So for the past week while my wife and son were out of town the Prusa pretty much ran for 3 days straight, then all day Thursday and Friday. I ran a 7 hour print yesterday and my wife complained about the noise. The MK2 is on high power mode and sitting on a cedar chest in the basement. Not ideal for noise, but it's what I have available right now.
PLC268, I'm planning to build a custom HEVO, or rather, a HEVO with a shortened Y-frame length so the final overall depth is 450mm. This will yield a 280mm Y-axis minimum according to the spreadsheet. I posted in the HEVO FB group to see if the standard 300mmX300mm heated bed will still work. I believe it will but I may end up only getting the 280mm Y-axis. The good news is I can fit the 600mm frame height to get a 400mm Z-axis height. That's the same as the FT-5 but the FT-5 won't fit in the enclosure even if I chopped the legs down on the frame. There is a 280mm x 300mm heated bed for the Lutzbot TAZ6 on Amazon, but it doesn't have mounting holes and it's far more expensive than a 300x300 bed and silicone heater. Guys have remixed the HEVO for linear rails too, but I haven't decided if I'll spring for those yet. I think I'll start with 10mm carbon tubes and decide if the linear rail upgrade is worth it later. If it gets me 5mm-7mm more Y-axis travel while improving the rigidity and tolerances, then I think I will probably go for it in the future. I can always move the CF tubes to the X-axis on the Prusa.
Here's a few of the things I've been printing:
Lots of Springy Turtles... because the detail in the bottom has been a great test for first layer calibration and bed prep. And I've been trying out the different infill patterns to see how they print, how light they are, and how strong they are. I've probably had to stop 10 prints now to tweak the first layer, change the infill pattern, clean the bed, reapply glue, etc. And I still have three more colors to print; two in PLA+ and one in PETG.
And I printed a bigger octopus in white for my son using rectilinear honeycomb at only 10% infill. WOW, did this thing turn out super light and super strong! I tried to crush it or pull the body off. Nope. And it's just generic PLA.
After the octopus, I changed back to the red generic PLA and printed the LOVE statue for my wife as a surprise... I bumped up to 30% infill because I wanted it to be heavier. It turned out great:
And then.... drum roll please.....
I successfully printed the thing that has been the thorn in my paw for almost 4 weeks! That's right, I finally got the settings and supports dialed in for the sea otter for my wife. I probably could have printed the smooth version easier, but it looked dumb, so I printed the textured body version so it looks like it actually has wet fur. I thought it turned out amazing for all the pain it caused me:
My son discovered his BIG goat and the octopus first and he brought them down to show my wife when they got home Friday night. My wife didn't see her things until she was getting ready for bed and she loves both of them. The LOVE statue is one of her favorite statues. She was actually more impressed with it than the sea otter.

Then I explained how the sea otter had been my curse for so many weeks. She said she loves it, but the LOVE statue is still her favorite thing I've printed yet. My phone does a horrible job of capturing the red. It's actually a really deep red in person and super shiny, whether on the turtles, octopus, or LOVE statue.
I'm comfortable with the rectilinear honeycomb infill now, it's definitely the strongest and lightest infill pattern I've done so far. I tried variations of standard and 3D honeycomb in four or five different settings and the rectilinear printed the best or the fastest with no real differences in strength that I could feel. I'll probably print my HEVO printer parts with it at 50% or 60% infill. I don't really think it will give up any strength or stability over 75% or even 100% infill. If for some reason it does fail, I can always just reprint the part, but the reduced weight will be an advantage on the X/Y axis and carriage.
I'll be ordering Noico 80 mil sound deadening mat and a set of heavy duty leveling casters from Amazon for the electrical cabinet when I order a few of the parts for the HEVO. I really need to get the cabinet done so I can stick the Prusa in there for now. I'm going to need it quiet so I can print the parts for the HEVO build.