same, which is to be expected. The FFCP has a fairly rigid body and all things have resonances. Putting on different feet won't change the fact that the body of the printer has this quality. It may, however, isolate it from vibration of a washing machine or drier a little bit better, or other local sources of vibration. Due to the nature of this mod, it's impossible to go back and test, regrettably. We did test moving the toolhead a very tiny distance, but I feel it may bring increased stability with longer travels. Admittedly the dresser I have my printer on is not the best table, but I will be able to test once I build a dedicated table for it.

In conclusion, I don't think this modification gives a reasonable improvement, though if you already have the tools and bolts sitting around, I feel as though this $10 mod can't hurt it. A benefit is that it does give some more distance between the table and the bottom of the printer, and it does widen the stance a little bit. I'm going to have to print some objects and see what they look like and how it sounds qualitatively.

Anywhere, here's my resonance measurements, and I'm sure they're similar to yours if you also have a FFCP setup similarly. I chose 3HUMP_EI@97Hz for X and MZV@32Hz for Y.

The relevant peak here is the red line @ 97Hz

The relevant peak here is the blue line @ 32Hz

TODO: Pictures, vibration test result comparison, formatting, come up with a design made from TPU and M6 washers to make your own feet to make this even cheaper.