Printer enclosure build

[AndersK]

There are many reasons to have a printer in an enclosure. Sound, equalized temperature, cooling rate. Not necessary nor wanted for all occasions though.
One reason for me is to be able to run it overnight without risc of the cats getting to it

Been fabricating parts a while, printing, cutting MDF and cutting acrylic.

This is my intent and followed by the progress.

Will have a box under for storage of tools and spares.
Made of MDF and just joined with pegs and glue.

Routed out the door shape and about to drill all holes for hinges and handles.
Printed drill guides that will both align gaps and make the holes come in place without lots of measuring. Measure none, drill once

Hinges, handle and magnetic latches in place

Putting all sheets together using printed parts

And this were it is right now. Struggling with the bent top lid but gonna give it another go tomorrow.

 

[Barking Mat]

Looks great.

If I want to keep animals out of a section of the house I just close the doors.

We've a 4 month old puppy and her 16 year old grandmother, they're both varyingly incontinent.

Hadn't thought of building a perspex box though.

Seriously, though, nice build.

 

[DAPPH]

There are many reasons to have a printer in an enclosure. Sound, equalized temperature, cooling rate. Not necessary nor wanted for all occasions though.
One reason for me is to be able to run it overnight without risc of the cats getting to it

Been fabricating parts a while, printing, cutting MDF and cutting acrylic.

This is my intent and followed by the progress.
View attachment 329956

Will have a box under for storage of tools and spares.
Made of MDF and just joined with pegs and glue.
View attachment 329957

Routed out the door shape and about to drill all holes for hinges and handles.
Printed drill guides that will both align gaps and make the holes come in place without lots of measuring. Measure none, drill once
View attachment 329960

Hinges, handle and magnetic latches in place
View attachment 329961

Putting all sheets together using printed parts

View attachment 329966
View attachment 329964
View attachment 329965

And this were it is right now. Struggling with the bent top lid but gonna give it another go tomorrow.

I found that a single floor of 19 mm ply was not enough to remain flat or solid enough under the daily humidity changes & printing vibrations . Nor was two sheets of 19 mm enough , I've ended up putting in three floors of 19 mm ply ensuring the ply to grain was at 90 degree to the one below it then glued & screwed it up left it for three weeks to properly settle down then glued & crewed in an end of line Schreiber Formica covered small cupboard shelf for the printer to sit on . Once it was fully enclosed with a single sheet of thin Perspex set up as a sliding door across the front & added two internal heater lighting bulbs high up at the back in baton holders to ensure a stable temp pf 27 0C through out the print session when the door was closed . The top , three bottoms bottom ,

both sides and the back all came out of a carefully calculated & cut up 1.2 x 2.4 sheet of soft construction ply so if I rotated the sheets correctly there would be an over hand to fit the sliding door to . there must be at least 100 c55 mm turbo screws clamping it whilst the glues set it is rock solid no matter what the weather or humidity. Got it cut up on B&Q sheet cutting frame so all sizes were square & precisely as I'd asked for .

I used the sliding door idea with 3d printed blocks as channel/runners , for my experience of hinging acrylic or Perspex is that it often cracks where the hinges are jointed to it or around holes if it gets knocked .

 

[Screwdriver]

If a job's worth doing it's worth doing well...

Couple of sheets of inflammable expanded polystyrene, Bobs yer uncle.

 

[Onoff]

If a job's worth doing it's worth doing well...

Couple of sheets of inflammable expanded polystyrene, Bobs yer uncle.

You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter

 

[Kayos]

Why not buy a bigger printer them print the enclosure for the smaller one?

 

[AndersK]

Actually, I do have access to a printer big enough to print all parts in full size

 

[AndersK]

If I want to keep animals out of a section of the house I just close the doors.

The basement where I keep the printer is their sanctuary. A place warm and dry they can access 24/7.
I'm just borrowing some of their space

 

[Onoff]

I forsee the day when a pet inadvertently wanders onto the still warm print bed and goes to sleep...printer starts up...

It'll be like Elysium with an augmented, cyborg kitty!

You think I'm kidding!

Pet Prosthetics Get a Boost From 3D Printing

New modeling software is helping animal health experts develop more customizable prosthetics for pets with missing limbs. Still, not all legs are created equal.

www.wired.com

 

[AndersK]

A little more done, now sits bolted to it's MDF box.
Made new consoles for the LCD, snaps on to the bottom brackets for easy removal. Took the time to draw and print a template for the hole pattern.
Next step is to design a console so I can move the PSU to the outside.

 

[Screwdriver]

I had to print a load of boxes and they kept warping so, made a mk2 version...

It's a bit "Blue Peter" but 1. I'm guessing you all know what that means and 2. it works!

I have an almost full reel of ABS to try out. Previously, no chance. House is cold with heating bills what they are and I just had to walk into the room and prints would leap off the bed! Not kidding either, walk up the the printer and the waft of air would have the print straining and creaking to pull off.

Higher wall boxes are exponentially more tricky in spiral print mode. Box will lift at the corner, I am amazed the print finished up at all.

But now I don't even need any brim or bed adhesion which can be a faff to cut off.I'm getting "perfect" results with boxes virtually full size of the bed, spiral print mode, 0.8mm layer width, 0.4mm layer height and 0.8mm nozzle. The key is to run it slow (20mm/s) and with the new "enclosure" I can run the bed at 70ºC using hairspray to keep it there. Took some time to get the settings, just about to run a test to see if I might even be able to print ABS.

Flat as the bed of glass. The swages/indents give the completed box a fair bit more stiffness.

 

[DAPPH]

I had to print a load of boxes and they kept warping so, made a mk2 version...

It's a bit "Blue Peter" but 1. I'm guessing you all know what that means and 2. it works!

I have an almost full reel of ABS to try out. Previously, no chance. House is cold with heating bills what they are and I just had to walk into the room and prints would leap off the bed! Not kidding either, walk up the the printer and the waft of air would have the print straining and creaking to pull off.

Higher wall boxes are exponentially more tricky in spiral print mode. Box will lift at the corner, I am amazed the print finished up at all.

But now I don't even need any brim or bed adhesion which can be a faff to cut off.I'm getting "perfect" results with boxes virtually full size of the bed, spiral print mode, 0.8mm layer width, 0.4mm layer height and 0.8mm nozzle. The key is to run it slow (20mm/s) and with the new "enclosure" I can run the bed at 70ºC using hairspray to keep it there. Took some time to get the settings, just about to run a test to see if I might even be able to print ABS.

Flat as the bed of glass. The swages/indents give the completed box a fair bit more stiffness.

Try putting two 7 watt bulbs CFL's or 7 to 14 watt incandescent bulbs wired in parallel on a wooden baton , using baton bulb holders and place it about four inches off the enclosure floor at the back of the printer . So when they come on they will warm the enclosure to around a healthy 27 oC or so and not waste heat . If the enclosure is made of thick ply it will act as a heat sink giving heat out when you open the enclosure so it does not affect your print

 

[Screwdriver]

Try putting two 7 watt bulbs CFL's or 7 to 14 watt incandescent bulbs wired in parallel on a wooden baton , using baton bulb holders and place it about four inches off the enclosure floor at the back of the printer . So when they come on they will warm the enclosure to around a healthy 27 oC or so and not waste heat . If the enclosure is made of thick ply it will act as a heat sink giving heat out when you open the enclosure so it does not affect your print

I won't need to worry about that for a while. I think I pushed this little printer too far. Blew the hot end apart. I think 0.8mm might be too big an ask but it leaked past the bowden, flooded the hot end with plastic and made a right mess. It may be recoverable and I note the internal heat block screws were totally loose inside the hotend which may have allowed the bowden assembly to pull apart.

It has been running virtually 24/7 this week and I had just got back to the JWST - building a hexagon cutting tool for the mirrors. It may be time for a new machine, until it blew up, I didn't realise how much I'd miss it.

 

[Parm]

I won't need to worry about that for a while. I think I pushed this little printer too far. Blew the hot end apart. I think 0.8mm might be too big an ask but it leaked past the bowden, flooded the hot end with plastic and made a right mess. It may be recoverable and I note the internal heat block screws were totally loose inside the hotend which may have allowed the bowden assembly to pull apart.

It has been running virtually 24/7 this week and I had just got back to the JWST - building a hexagon cutting tool for the mirrors. It may be time for a new machine, until it blew up, I didn't realise how much I'd miss it.

Youve taken your machine as far as the JWST

 

[DAPPH]

JWST Just Works Some Times ???????

 

[Screwdriver]

Youve taken your machine as far as the JWST

It wasn't as bad as it looked. The hot end pulled itself apart and jammed solid with molten plastic. I found a video guide to modifying it to stop it doing that:

..and it works. Basically insert a small length of high temp bowden tube into the hotend, clamp it down tight with the bowden connector using a little spacer and then fit the original bowden tube (which is slipperier).

I have never produced better prints. Made up a few parts for a box, just little flat end caps with a lip and they came out PERFECT! Might have been a good batch of new PETG but the prints were literally flawless. I should have taken a pic but I'm hoping my next prints will be as good.

It lives!

 

[DAPPH]

That's an interesting video.
Can you put up a few close up pictures of where the Bowden tube gets to the top of the hot end carrier when you're able to please.

 

[Screwdriver]

That's an interesting video.
Can you put up a few close up pictures of where the Bowden tube gets to the top of the hot end carrier when you're able to please.

Really don't want to be taking it apart again for a while. Here's a hack model:

The "mod" is the blue tube insert AND 3d printed spacer (print that first!)

The problem with the usual system is the feed tube (yellow) usually is pressed all the way through the heater tube onto the nozzle and only held by the loose grip of the clamp. The tube simply slides through the clamp and is held in place by the clamp teeth which slip over time. Not shown is the spring loaded clamp mechanism you will often find with a clip to try and stop it releasing its grip on the bowden tube. If (when!) the tube slips out of the clamp, molten plastic oozes out between the bottom of the bowden tube and the rear of the nozzle, jamming up the heater tube. On mine it flowed all the way out of the heater assembly and formed huge drips on the nozzle!

With the mod, you introduce a separate length of high temperature bowden tube (aka Capricorn tube). Obviously the bowden clamp would normally just allow it to pass through so it needs the spacer (orange) which allows you to press down on the inserted piece, pushing it hard against the nozzle - but this time it is pressed down as the bowden clamp is screwed into the top of the heater assembly.

The feed tube is then slid into the bowden clamp as usual and it doesn't matter if there's a gap between it and the spacer because it is outside the heat zone. It also doesn't matter if the tube slips (a bit) because you're not relying on there being a good seal with the nozzle, that's already taken care of.

Bonus feature is you only need a tiny bit of that high temperature Capricorn tube which is a bit tight and a bit more grippy than the stock PTFE tube. I needed about 29mm with a 3mm spacer (there are 2, 3 and 4mm .stl files linked from the video). You only need the insert piece to be slightly higher than the position where the clamp would bottom out (so that it presses on the tube before it bottoms out the thread). That is the confusing part of the video but when you take it apart to see what you're doing, it's pretty obvious.

It is a bonus because you can then use the stock PTFE tube back to the drive motor and it's is a lot slipperier and slightly larger internal diameter which reduces the feed pressure required to drive the filament through it. I managed to melt mine a few times before "upgrading" to all Capricorn. This mod is a massive improvement on that.

NB the nozzle end gets really hot (!) but the top of the heater tube is inside the heat sink jacket and remains cool. Cool enough not to worry about the 3d printed spacer going soft let alone melting the PTFE.

 

[hotponyshoes]

I forsee the day when a pet inadvertently wanders onto the still warm print bed and goes to sleep...printer starts up...

It'll be like Elysium with an augmented, cyborg kitty!

You think I'm kidding!

Pet Prosthetics Get a Boost From 3D Printing

New modeling software is helping animal health experts develop more customizable prosthetics for pets with missing limbs. Still, not all legs are created equal.

www.wired.com

Handy for orthopedic use on animals as well. That was my reason for first getting a 3d printer (the only reason if hmrc asks!)

This one is for a horse with a tendon injury, the steel shoe is custom fitted to the foot then a 3d model of a removable support is made to fit onto the shoe
I nail the shoe onto the foot and then bolt the support on.
The best thing about it is, when I need to make changes, I just move something around by a couple of mm, print out another and swap them over.
It's a quick and easy way of making them which ultimately results in better care and faster recovery.

 

[Onoff]

Handy for orthopedic use on animals as well. That was my reason for first getting a 3d printer (the only reason if hmrc asks!)

This one is for a horse with a tendon injury, the steel shoe is custom fitted to the foot then a 3d model of a removable support is made to fit onto the shoe
I nail the shoe onto the foot and then bolt the support on.
The best thing about it is, when I need to make changes, I just move something around by a couple of mm, print out another and swap them over.
It's a quick and easy way of making them which ultimately results in better care and faster recovery.
View attachment 333621View attachment 333622

Brilliant. Really like that.