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Community Favorite Mike Kelly's RoBo3D Enclosure

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by Mike Kelly, Jun 21, 2014.

  1. nickster

    nickster Member

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    Hi Mike,
    Here's my latest. Plan was to not glue sheets together to allow easier mods. Sheets are gripped in place with corner wedges; no holes in sheets. Each 5 sided cover becomes a single unit and just slips into place. Corner pieces are single prints, no support.

    Working on stand alone Arduino Nano temp controller with color LCD screen ($5). Handful of DS18B20 temp sensors on steppers and key internal points displayed on the screen with interactive set points and alarms. Added 2nd power supply in base. Shooting for 300W additional chamber heat.

    Charcoal filter is awesome. Closed system. Was getting ready to give up on ABS because of fumes. Fan pumps thru a wire mesh screen, 1/2" of charcoal, and then another screen. The fan is definitely stalled, but enough air gets thru the filter. Haven't had to change the fish tank charcoal yet, but unit unscrews from the shell and just dump out the old. Only have filter on one side, but plan to add a 2nd for grins on the other side as well.

    Adjusted the knob on the stock Robo power supply to deliver 13.5V from the 12V (maybe) I had before. V^2/R gives a 26% increase bed power. Used to take forever to get to 105, now it will go beyond 120C, and heats to 105 pretty quick. Also replace the polyfuses on the Ramps board with 15A auto fuses. Lower RDSon FET like PSMN4R3-30PL (LL 4.3mohm 30V) without h.s. runs way cooler than the stock P55NFL06 to help handle the additional current. Gets more power to the bed.



    DSC02905a.jpg
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  2. DjAnnexAlpha

    DjAnnexAlpha Member

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    @nickster awesome fan and filter mount! Same idea I had for the enclosure. How are the noise levels? Does it seem like the printer has quieted down?
     
  3. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    @nickster you always impress me! great work
     
  4. Ozzie Alarcon

    Ozzie Alarcon Member

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    nickster, can u share your spool mount file or maybe a link? I like it.
     
  5. danzca6

    danzca6 Well-Known Member

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    @nickster do you have the files for your corner wedges? Neat option. A bit surprised you didn't put that blower on the back of the printer so not to block view and on the outside so not to interfere with larger prints. Very cool and a nice mod for ABS users. I heard that stuff stinks.
     
  6. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Yeah that's actually a great location for the fan, as the print bed has some overhang, ~3"

    I had considered putting a slant on the front panel to remove this area, but that makes it difficult to get good seals on the edges since a laser cutter generally can't cut at an angle.
     
  7. danzca6

    danzca6 Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, I forgot how there is wasted bed space on these things for the mechanical setup underneath. With how he is using the corner wedges to seal it, it probably would work with adding that angle and just cutting the acrylic without the angle. Adds options I guess.
     
  8. ndz

    ndz New Member

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    This is really cool! May use this!
     
  9. nickster

    nickster Member

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    @Ozzie Life's been crazy busy. FreeCAD attached for Spool Holder. Was just starting to use FreeCAD, so structure is terrible. Like my first and last project done in PLA. Used 7/8x5/16 bearings press in (would use metric today). Was supposed to use snap on caps to retain bearing, but PLA was too brittle and could never get it to work so the bearing just pressed onto to the shafts as well, which is not the best for the races. Could also CA. The rectangle that protrudes through the top slot has a notch on it that was supposed to receive a snap on retainer clip but never really needed it. There is a dish cut out on the top surface that allows use of smaller diameter Robo3D reels without hitting. All of this can be a starting point. Enjoy.

    @DjAnnexAlpha It does get much quieter when the covers are in place. The stalled fan creates a gentle vortex off the input side blades that tend to create a full circulation pattern inside the chamber. If I shine a light on the hot end, you can see some water vapor/fume particles being emitted, but even with just one cover in place, they get sucked back in to the filter.

    @dansca6 FreeCAD source is a mess for the corners, but attached some of the last STL files. Not a complete set, but will give you an idea. Corner pieces are pretty strong at the current wall thickness in ABS. Wall thickness of long box edge pieces is too thin and needs to be beefed up by 1mm, but work ok at current if you don't over tighten. These are printed on end. See gap A bot x4.stl printed 4 up.

    Filter core is printed on end, no support. Sandwich window screen between filter grill and core, and between filter core and filter rear face. Fan is like a panaflo FB12G12H. Noisy as hell, but not too super bad once the covers are in place. I think there were some errors on some holes in these stl, that required some hand carving, but nothing too major.

    Original plan was to have external blowers, and I still may end up there. Having an enclosure that could be disassembled would allow experimentation. Key question for me is what the heaters are going to look like. I don't want to create a blast of hot air over the print in certain positions, so need diffusion. The stalled fan works stupid well.

    It takes over an hour for the printer to heat to full temp of about 45C using only heated bed ~100W. I do have an aluminum base plate so that may be a significant amount of the thermal mass. I really would have expected the temp to hit like 40C in the first 20 minutes, but the coupling to the enclosure seems to be very strong, so the internal ambient temp reflects the temp of the case. Mike might be getting higher internal temps if his enclosure is better insulated. After an hour the plexiglass is slightly warm to the touch. I've got the Ardunio Nano graphing software working on a 2.8" color display. 10 temperature sensor channels. PWM for two power FETs.

    My goal is to take the internal temp to 60C, so maybe only another 100W of heat. Along the way, I am going to need to cool the stepper motors. Seeing an internal rise in core temp of 15C+ over ambient for the X carriage stepper. Was getting ready to print a fan mount to cool the X stepper, when I noticed a large glass chip in the center of the bed. I had been back to playing with Elmers Extra Strength glue stick. Prepped the a few days earlier by lathering up water & glue stick on the bed and then smoothing with poly bag. Sat for two days after the prep (curing?), and then I printed the Thingiverse Digitial Sundial at 0.1mm layer height. Needs to be high temp plastic. I could not get the part of the bed! Pried it and wedged it and finally got it off by soaking edges in water. Didn't notice anything, but on the next print, a piece of glass came off with the part. Only thing I did different was twisting the part to get it off.

    Robo3D website shows out of stock on replacement old style KS glass beds, I'll ping support for solutions. Mike has pointed me to a supplier with a $60 min order for custom cut Boro glass. I have experimented in the past using HF diamond cone drills to make holes in thin window glass. Not that hard, just takes some technique and a lot of time. If I go that route, I'll be sure to share.


     

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  10. DjAnnexAlpha

    DjAnnexAlpha Member

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    I love the enclosure honestly but how well is the noise reduced? On a side note, I made an enclosure mockup myself for a fully closed and sealed system.
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  11. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    The noise reduction is great.

    I'd advise against a fully sealed system unless you remove the electronics. Even if they work at the temps you'll be reducing their lifespan
     
  12. DjAnnexAlpha

    DjAnnexAlpha Member

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    Yeah the green and white rectangles on the back are the RAMPS board and power supply.
     
  13. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Ah. I think your scale might be off on them :)
     
  14. DjAnnexAlpha

    DjAnnexAlpha Member

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    Haha yeah it is. I haven't taken any full measurements yet. The printer is in my bedroom hooked up to my desktop. I want to be able to print over night without the loud noise. Seems like this might be the only option besides moving it to my garage and setting up octoprint.
     
  15. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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  16. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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  17. Lee

    Lee Member

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    I like Mikes enclosure and encourage everyone to use it. It sure made a difference in my prints. Works on R1+. I have made a set of hinges for it that allow you to install without drilling holes. These work well but I think Mikes are probably stronger. Anyways, here they are:

    http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1162525
     
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  18. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

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    Clever! I like this method since you don't need to drill into the enclosure. I've been trying to come up with some way of mounting without drilling as well.
     
  19. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    Nice! Will link this to the product page.
     
  20. Lee

    Lee Member

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    Glad you like it. These work well and hold the enclosure just fine. But, if I had designed the enclosure, I would have made it about 1/2 inch wider so I could have made the hinges a little wider. I thought about just making the hinges wider anyways and notching out the Plexiglas so that I could mount the mate on the outside. But I didn't do it.

    Just for info, I made sure the back of the hinges clear the extruder and stepper as it moves.

    On another note, I made a spool holder that is the same as the one shipping with the R1+ but I moved the vertical arm about halfway along the base. That way I could put it on the same way as the original, and then notch out the Plexiglas enough to clear the holder base.
     

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