New enclosure for the Dreadnaught

[Durandal]

So, I keep my printer at work because of space issues at home, and because as an engineering firm it's handy to have around. We recently moved to a new building and the room I've been given for the printer has no heat, my solution, build a polycarbonate enclosure. Front is clear, sides and rear panels are all black tinted. I need some more hardware, such as countersunk 1/4-20 stainless bolts to properly mount the hinges, hardware to hold the knob on the door, and I also need to lengthen some of the wires, for the hotend and the extruder stepper motor, but I like how it's coming together.

Specs:
Rostock Max V1 +36 inches (.914 meters)
E3d V6 hot end
Monolithic End Effector

[img]http://i.imgur.com/iLuOZzu.jpg[/img]

[Eaglezsoar]

I like how it is coming together also. Great job!
I couldn't help but notice the vacuum setup that you have.
It looks to be the same one I purchased and mine works great!

[Durandal]

Yeah, just a vacuum chamber, it's useful for storing and drying filament. The trimmer nylon I got shipped from TN and was rather wet Thursday afternoon when I put it in, vacuum always went right to 50% RH, after a few days of running the vacuum pump a few times a day for a few minutes it's down to around 31% RH. With the Taulman at least I like to print around 20% RH in the chamber. I do need to get their stick on heating pad, the 3lb spools don't fit in the toaster oven I have at work.

[Eaglezsoar]

Yeah, just a vacuum chamber, it's useful for storing and drying filament. The trimmer nylon I got shipped from TN and was rather wet Thursday afternoon when I put it in, vacuum always went right to 50% RH, after a few days of running the vacuum pump a few times a day for a few minutes it's down to around 31% RH. With the Taulman at least I like to print around 20% RH in the chamber. I do need to get their stick on heating pad, the 3lb spools don't fit in the toaster oven I have at work.

The heating pad for the bottom of the vacuum pot should make a big difference. I have not yet assembled mine because I still need to buy a vacuum pump as soon as I save up the coin.

[Durandal]

The 2.5 cfm harbor freight one does alright, and comes up on sale and coupons a lot. It gets the chamber down to -29"hg pretty fast. I already had mine for AC work, but I want a better one now.

[Eaglezsoar]

The 2.5 cfm harbor freight one does alright, and comes up on sale and coupons a lot. It gets the chamber down to -29"hg pretty fast. I already had mine for AC work, but I want a better one now.

Thank you, I would not have thought to look at the Harbor Freight one. I will be checking the coupons.

[Durandal]

The Harbor Freight pump looks pretty much exactly like the unit that Best Value Vac's sells, I assume they both come from the same chinese distributor and only have the labels and boxes changed, assuming they aren't boxed here in the states after coming in bulk containers. Make sure you factor in an extra bottle of vacuum oil, I assure you the temptation to vacuum a cup of warm water to see it boil is too great, and that contaminates the oil in the vacuum, too much water vapor at once and the oil get's milky, looks like something you'd see on 4chan in a bottle.

[Durandal]

More pics. Spent the day putting it all back together, took me about 10 hours with being lazy and all, but it's printing.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/hxrrsLV.png[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/u4HVEgK.png[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/h7GXmox.png[/img]

Drybox feeder using the PTC from my E3d, a large air tight container and some silica beads.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/sYGLmQq.png[/img]

I used woven sheathing to bring the feeder tube, power and thermistor wires up into the enclosure.

Still needs a bit of fine tuning, but it's running, which is more than it's done in a bit now. You might have spotted the HDPE bin under the bench, dry filament storage. It's adog treat bin with a gamma seal lid, which I put about a third of a gallon of silica beads into.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/4zgXMEm.png[/img]
Currently holding around 10kg of various colors and materials, mostly nylon and ABS, but one roll of PLA.

[JFettig]

Looks good! Any details on what airtight container that is you have the trimmer line in?

[Durandal]

It's a Snapware 40 cup container with handle. I just used a 3/8" drill bit and screwed the PTC in.

[Eaglezsoar]

Your printer looks great with the enclosure on and I like what you did using the plastic containers.
Great Job

[TFMike]

Have you had any friction problems using such a long bowden tube?