Enclosures / Heated Platforms

Hello,

Have I missed where we talk about these on this forum? I'd like to see peoples feedback following making one, typical build materials, temperature setpoint, and temperature control performance.

I've been asked to process some large chunky parts that may take a few overnight pauses or unattended building. With that in mind in interested in the safety aspects too.

My system is the 300mm cube build volume dbot from thingverse

Thanks.

What types of material are you printing? Unless you are printing something like PEI I don't think a heated enclosure is needed, a regular enclosure works fine. Just preheat the enclosure w/ the heated bed for like 20 minutes and the heat from the bed will keep it 45-50C. I personally used melamine coated 3/4 plywood as it is cheap.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2017 03:48PM by lowfat.

I built 3, one cobbled together with a bit of wood and some insulation foil, one made of acrylic enclosing just the build volume in a corexy printer and one enclosed large delta.

If you can enclose just the build volume do so, it's harder to do but easier to heat given the volume is small.

Design enclosures in Cad and get acrylic panels laser cut, it's very satisfying. If panels aren't flat use transparent petg panels they bend and can be cut easily.

Try to stick to passive heating if you can it's way easier than active heating. If you have to use active heating consider a large metal heatsink and a silicone heater stuck to it.

Measure the temperature ideally at bottom, top and near the nozzle. If it's very uneven consider a 40mm fan positioned near the top blowing the hot air down but don't overdo it.

40-50 deg C will improve your abs printing a lot but you can't print ridiculously tall thin parts with small contact area unless you go up to 80 deg C.

Use no pla printer parts they deform at chamber temps. Petg works as does abs or better yet metal.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2017 10:01AM by DjDemonD.

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Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

I would guess that with a coreXY machine like a D-bot, insulated by foam, the bed heater will get things warm enough to print ABS reliably without adding a supplemental heater. My first printer had a huge enclosed volume and the bed alone was sufficient to keep it warm enough for ABS printing. You may need to add a door to vent the enclosure to keep it from getting too warm. It is best to move the electronics outside the box as heat reduces the lifespan of electronics.

If you're going to use foam insulation, use PIR- it doesn't burn in the event of a fire and won't contribute to the problem. Home Depot sells 4'x8' x1" PIR sheets for $15, and that's enough foam to make enclosures for 2 or 3 D-bots.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Thanks for the comments.

Currently trying to re-print the front printer carriage in order to move the extruder onto it. Long bowden tube has proven to somewhat muddy the water when chasing parameters for TPU. Dropping from 500mm ish down to 80-100 should help! :-D