Building an enclosure
Building an enclosure
So I am about to get ready and build an enclosure. I am looking for any ideas that people may have to benefit me from building this. I am going to add a fire suppression kit for fire hazards but other than that, what else?!
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Xenocrates
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- Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 2:55 pm
Re: Building an enclosure
I've got a few suggestions based on building enclosures for my printer and a Taz 6, as well as working with other enclosed printers and machine tools.
First: Radiant heat is nice and all, but you need to push some amount of air to really spread it. In a design from scratch, I would put the heater bulbs in the base with small fans blowing over them. However, this is usually impractical as an aftermarket mod. I've tried both having a brooder lamp style structure with fans attached through the shroud and just plain IR heater bulbs, and I prefer the fans, as while they cause extra airflow in the chamber, it makes the bulb much more effective at maintaining a temperature and keeping even temperatures. But this takes additional space to make work, as the fans need somewhere to attach to with some distance from the bulb.
Second: The enclosure should be designed with collisions in mind. If the head hits it, you want predicable results with minimum breakage. I tend to go for using blind nuts that a slip fit into holes, as they hold alright but can come out if the printhead hits the panels. Another alternative is that you design it to have enough volume that a collision is impossible.
Third: Pay attention to both sealing and serviceability. Silicon will seal it well, but makes it a pain to work on the enclosure or printer. You need to watch out for that in your design. I like to use a type of tape intended for greenhouse repair which is IR reflective on the adhesive side and clear. This lets me take off groups of panels without needing to scrape off and re-apply seals.
Fourth: Make sure you have a decent sensor location. If practical, use a thermal camera to find what spot represents the average temperature, and place it as close to that as possible. Use a sensor mounted to a heatsink or similar, preferably shaded from direct IR emissions, to make your measurements as accurate as possible.
Fifth: Fire suppression is less effective than fire prevention. Make use of thermal fuses liberally. On the heated bed, hotend, on hotspots on the controller, next to the power supply, ETC. Put all of them in series, then have a relay shut off the AC power when one trips. Use the test button on it to actually start the printer, since you'll need to in order for there to be DC power for the relay to operate on. Don't use a latching relay either.
Sixth: If you want to include fire suppression, the cheapest and least damaging method is to use cold CO2 or nitrogen coming from compressed tanks. make sure your enclosure is reasonably but not completely sealed, and set it such that you have a good method to vent it. A burst disk would cause the gas to be released over a certain pressure, which could be caused due to heating, as described in the Ideal gas law. Another option is to use another set of thermal fuses and an arming switch to set off the valve, such that if the fuses opened or the power was cut by the safety relay the valve would open, and have a manual valve further out that when you unplug the printer or move it, is closed to avoid wasting the gas.
First: Radiant heat is nice and all, but you need to push some amount of air to really spread it. In a design from scratch, I would put the heater bulbs in the base with small fans blowing over them. However, this is usually impractical as an aftermarket mod. I've tried both having a brooder lamp style structure with fans attached through the shroud and just plain IR heater bulbs, and I prefer the fans, as while they cause extra airflow in the chamber, it makes the bulb much more effective at maintaining a temperature and keeping even temperatures. But this takes additional space to make work, as the fans need somewhere to attach to with some distance from the bulb.
Second: The enclosure should be designed with collisions in mind. If the head hits it, you want predicable results with minimum breakage. I tend to go for using blind nuts that a slip fit into holes, as they hold alright but can come out if the printhead hits the panels. Another alternative is that you design it to have enough volume that a collision is impossible.
Third: Pay attention to both sealing and serviceability. Silicon will seal it well, but makes it a pain to work on the enclosure or printer. You need to watch out for that in your design. I like to use a type of tape intended for greenhouse repair which is IR reflective on the adhesive side and clear. This lets me take off groups of panels without needing to scrape off and re-apply seals.
Fourth: Make sure you have a decent sensor location. If practical, use a thermal camera to find what spot represents the average temperature, and place it as close to that as possible. Use a sensor mounted to a heatsink or similar, preferably shaded from direct IR emissions, to make your measurements as accurate as possible.
Fifth: Fire suppression is less effective than fire prevention. Make use of thermal fuses liberally. On the heated bed, hotend, on hotspots on the controller, next to the power supply, ETC. Put all of them in series, then have a relay shut off the AC power when one trips. Use the test button on it to actually start the printer, since you'll need to in order for there to be DC power for the relay to operate on. Don't use a latching relay either.
Sixth: If you want to include fire suppression, the cheapest and least damaging method is to use cold CO2 or nitrogen coming from compressed tanks. make sure your enclosure is reasonably but not completely sealed, and set it such that you have a good method to vent it. A burst disk would cause the gas to be released over a certain pressure, which could be caused due to heating, as described in the Ideal gas law. Another option is to use another set of thermal fuses and an arming switch to set off the valve, such that if the fuses opened or the power was cut by the safety relay the valve would open, and have a manual valve further out that when you unplug the printer or move it, is closed to avoid wasting the gas.
Machines:
Rostock Max V2, Duet .8.5, PT100 enabled E3D V6 and volcano, Raymond style enclosure
Automation Technology 60W laser cutter/engraver
1m X-carve router
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
01-10011-11111100001
Rostock Max V2, Duet .8.5, PT100 enabled E3D V6 and volcano, Raymond style enclosure
Automation Technology 60W laser cutter/engraver
1m X-carve router
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
01-10011-11111100001
Re: Building an enclosure
I'm building mine out of a hydroponics tent. I'm going to cut a drop down hole in my workbench that the Rostock Max V3 base will slide down into to cut off the power supply from the heat, and the tent seals right into the bottom of the top platform. Will give a decent wide arc all around and can easily come out and fold away when I don't need it. The size hydroponic tents it needs are pretty cheap on Amazon, and the workbench was that $80 all wood Home Depot special they've been selling for years. Could as easily do it on a $9 IKEA table.
In theory this will work at least. Lol.
In theory this will work at least. Lol.
Re: Building an enclosure
I built Noircogi's Slim Enclosure from Thingiverse (see link below). I ordered the acrylic pre-cut from TAP Plastics and followed the list of fasteners and directions for building it. It came out awesome. I also designed some smooth and light fan ducts (see below). I have had some heating issues due to my printer being in my unheated garage (in CA, it needs to be able to deal with 40 F). Since insulating the bed and adding the enclosure, I've had no problems. I also closed up the vents in the top an bottom of the print area. This required moving the RAMBO fan into the lid and adding cooling vents to the bottom front panel. Even when it's really cold (around 40 F), it still warms up to 75 F inside the enclosure.
If you have any questions about my setup, just ask.
Cheers,
Tim
Slim Enclosure: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1792867
My fan ducts: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2058092
If you have any questions about my setup, just ask.
Cheers,
Tim
Slim Enclosure: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1792867
My fan ducts: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2058092