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Inspired by bubbasnow's all-printed hexagonal enclosure and cope413's idea to build one using OpenBeam, here's some parts I'm currently building to enclose my version 1 Rostock Max. It's a little less space efficient than bubba's design, but you don't have to burn through a roll of filament printing the verticals, either.

The larger part (make 4) is a set of support brackets designed to build a box 450mm wide by 425mm deep (edit: make it 450x450 if you've printed the cable management dowel rod holder on the back of the Z tower). Front side is between the X/Y towers. I'm going to hinge the door using a design I found on Thingiverse. The part of the bracket at a 45-degree angle is meant to hold shorter (125-150mm) pieces of OpenBeam to let the bottom frame sit on the table (you can drill the table to use M3 nuts/screws to lock it in place). The single hole at the intersection of all the pieces is for a piece of Openbeam tapped for an M3 screw to be the vertical standard.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/iOXpprL.png[/img]

The smaller part (also make 4) is for the top. Short piece of OpenBeam mounted to the top plate of the printer, with a pocket to capture the vertical standard, tapped M3 at that end as well.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/asWHzfM.png[/img]

I'm printing in Black ABS - the channels are slightly oversized (15.8mm) based on my printer tending to err on the small side on prints. Holes are in theory sized to let an M3 pass through freely (3.5mm diameter), but I ended up needed to enlarge the holes slightly.

The 6M pack of OpenBeam available on Amazon should be enough to enclose the machine with a bit to spare.

Here's the product - still need to print some hinges to mount the door on the front side of the machine.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/ZfnaPu9.png[/img]

On the bottom, the short 45s just sit there - I haven't drilled holes to bolt them down. The back two are 155mm, front two are 125mm. Dimensions of the ones on top are the same. Those are secured - mark out where they land on top, drill 1/8" holes to accommodate an M3x12mm screw, M3 nut in the beam.

I really like the enclosure. may have to get this in the near future.
Do you have a link to the extrusion?

OpenBeam brand name: http://www.openbeamusa.com/

1515 extrusion (not identical, but equivalent for most purposes): http://us.misumi-ec.com/vona2/detail/110300465870/?rid1
$5.20/meter for configurable lengths 300mm or more, but cuts shorter than 300mm seem to be a flat rate of $2.64 per piece.
$3.70/meter for 2 meter fixed lengths (you cut it yourself)
plus shipping.
First150 offer good until end of month (another week). $150 off first order for new customers. There's another thread about that: http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=4529

Yep, as long as the $150 deal is still available, jump on that - I think there's an example in the First150 thread of someone who built an enclosure out of Misumi extrusion. I used the $150 to build the table my machine is sitting on from 3030 extrusion and an Ikea desktop.

I'm not sure if generic hardware like regular M3 nuts/bolts/screws works with the Misumi stuff - that's one benefit of the Openbeam - you can use off-the-shelf hardware, including the center hole sized so you can use an M3 tap.

The design I did can be cut from one of the 6-meter packs you can get from Amazon ($60 shipped free) with just a little to spare. 2 pieces are used to make the bottom "box" (450mm x 4), 4 700mm pieces for the sides, with the remaining 300mm offcuts used for the diagonals as described above. Openbeam has their own T and 90-degree brackets which you can buy (or print, since they have STLs for them on Thingiverse) - I just did my own to be a little beefier since they'd need to reinforce in a different direction.

This stuff cuts like butter on a miter saw with the right blade (high tooth count - 60T on a 10", preferably triple chip grind teeth).

Also, note the stylish blue tape mount for my raspberry pi camera on the right panel until I print an enclosure for it.

The slots are sized for M3 nuts/bolts on both products. Misumi recommends a square M3 nut for a stronger grip on the rail, but the hex M3 nut works. The end hole is the same too.
The main difference is the additional grooves/corner configuration in the Openbeam version. If you aren't making use of that particular feature, I'd say they are interchangable products.

bdjohns1 wrote:Yep, as long as the $150 deal is still available, jump on that - I think there's an example in the First150 thread of someone who built an enclosure out of Misumi extrusion. I used the $150 to build the table my machine is sitting on from 3030 extrusion and an Ikea desktop.

I'm not sure if generic hardware like regular M3 nuts/bolts/screws works with the Misumi stuff - that's one benefit of the Openbeam - you can use off-the-shelf hardware, including the center hole sized so you can use an M3 tap.

The design I did can be cut from one of the 6-meter packs you can get from Amazon ($60 shipped free) with just a little to spare. 2 pieces are used to make the bottom "box" (450mm x 4), 4 700mm pieces for the sides, with the remaining 300mm offcuts used for the diagonals as described above. Openbeam has their own T and 90-degree brackets which you can buy (or print, since they have STLs for them on Thingiverse) - I just did my own to be a little beefier since they'd need to reinforce in a different direction.

This stuff cuts like butter on a miter saw with the right blade (high tooth count - 60T on a 10", preferably triple chip grind teeth).

Also, note the stylish blue tape mount for my raspberry pi camera on the right panel until I print an enclosure for it.

Would you be willing to share the STL files for the connectors you created?

Eaglezsoar wrote:
Would you be willing to share the STL files for the connectors you created?

OP delivered. In the....

....wait for it...

...OP.

Top of the page, STL's attached there.

Thank you!

This is cool, thanks for sharing. I think it would be neat to see the custom connectors you designed curve right on up to the edge of the melamine. Maybe I'll play with that.

Go for it. I was playing around with an idea like that, but I was ending up with a pretty large piece, plus I'm still learning doing parametric CAD stuff, so I was approaching the "screw this" point. Would be better for sealing the area off, though!

bdjohns1 wrote:
This stuff cuts like butter on a miter saw with the right blade (high tooth count - 60T on a 10", preferably triple chip grind teeth).

Actually the blade must have carbide teeth in order to cut non-ferris metals. I have cut bars of Aluminum and brass with mine.

Tonkabot wrote:

bdjohns1 wrote:
This stuff cuts like butter on a miter saw with the right blade (high tooth count - 60T on a 10", preferably triple chip grind teeth).

Actually the blade must have carbide teeth in order to cut non-ferris metals. I have cut bars of Aluminum and brass with mine.

Save Ferris!

(cut ferrous)

I figured that was implied. More specifically, I've never seen a TCG toothed blade at a regular retailer that wasn't carbide.