Silicone mounts vs yellow springs vs factory springs - Ender3V2 upgrade 

Use nuts/locknuts on the screws under the bed, locks them, so, no side play/wobble. That's what the counterbore/recess is for.

I had silicon mounts on an Ender 3 for about 8 months and I had not problems at all but then my BL Touch mesh was not working I tried everything before I realised the gantry on the right hand side had dropped and changed the level above the BL Touch's tolerance, once that was addressed I had no further issues and the silicon mounts have been on for a total of 23 months now and never need adjusting as they hold perfect tension. I would advise any viewers that are having levelling issues to check the level of their gantry to the frame and not to the bed, there are many videos showing how to level the gantry correctly on YT This is a great video, showing the actual data for each spring is extremely informative.

Best video anywhere about installing the mounts- so many didnt even mention which way up they go and your did. fantastic and thank you sop much. Brilliant tutorial.

The problem with the original springs is that they can move sideways while being compressed. When adding your second weight this was clearly visible for the original springs. This sideways motion allows for extra inaccuracy and additional modes of vibration.

I replaced the stock springs with the yellow springs after printing over 100 hours, hoping the leveling issues would disappear (adjusting before every print, sometimes taking up to 30 minutes!). Reduced but still had to re-level after every 3 or 4 prints (verses after each one). The amount was less but still needed to be done. Then I saw a video about putting a lock nut (with nylon inner "seal") on the screws to prevent them from turning when turning the large adjustment wheels. What?!? I did experiment and found the screws (at least mine) did spin a bit. I installed the locknuts and at the same time replaced the yellow springs with silicone spacers (mine are black, don't know if there is a color code for compression resistance). I appreciate your video as it logically and empirically showed what I suspected to be true - thank you for all the time spent reassembling your printer so I didn't have to do it again! What a pain... The Ender 3V2 has held "level" (stayed trammed?) for a month without needing adjusting (being paranoid I was checking it every day that I started a print but didn't touch the leveling knobs. Prints were ok but I like to tinker so I added a BL touch, mainly for my sons so they wouldn't need to mess with the adjustments. So far I am happy with the modifications. Next one will be adding Octoprint! Or upgrading to the Jyers firmware. Or a new controller board... {sigh} As long as it is printing well, I don't really have an excuse that satisfies my wife so this configuration will have to remain until after Christmas {grin}.

This video is great. I appreciate the theory, engineering perspective, observations, and testing. Very helpful!

Great walkthrough of the difference between springs and silicone springs Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍😀

As always, thank you for taking a scientific approach to your investigations. Always helpful. I've found the yellow springs to last for years. Once set, and using BLtouch, I never have to adjust them. But if I had to do it over again and change out the factory springs, I would go with the silicon mounts.

Thanks for another helpful video. I added some washers under the flat springs on my new refurbished Ender 5 Pro and that helped my leveling also.

have just ordered silcone mounts as my 3v2 has issue with adhesion despite having the bed leveled and using a cr touch module. your video has been a great source of info

Thank you, Igor! I have recently switched to auto BL and this will help me.

This is a fantastic explanation. I was struggling with this until I watched this. Perfect. Thanks very much.

Silicone "springs" are also good because they have a very rough surface and high viscosity - this prevents them from scrolling from vibrations (anti-slip mats are made of silicone for a reason)

Thanks for the video. I was on the fence about using yellow or silicon. Now I now and it will be silicon for both my printers

I switched to the silicone things because they are very stiff and because their rubbery surface ensures that there can’t be any bed wobble during longer prints, since that was a issue I experienced with the original springs.

Thank you, you completely and concisely answered my questions.

Thank you I ordered silicone, and the yellow came with my metal extruder so I was just about to look into this

I had issues with having to constantly relevel (presumably due to weak springs) and my solution was to print plastic spacers (about 1.5mm high) to compress the weak springs at the ideal height. Worked so far

I have been using the silicone for about a year now and find a much more stable bed after many prints, I also installed a small m4 nuts on the screws on the bottom of the bed before installing the silicone to keep the screws from spinning loose, That way the only moving part is the adjustment wheel on the bottom. I did many test on both of my ender 3's and the nuts do make a big difference.

A simple solution is to use a wing nut below each levelling knob, just make sure you dont disturb the knob when you tighten it up to it, 2 nuts locked against each other are tight and not easily moved ask any mechanic

thank you so much ! I was debating this on a Discord server a few weeks ago, but had no arguments. Now i am ready !!😈

Amazing tests!!! Thanks for the video!

Thanks. I feel like a got a bit of education on springs as well!

Hey there ! Nice explaining video !!! I believe though that the best trick is to use safety nuts because the safety nuts has some nylon lock mechanism and it is very very hard to turn the nut without any tool.

Interesting. Sometimes your videos, while rigorous, don't draw many conclusions. However, in this one, I feel like you've definitely nailed down the fact that silicone mounts are better for auto bed-leveling systems, and strong yellow springs are better for printers utilizing the z-limit switch. This was your intuition, and you backed it up with some hard data. I feel much more informed, and if/when I buy a CR Touch or BL Touch I will consider adding silicone mounts as well. As for now, I'm using the yellow springs with a z-limit switch. Thanks!

Fully coil binding the bed springs and move the endstop switch to match (may need a new endstop mount) then level the bed, will lower the centre of gravity for the build plate and lower ringing/ghosting. Having the bed levelled at the default height allows way too much bed movement.

Last night I bought slicone mounts for experimenting and now youtube offer me this video, hope this will help me my z wobble on corexy machine with dual z motor edit: instantly subbed after results good job!

Very informative video! I'm using the stock springs for more than 1 year on my Ender 5 and thinking about replace them. Since I have BLTouch installed I'm now considering using the silicon.

Good job Ivor 👍🏻

Nice video, thanks. I have ordered the yellow springs and the BLtouch before seeing your video. I'm sure the glass on my Ender 3V2 is warped exactly like yours, concave with a hole in the center, which is the worse for leveling manually.

Thanks 4 this helpful and good video! Grat work! I'll buy a silicon version for my sidewinder x2

Excellent video!

Answered all of my questions. Thanks.

Great content! Thank you for the great video.

this is a great video i purchased a biqu microprobe and ever since i had it ive had issues with printing. i use the yellow springs. your video explains the problem better than anyone tried to help me and you mention if you have a z end stop then the yellow springs are best and i agree with you i used to always use a z end stop and i had virtually no problems with printing. any problems i had were elsewhere

If you are just hobby printing wait until the bed cools to remove your print, once the bed cools the parts slide right off. If you're in a hurry you can spray some alcohol around the perimeter of the part to cool the bed faster and you can use the excess to clean the bed. Anything that keeps you from yanking on the bed will help reduce bed leveling. Lock nuts on the adjusting wheels will help too. If you have ABL or manual mesh you can replace the springs with a solid spacer. This can be tricky to level initially, you'll have to add and remove shims/washers to get the bed level to start, but once you get the bed level it generally doesn't move, any slight changes can be compensated by the ABL or checking your manual mesh occasionally and adjusting if necessary. Disclaimer: I have not personally tried the solid spacer method, I am currently using the upgraded yellow springs, but from what I've seen online people who have tried it like it. Most new printers that come from the factory with an ABL probe installed also come with solid spacers installed from the factory.

at 14:26 -- the pockets in the silicone also allow for a nut to lock the countersunk bolt to the bed. If the friction of the countersink cone is less than the friction of the threads on the M4, then the head and bolt will spin rather than the leveling knob moving up or down the both..

Almost two years since I installed the silicone mod on my Prusa MK3 - perfect results like on first day. I used a silicone tube from automotive parts.

Nice test, I've used the yellow ones on my bed before, but when I upgraded to a bigger bed I went with the silicone columns, albeit mine are the clear white ones. I did notice they're far stiffer than the yellow springs, but I mostly chose them because I thought they might have a better sideways stiffness based on them having a lot bigger surface area than the springs. They've been on the bed and printing for now... just a day, but let's see their durability on heat. One thing I would like to add, that you kinda saw on the tests, is that the tensile strength graph shown is valid mostly just for traction, albeit with steel the linear line should be similar, a compression graph would not show a rupture line for example, it just goes up and up and deforms more and more (since it won't ever snap, just become wider and shorter instead). A spring, if designed correctly, should never have permanent deformation under compression (which is the bed leveling springs), as it would, like you found out, bottom out way before the material itself has problems, and by then if you manage to make the material deform by compression then you're probably using some absurd alloy bolts and destroying everything in the way too. What can cause weird things when plotting a graph is if it starts crossing the coils, like would happen with the default Ender springs. The columns whoever might have permanent deformation problems, as they can't bottom out, but, as they're so much stiffer already then you're probably running into the same thing as bottoming out the metal springs and crushing them. The heat and long therm part tho is interesting, as polymers react way differently.

Great Video!

I have them (Fysetc version both black and orange)installed on my e3 pro's since Aug 2019. I love these silicone spacers and I tell everyone who will listen. No complaints at all. @300hrs of PETG at 90c and no degredation that I can tell.

I've been using the silicone spacers for about 4 months. They are fantastic. However I've seen others who have had issues with certain types of the silicone spacers that you get. Me personally I wouldn't go back to the spring.

To answer your question, after more than a year after switching to silicone mounts, I didn't had any issues. I don't know if they become more stiff or if they deformed because I simply installed them and never touched them since. I realized that I didn't even leveled my bed after. Using Bl Touch and a glass bed. But to be honest I never needed to force anything while removing my prints, thanks to some magigoo.

I haven't experienced any issues with the silicone mounts, I already had the firmer yellow/orange springs on my printer and while I don't think I had issues with the bed due to the spring I wanted to get the silicone ones. I just wanted something with low thermal conductivity as to not cause the bed frame to work as a heatsink, the silicone mounts just made sense to me, I don't think the lack of elasticity is going to cause any issues.

Thanks for a great comparison. The silicon posts are good for auto-leveling set ups while providing a very slight give to the bed in case the nozzle scrapes. As for manual levelling, I've never had problems with the "weak" stock springs. Tighten the wheels to fully compress all the springs. Adjust Z-stop to trigger on the highest point of the bed - move the around while turning the Z rod to find this. Perform your bed tramming routine by only loosening the wheels. This will ensure maximum spring compression while keeping the wheels tight.

Thanks. That was very useful.

I have found this video now. I have used all three and I have actually found the yellow springs were the best on my Ender 5 (original model). I found the factory silver springs were way to weak, it would move too much. The silicon blocks, on the other hand, were too rigid and made it virtually impossible to level the bed as moving one corner even 0.1mm would upset all the other corners. The yellow springs are stable, don't move during prints, but flexible enough that leveling the bed is easy to complete. I print on the original Ender bed, PEI bed and glass and a BL Touch. I find the yellow springs best.

I switched from silicone to stiffer springs because when squished they were interfering with the threads of a bolt making the bed not return to the same position when pushed down or up.

excellent video sir; quite possibly one of the best ive seen about these mods on youtube or any platform. thank you.

Did just add plastic spacer under heat bed (for protections) and then a normal nut (to prevent screw to spin) and then the original spring and at the end printed new leveling wheels with lock-nuts. Has soon been 2 years since I leveled my bed. I don't use any BL Touch, print on normal glass (3mm) from local glazier.

Thank you! @7:34, that spring flying seemed dangerous - it could put an eye out. I recommend you wear safety glasses for deformation testing (as well as other). I've only got one working eye, so it really concerned me to see that so close to your face, and moving so fast. Thank you for the information, and stay safe!

thank you for your sharing!

I’m using The silicone. That realy stable and strong. Test result is corrected my idea.

Thank you for the great RU-vid channel :)

I upgraded my ender 3 S1 to the silicon standoff. After a few weeks they are great. I would level the bed every few days, eventually they have squashed enough where they are now stable. The springs would, under temperature controls, and vary throughout the print. I have my printer in an enclosure now so this my not be as significant

My 2 cents worth on leveling an Anet8 Plus. I removed the glass top, took out the 4 bolts for the heatbed. I then bolted the Anet8 Plus on a piece of plywood. I put items under the plywood to level the 3D printer. I leveled the X gantry to the bed frame in both directions. This is where things get strange.....After doing the familiar exercise of moving the tip around the bed and homing Z axis a few times I noticed when homing the left Z motor makes a grind noise and lowers the left Z axis a bit. Disable the motors and twist the right Z axis to level it up again. I spent 5 days with this problem until I printed a new Z axis stop that mounts on the left side and then removed the left and right spiral rods ,re-set the set screws into the rods and leveled them. I replaced the springs with rubber ones. After many times homing the Z axis the level of the gantry has stayed level. I printed a test for checking the levelness...perfect, time will tell. But checking the gantry being level on all prints will be a priority for me.

good job thank you

Nice testing! Your previous video about creep and different plastics makes me wonder about how this property might impact spring material. If you put all three springs under say... a 5 - 10kg load for a week, would the metal springs be more or less prone to permanent deformation than the silicone? Also under heat cycling that could be seen with bed mounting fixtures.

Excellent...

i hollowed out the silicone ones to fit the good springs . combo

Thank you for the info. I was wondering if there may be any heat transfer from the bed to the yellow springs that may decay their elasticity. If there is a teflon or carbon fiber washer to negate that but over time being compressed it will affect them. Good thing they are cheap for now.

Good video. Your graph shows that the factory springs compressed at a higher rate above 10.6kg load. That explains why I was having such a hard time adjusting the spring in the back left corner, because it has the extra 2mm base from the cable guide and would compress greater than the other springs. A small change in the knob would result in a bigger compression change. One thing to note, you tested the compression of the springs but did not show if they retained any deformity from the compression. A properly designed spring will not deform when compressed. If you had measured the compression of the springs after multiple and prolonged compressions, you would likely find that they retained the same compression force, although I am aware we are talking about Chinesium springs and they may have cut some corners on the design. I think the silicone ones are more stable and less susceptible to vibration and heat deformation than the metal springs. I just installed the silicone spacers today and printed a 3d-benchy. It came out a little smoother than with the original Ender 3 Pro springs.

I hope i am not the only one... I use... both :) Silicone and on top springs. Had many issue before, none now.

Thank very much

very good ns

On thing to consider is do they give in if there is a blob or something that the printhead collides with. Springs do give in.

it is not mainly about spring strength, its the compensation of the springs to the non ideal surface of heated bed and frame/table the 3d printer set on

I can't tell you about the silicone mounts, but after a few weeks/months I even see deformation in my Prusa MK3S which is mounted pretty rigidly. It's not a lot, but it is definitely noticeable and without the bed leveling probe it would be quite problematic..

if you're using silicone, make sure the gantry is parallel enough to the bed (doesn't need to be perfect)

I see the bottom line as:- if you treat your printer bed like a workbench, buy stiffer springs and/or a bed levelling sensor. Comments suggest some ringing is more likely with more compliant springs, maybe just the frequency of ringing but my E3 is slow so if I see ringing I might consider stiffer springs.

I love how your graph shows how much dampening affect the silicone has compared to the springs. However, running klipper with input shaping, the resonances are going to much more offset from the bed to the nozzle than with springs, where the linear reliable movement creates desirable oscillations in my opinion for klipper specifically. What's your opinion on that?

Excellent demonstration of the three types. I had swapped out the factory springs for the stiffer yellow ones. I recently added a CR Touch to my Ender 3-V2 and definitely see the value in adding the silicon spacers. When you put the silicon spacers on, why did you switch back to the factory adjustment wheels?

That is correct, you might move the bed out of alignment by moving it manually! I just let my print cool down, it releases no problem and with zero resistance every time!

I just got a Cr6-SE and I am having some bed levling issues. I am wondering if using these silicon springs under the 11 bed screws might help tram the bed in better. The printer is comping the errors but I am having a hard time getting a good first layer on the entire build plate. Love the channel keep it up!

Hi Igor. I recently changed my springs for the silicone mounts. I am not a mechanical engineer, so forgive me if I am not able to back up my understanding of this system with proof or data. As I understand it, if the bed is level, then you don't actually need a BLTouch to level the bed. The BLTouch does nothing to level the bed. That's why you have to level it yourself before you can use an auto bed-levelling device. The BLTouch only compensates for bed surface irregularities by adjusting the height of the nozzle, and to function properly it relies on a mesh pattern it creates then stores either on the SD card or in the EEPROM. If the printer bed is level after installing the silicone mounts, it should remain relatively level as long as the mounts do not compress too much more. The BLTouch will then help compensate for the height differences between nozzle and bed, which is affected by the deformation of the build surface. Thanks for this video. I appreciate the scientific approach. It helps me to better understand 3D printers and how these work.

I use solid aluminum mounts with a BL-Touch.

Excellent video. I had replaced the original springs with the yellow ones on all 3 printers at one point. I bought 3 sets of the silicone spacers awhile back, but only installed them on the Ender-3. One issue I had when installing them was my bed wasn't trammed very well to the gantry so had to really tighten down the one side to get it close enough and then have the BL Touch do the rest. I haven't had to re-level even after months. But that goes for the other 2 printers with the yellow springs as well, so I'm not sure how much of a difference the silicone spacers would really make in the long run. I'll probably still eventually install them on all 3 printers though since I have them. To take it a step further, what if the spacers were made out of steel and then had zero deformation? If your bed and gantry are trammed really well, then could see this working, but if your printer is like mine then it would be too far out of "level" for the BL Touch to compensate so I think having some play as you get with the yellow springs is probably the way to go.

Ive just got a set of 4 silicone mounts from Creality. 3 are the same size one of them is 1mm shorter than the rest... Wonderful quality control 😕 I shall order another set and see if I can make up a set that I can actually use.

Mount a fan to the bottom of your printer and have a switch to turn on the fan. You can simply pull the 24v to a 24v fan and add a switch there. On Ender boards the hotend fan always spins... so yeah... all you need to do is to turn it on and your bed temp will fall really fast and then you hear a cracking and the print comes of itself :)

Very good video; I swapped to silicone but have had an issue with bed leveling since switching. Any tips on how to fix the issue?

Do you have pictures of the ringing before and after each of the modification of springs? I would say that with the factory springs you should see a lot of ghosting/ringing and with the silicones they should be greatly reduced. A side by side photo would be cool.

Hi Igor, great video. I just bought a CR-Touch so will get some silcone mounts. What version of Firmware are you using please. Please could you provide a link. I have an Ender 3 V2 with v4.2.2. board. No other mods other than the CR-Touch I want to install. Thanks for your help

Amazing video. Very informative and helpful. By the way - 07:35 - ware safety glasses :) , but wait ... hold on. at 10:07 you do have safety glasses :)

Hey My Tech Fun, awesome video. This was really interesting. So, to what percentage or mm length would you compress the yellow springs to before you start calibrating each corner? I compressed them on all four corners to 15mm (25% compression) before the calibration. After the calibration they are compressed to length at around 13mm. Do you think this makes sense according to your charts?

Hello Igor, wouldnt it be much better to level the bed and then put counter-nuts under the knobs so they dont vibrate loose instead of using super strong springs? I think the only benefit of "better" springs is that most of them have the contact area ground flat.

Спасибо.

Hello, very interesting video. I am wondering if I place thread lock on the screws at wheel level, I will ensure the levelling doesn’t move, without needing to deal with the stiffness of the springs/columns ? Am I wrong ?

Думаю, идеальный вариант - шаровые опоры.

Did you not have issues with the screws rotating in place when turning the knobs before? I had to install nylon lock nuts to the bottom of my bed so that the screws wouldn't rotate in place rather than having the knob tighten the spring...

The corner with the harness stays up on my tray. Even if I squeeze it all the way down, it stays up. Should I try to bend the metal with my hand or pull the Z-stop up? Thanks for the pei advice I'll get the silicon and pei asap

I just bought these for my ender3 v2. What's your experience after using them for about 2 years now?

What do you guys think about using a blue thread locker? It's the same kind of stuff you would find on the threads of electronics like a laptop and only costs a few bucks for a bottle of it. Adding this with the yellow springs, I think it's a pretty good combination for anyone.

2:28 This method will save you from having to use BL Touch or silicone springs. This is the part people keep ruining is trying to pry and jack hammer the print off the build plate whilst it's on the printer...

What software are you running on your printer? I would like to have mesh view like that to!

What about orizontal dilatation of the heat plate? Springs permit the holes to move a bit, silicone bushings compress too much obliging the bed to dilatate in vertical creating a dome. So the nozzle become more closed to the bed in centre and distant in corners.

Hello. What firmware have you installed for your cr touch? I have a 4.2.2 board but i get no save to eprom or view mesh. It just levels the bed and it says nothing just says confirm

Great video. Why not just use metal spacers and nuts it you have the CR touch? This would leave the bed fixed, no flex and secure. ?

Would you recommend this on a ender 3 S1 also? when i level my bed manually the springs are almost decompressed under my bed,

With Jyers FW you can do manual bed leveling without a paper, using bltouch.

Спасибо за видео)