Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

I set off to make a 'simple' and attractive enclosure for our new printer and after a lot of parts that peeled off, were too small or too big, I finally got it together. Essentially it is ring of plates that have a groove to hold a 1mm thick sheet of clear plastic. The inner surface is shaped to match the outer surface of the Rostock. Many thanks to the SeeMe guys who pointed me to the on-line drawings for the Rostock frame so I could make a tight ring.

Full info on: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1992801

The ring is cut into 12 pieces which means there are 4 unique pieces which I call 'plates'. The plates are tied together using the tabs. The normal tab works directly with the plates as is, and the 'short' tab has holes that are close together. I used a combination of tabs to get the fit of the rings just right. When using the short tabs about 2mm needs to be cut away from the end of the plate. I used a belt sander.

Final assembly requires some angle aluminum to hold the plastic sheet straight on the open ends. The magnetic tabs allow a section to be removed and I set it up so the front 1/3 comes off with a light tug. All screws are 4-40.

[img]https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/488/30989778924_fd8f1e47db.jpg[/img]

[img]https://c8.staticflickr.com/1/726/31830168975_373355a190.jpg[/img]

[img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5562/31457641280_3fa5b18f15.jpg[/img]

[img]https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/735/31457634980_bff5e716ce.jpg[/img]

[img]https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5572/31020623553_556a28003f.jpg[/img]


The space inside the enclosure is heated with a separate heater and PID controller. The electronics are mounted inside the top of the Rostock. I am having better results now with ABS keeping the interior over 40C (105F). But this is just the beginning and I know I'll be learning more and we get to using it.
[img]https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/633/31683121812_be1b62e604.jpg[/img]

Sweet Mother of Pearl, that looks great!

If you can see it at all. The PETG sheet is water clear and hard to photograph well. You really have to look at the pictures and know what a V3 looks like to see the parts at all. In time I'm sure it is going to get coated on the inside with plastic dust.

Thanks for the compliment. I had to throw away a lot of plates and tabs until I got it to fit right.

Very nice design. I might just have to make one!

Very nice! I am just wrapping up the design for mine, I may have to reconsider

Hmm, that looks very neat. If I am not mistaken the top and bottom plate measurements of a V2 are the same as for a V3, so this would work for a V2 too. I moght reconsider my intentions for a Raymond style enclosure... But one question: I can't seem to find any door in your pictures? How do you take out the prints?

DeltaCon wrote:But one question: I can't seem to find any door in your pictures? How do you take out the prints?

The front section between the X and Y extrusions are held on by magnets in the corners. A light tug pulls it right off. The remaining 2/3 of the enclosure stays put on the V3. It is a bit of a pain to have to set the door down somewhere, but a hinge would require more table space for the swing.

My dream would have been a door that slides around the V3 but that mechanism was too difficult to conceive so I went with a removable section.

Very nice. I'm going to tackle this print and assembly this weekend. Have we confirmed these parts will work for a V2 as well?

How about the heater setup you mentioned. Can you provide a little more detail on what components you used and where you mounted everything? I assume you would want a temp sensor down low near the bed to ensure the enclosed space is maintaining its heat down where the print is located? Happy to get some more info on this..

This looks great!

gajtguy wrote:Can you provide a little more detail on what components you used and where you mounted everything?

I took apart a small desktop heater and used a SSR/PID controller to control the temperature of the air coming out of of the heating element. I printed some parts to help mount the fan/heater assembly to the top of the V3. The assembly blows heated air down into the center of the enclosure. If I set the air temperature to 80C then the enclosure levels at about 40C. This allows me to make large ABS prints without the part splitting or coming off the bed. But heat is not needed for PLA, in fact the heat on the bowden tube causes PLA to pre-soften too much. This is not the case with ABS or other higher temp filaments.

The heater uses 120VAC line voltage so everything needs to be safety fused and grounded. I put thermal fuses above and below the heater, and on the SSR in case anything goes awry. Don't mix high voltage AC and DC in close proximity without grounded barriers.


heater https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NX ... UTF8&psc=1
PID/SSR: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0146 ... UTF8&psc=1

>in fact the heat on the bowden tube causes PLA to pre-soften too much

At work (on Makerbots) they made a tubing tee. The tee allows them to join a fish tank air pump to the filament tube to pump room air down the bowden tube to keep the filament cool in the heated enclosure. I think there is a bleeder hole near the hot end.

DeweyOxberger wrote:>in fact the heat on the bowden tube causes PLA to pre-soften too much

At work (on Makerbots) they made a tubing tee. The tee allows them to join a fish tank air pump to the filament tube to pump room air down the bowden tube to keep the filament cool in the heated enclosure. I think there is a bleeder hole near the hot end.

I wonder if a Berd-air style cooling nozzle could be powered by that.