Enclosure heaters

Okay so I've tried a hairdryer, and with quite a bit of modification it works, but it's noisy and I'm not certain it'll be that robust long-term. So I've been looking at high powered reptile enclosure infra-red heat mats, these are 60w each and I'd plan to use 3 of them. One in the base of my corexy and two at the sides, possibly wrapping around 2 sides each. I will probably use a low rpm fan at the top of the enclosure to distribute heat downwards, or a recirculating filter system to bring hot air back down from the top of the box.

Has anyone any thoughts on this idea?

As I see it they'd be easy to control with an A/C SSR, silent, gentle, no drafts and compared to the hairdryer quite energy efficient. They might take a while to heat up but they output 180w at full power (my hairdryer was being throttled using a diode to 400w to prevent it's thermal cut-out from tripping) and could heat the enclosure around my i3 fairly quickly.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2016 10:55AM by DjDemonD.

I recently added an enclosure heater to a solidoodle 3 printer that we have at the makerspace. I used a 400W heater from an old stratasys printer, a 220V fan, and a thermostatic controller I bought on amazon for about $14. I cut holes in the bottom of the printer and mounted the fan and heater, built a frame using 5/8" plywood (I hate to use plywood around heat, but it was all I had available), and jam-fit a 1" piece of PIR foam in the bottom to isolate the heat from the desk that the printer sits on. Naturally, I printed a box for the thermostatic controller.



Everything operates on 117VAC and the fan is just wired in parallel with the heater. It turns very quietly on 117V and moves just enough air to keep the box at the set temperature without blowing hard. The fan draws air downward into the base and air returns back to the enclosure by passing over the heater. The thermostatic controller came with a thermistor. I programmed it for 50C with a 1 degree dead band and it works well. It heats the enclosure to the set temperature faster than the bed gets up to print temperature. After a few minutes the enclosure temperature settles to within a few degrees of the set temperature.

Another source for cheap heaters is coffee makers. You can find them at garage sales for pennies. They typically use a 1 kW heater than can be turned down using either a rectifier or a lamp dimmer. Bolt one to a heat sink, add a low speed fan, and you should be able to heat a pretty big enclosure in just a few minutes.

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

That looks good. Good idea with the top of the printer also having a sloped roof.

Any thoughts on the heat mat idea though?

How big is the volume to be heated? 180W seems like it might be a little low- the solidoodle printer is pretty small, and I don't know if I'd want to use much less than 400W for it. OTOH, if the bed heater gets you close to 50C anyway, you may not need a lot of extra heat. This sort of thing is best determined empirically...

The cover is going to be rebuilt very soon- the current abomination was made a couple years ago without much thought to feeding/changing filament or maintaining a warm temperature.

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

What about a mylar tent for enclosure?
[www.ebay.co.uk]

I've been using a 60W IR heat lamp to pre-heat my enclosure (old kitchen cabinet). I'm afraid it heats the build area unevenly and skews bed level so I turn it off prior to printing and rely on the 12V bed heater.

As an alternative, I recently purchased a silicone heating pad. It is 120V, 300W and intended for use on an automotive oil pan. It is certainly cheap enough, in the ~$15 USD range on ebay. Size is 6" x 8" and I plan to add a circulation fan / air filter.

Good tip just ordered a couple of those too. Fit them to a metal heatsink with a small fan?

Quote
MechaBits
What about a mylar tent for enclosure?
[www.ebay.co.uk]

Also a great idea, very quick and simple, portable look pretty cool too. My i3 enclosure I built out of wood and covered in foil bubble wrap looks a lot like this but took a lot more effort to make.

I quite like the look of these ptc heaters, since they are self limiting there's less of a safety issue

[www.ebay.ca]

I'm using a 125W version of this heater - plugs into a standard 110v light socket and keeps my chamber toasty warm at 55C. I put it on a temperature controlled SSR, and it's been working great for more than a year. I did have to line the inside of the enclosure with drywall, and if you are using PLA printer parts, they WILL melt...

[www.amazon.com]

This is very useful. I wanted a heater to allow printing of ABS for my CR10 and was thinking about a variety of mechanisms enable controlled heating. It seems there might be a gap in the market for a system for controlled cabinet heating. Your solution is very economical. The “bulb” £5.00 from Amazon UK (150 watt version). Ceramic bulb holder £00.99 from China direct and controller again from Amazon UK £13.99. These are all very reasonable prices. I had intended to use a Rasberry Pi and various add ons etc but this was going to end up costing much more and personally I didnt have the knowledge to make it all work. The great thing you said was that your heat bulb was enough to heat your enclosure to 55. Im not intending to go that high. There is a German chap on YouTube heating his loft to 35C to print his ABS. 35C is what I’m aiming at so this should be adequate and economical as well.

You'll still get some issues at 35 but it's better than room temp. 45 is better still and reasonably easy to achieve. Pro machines go up to 80.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2018 10:13AM by DjDemonD.

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Simon Khoury

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

This is my latest- 500W heater in UMMD. IRIC, the printer's enclosed volume is 420 l. It takes a few minutes, but it (and the 750W bed heater) gets the enclosure up to 45C and holds it there. The sides back and bottom of the printer are dual layer PC which provides a lot of insulation. The front panels are clear PC and I lose a bit of heat through them. I'm thinking of making a dual layer PC panel for the lower front panel.

I had a major print failure a few days ago and realized that I need to do some things to the heater installation- it needs some sort of wire screen over it in case failed prints end up on top of the heater, and I still haven't covered the line voltage connections to the heater bar. I guess I have a new project for this weekend.



Not sure why the print came off the bed- that is an extremely rare failure for this machine, but some of the trouble was related to the heat break coming loose inside the hot-end. I don't like that design...

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

[www.engineering.com]

[www.engineering.com]

My enclosure is made from Tyvek.

I am thinking of building a bitcoin rig and use waste heat to warm the printer chamber.

What about something like these? High wattage for PEEK printing chamber temps. Relatively inexpensive too.

[www.ebay.com]
[www.ebay.com]

You can get cheap, high powered heaters out of old coffee makers for $1 or less at a thrift shop or garage sale. Bolt it to a heatsink and blow air across it and Bob's yer uncle.

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

One big benefit of using halogen lights as a heat source is the $hi+ ton of light they provide to see the print. Kills 2 birds with 1 stone