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Finally got around to starting the heated enclosure for the printer.
Coming along nicely.

Written some Arduino code that will control the temps with lots of sensors options etc.
Also adding a spool weight monitor (because I found a spare weight load cell in the workshop!), a fire system, safety power cutout etc.

RGB leds in the chassis, cabinet and on the printer also controlled by the Arduino.

All good fun

Few more pics (they seem to turn the correct way around when you view them).

Trial fitting. Seems to fit very well

I made a base unit for it as well, so I can store my filament etc in the bottom, along with a shallow 'tools' draw and a deeper one for the dedicated laptop.

Pretty easy to lift it in and out. I am going to fit some guides for the printer to sit in, and then you just clip the top panel in place.
Probably put a rubber seal around the top to stop heat escaping out of the 3mm gap around the top of the printer.

I wanted the spool outside the cabinet for easy changing and future mods.
Polycarbonate 4mm windows. Good for well over 100 deg, and I don't plan to go anywhere near that.

Once all the electronics are installed, I will update all of that.

Perhaps I should sell these babies!

Nicely done, but my concern is about having the electronics and the stepper motors inside the heated area.
Your thoughts?

VERY NICELY DONE.

I do like the cabinet, not as much for heat but more just for dust and dirt.

But the last few weeks here heat is the last thing needed for printing. With outside in 120s I just need to open a window and turn off the AC.

The cabinet reminds me of a scientific lab cabinet for balances I had nearly bought a few years back at our local college auction.

Again nicely done.

Heat rises is my hope!

I have a pretty powerful 12cm fan pushing clean air from outside up directly through the ventilation grille on the bottom of the printer (see the grille in the base). I will probably add a ring of foam to seal the fan to the base of the printer while its sitting in the cabinet.
Then, the air is extracted through the side of the printer base by a second fan (right hand side of the printer base) and out through a different grille.
I am going to print a duct to direct that air (designed, but not yet printed). So it does have a nice flow of air.

Plus, the upgraded PSU has its own cooling fan.

Anyway, I am not heating it up to silly degrees.

There will be a temperature sensor top, middle and bottom... plus I added one to the RGB ring on the hotend when I installed that.
So, I can select any one of the sensors, or an average of them all to monitor the temps.

The control software runs the heater to keep it at my required temperature. I can set the amount of 'drop' in temp before it re-activates the heater to stop the heater oscillating on and off too much.

I can set a 'beep at temperature, and an alarm at temperature (local beep or much louder sounder).
Also it has an emergency system at a presettable temperature or upon pressing the STOP button on the front.

Either of these trigger methods can be set to stop the Rambo, turn off all power (until you manually reset it) or operate a fire extinguisher. Or any combination of the above.

The STOP button will probably be left set to just stop the Rambo, and the rapid increase to a set temperature alarm (say 90 degrees) will kill the power and possibly set off the remote extinguisher (which you can also set the duration of).

There is also a built in timer for the heater. 0-99 hours.

I also added a weight function. What I will do with this I am not sure yet. I can connect to the Arduino with the front panel USB port for future upgrades etc.

I designed a spool holder that incorporates a load cell, so I can weigh the amount of filament left on a drum.
I might add a facility to 'store' the weight of the different filaments and therefore have an idea of the amount remaining. I know we have the 'amount used' function on the Rambo, but I thought it was worth playing around with.

Just finishing the RGB led control software in the Arduino, and then I can get on with installing the electronics.
For the RGB leds, I have an IR remote control, a touch controller (left hand side of the control panel) and a selection of 'preset' modes.
For example, fading from one colour to another depending on the temp (start at blue and fade to red as it approaches the required temp)

All good fun

Hot air rises,,, Heat radiates.

near enough

It looks really great. How much did you spend in parts do you think?

I think we are currently around £150.

Off the top of my head....

£40 MDF. £10 hinges.
£40 Polycarbonate (custom cut online and delivered)
£8 for an Arduino 2560
£2 for the panel mount USB outlets (they are £1 shop car USB cigarette chargers adapted) - much cheaper way
£6 for the 2.2" TFT screen
£2 for the push buttons
£6 for the 12cm fan
£2 for misc electronic parts (like the MPC9700 temp sensors)
£16 for 2x pairs of draw runners
£9 for a touch RGB led controller

Already had the paint, panel leds and the handles + other fixtures (like the fan grille)
I have a huge stock of electronic parts in my workshop, so lots of bits I already had.
If you bought all the parts, I expect we would be over £200

I just love the custom front panel and the total design.
What was the process for producing that panel and moving everything to it?
Superb Job!!!

Process?.. you mean I had a plan?

I had been sketching ideas for a few weeks. I wanted it to basically store all my printer 'stuff' in one place, and look like a half reasonable piece of furniture.
You don't have to have the top enclosure and the base together, either part works as a stand alone item.
This means I can move the top enclosure part to my workshop if needed and leave the base cabinet in situ.

The control panel is a piece of aluminium, lovingly drilled and filed for a couple of hours! I do hate cutting square/rectangle holes in metal plate.
Sprayed it up black, and used some old (and very time consuming) rub down transfers for the lettering.
Quick clear coat afterwards to seal it all.

The TFT screen basically controls lighting, the heater and the temps. I could have run a slave screen off the Rambo (still could), but I don't really need to do that.
I have to be honest, I rarely look at the LCD display on the printer, so it being in the cabinet is not an issue.
I can always run it out to my TFT screen if I need to, or take off the data I need and add it to my Arduino code.

The only thing I have taken off the Rambo, is a loop off the stop button.
This was already done, as the Rambo stop button is also controlled my by laser stop system (if the laser makes a full beam across the print bed, then the print has obviously released and it stops the printer. Saves finding piles of spaghetti plastic the next morning).

I started the wiring today, and the fan ducting. Just writing a little short Picaxe IC program (small programmable chip) to control the RGB leds. These chips are only about £2 each, and it then saves the Arduino having to also do the math for the RGB leds, as well as monitor the temps.

Just found a nice, small Webcam in the workshop. Going to install that as well and stream it to a spare channel on the TV.
Then I can have it 'picture - in - picture' while watching TV if I want.

Don't ya just love it when you design a vent duct, load it all up ready and notice your ABS is running low.....

So you crack open the filament pack you ordered last month and they have sent PLA instead of ABS
Oh well, make that by hand instead then.

To be fair, the supplier said keep the PLA (that I never use) and have re-sent the order correctly.

On with the wiring....
Intake fan duct in place.
Replaced the 2x front panel USB ports with much better quality ones

Really pleased with the heated cabinet

Only thing missing is the ceramic heater elements (not in stock). But I have tried it with other elements and it seems to work well.

There will be a full build write-up on my website.

Just built a small load-cell amplifier which I am going to incorporate into the spool holder to give me the weight of the remaining filament.

The wiring has been tidied up since that picture below. I have also made the motorised trigger for the fire extinguisher.
I have a flexible duct pipe that will duct that out to the print bed area.

All you need now is a mirrored, disco ball.

nice. It be awesome if you could find a way to show print progress with the LEDs....

To be honest, the leds are usually set to white. I struggle to see what the heck I am doing at the hotend usually. hence plenty of lighting.

You can show progress with the leds in a few ways.
You can select a start and end colour for chamber temperature. E.G. Starts blue and ends up red when ready.

I have also connected to the Rambo board (25 way plug on the rear). I can take the build time and control the LEDS with that as well

I thought you couldn't get your max to work properly and was ready to trash it? Seems a lot of work for a printer that frustrates you.

Thanks for all of the great pictures!

I don't give up easily

I hope you never give up and yours is the best looking enclosure that I have ever seen.
I cm certainly looking forward to any of your future projects!

Thanks. Yes, its bling... but it doesn't have to be.
Most of the time its set to Red leds that fade to white once to temperature. Its nice to actually see what is going on!

I am going to add a webcam or wireless camera later this week.

I did consider drawing up plans and even getting some 'kits' made up for anyone who was interested. I am not sure that there will be that many takers however.
It would be the plain unpainted cabinet with a simple, single LED temperature display for the heater. No where near as complicated as mine

Oh man... that enclosure is awesome.
Beautiful work.

Well finally got time today to install the heater modules. Its works better than I could have hoped to be honest

I bought a pair of 500w ceramic heater modules from RS. At £8 each I thought they were pretty good.
Built a reflector and support arrangement with a mesh cover. Each heater pulls around 2A, so a 13A Euro style plug worked great as a connector through the cabinet top.
I can simply unplug the modules and take them out.

I can heat the chamber to 50 deg in about 4 minutes. What has surprised me the most is how long it retains that heat before it needs to switch the modules back on for a top up - its a good 10 minutes.

Another project ticked off the list!

I will add the details of this build to my website and post a link later

A slightly more in depth review of my cabinet

https://youtu.be/7vjXUW8UOq4