I should have built this thing from the word go. I ran this printer for almost a year on my desk right next to my computer. But it was loud and smelly and the high traffic area played havoc on print quality and caused a lot of warping.
Now that it’s tucked away in a back room suspended in a corner by French cleats and sitting directly on top of dense foam and a big ass paver it is merely “audible” but certainly ignorable. There’s also no more headaches from the smell, and my print quality has never been better.
Do yourself and your printer a favor and get an enclosure sorted out asap.
Props for putting the display outside the enclosure
Thanks! I knew it would drive me crazy if I didn’t.
Many people also put the mainboard mounted under the enclosure to decrease heat wear. Mainly ABS printers I think. You want a hot box for that.
I have read that that is recommended but I don’t even know where to begin with that tbh. I just got this thing on wifi a couple weeks ago and printing from Fluidd along with switching to Orca Slicer have been game changers.
You have to keep the fuckers locked up?!
Yeah they like to steal yoghurt from your fridge and smear it on the bathroom mirror.
Oddly specific.
Yours doesn’t?!
Pretty neat looking. Looks like something on display at a store.
I keep mine in my basement with a cam on it so I’m never really around it while printing. Although, I do love the smell of printing wood-fiber PLA.
Camera is next on my list! Now the only times I really check my printer is to make sure the first few layers went down alright. Once I can do that from my computer I will be unstoppable!
this looks awesome!
are you controlling the temperature?
Thanks!
Not at all! The highest it has gotten in there is about 119° F while marathon printing some PETG. PLA has never made it break 90 in there though.
I’m wanting to build one in my office, but I also want to print in some of the more nasty filaments (ABS/ASA). Do you have any recommendations or suggestions for ventilation?
I printed a Bento Box filter for my enders when I started printing ABS. These seem to work pretty well but make sure you get the right carbon and good enough fans. Another printed option is the nevermore but that’s mostly associated with voron printers.
Like other folks are saying, a good carbon filter should do you right. My enclosure is mounted on an exterior wall so Im currently thinking long term that I’m going to try to vent mine out through the soffit.
Mine will be on an exterior wall, so venting is an absolute possibility. With that though, I’m unsure how much air to move… my printer is enclosed, so drafts and warping aren’t as big a concern; just VOC dispersal and safety. I don’t need to catch a lung full of stage four because I wanted to print some junk to make gardening easier.
I totally get that, if you are worried about over or under ventilating I’d just figure out how what the total volume of your enclosure is and then compare that to the CFM of your exhaust fan and it will give you an idea of how many air changes you get in a minute.
It’s more about pressure than airflow. You just need negative pressure inside the chamber, so gas escapes into your chamber through the cracks, and out the vent.
This is giving cozy vibes and I’m here for it
Out of curiosity, what’s the advantage of the french cleats? Do they dampen the noise somehow?
- When you’re trying to make it level and hit the studs with your fasteners, it’s much easier with a stick than a whole cabinet carcass.
- Cleats make the cabinet easy to install and remove.
- French cleats have a substantial amount of bearing surface and are extremely stable as a result, even without additional fasteners.
- That said, for a cabinet I would probably still drive a screw from the inside through the back panel into the cleat to eliminate any chance of a strong bump from underneath knocking the cabinet off the cleat. You know, like when you drop that last m4 nut on the desk and it bounces into the corner and you have to reach over your project and soldering iron and cup of coffee to retrieve it and then stand up too quickly in triumph and bang your head off the underside of the cabinet…
Nailed it! I had every intention of screwing the carcass directly to the cleat but the enclosure made of one and a half sheets of 3/4 ply so it was very heavy and didn’t budge even before I added the paver and the printer so I just never ended up doing it. 🤷♂️
Probably just easy to mount and a solid interface to prevent the enclosure from moving while the printer does it’s thing.
As the others have pointed out, the biggest reason is ease of installation. I hung this by myself and I’m not sure how you would do it solo using another method.
