MakerGear Forum

I have been avoiding ABS in favor of PLA and the new favorite – PET. But there seems to be some advantages to “old school” ABS, such as you can bond it. So I thought I would give it a try and looked at the enclosure options that seem to be almost required for ABS. But I don’t expect this to be used all the time and was not so much in favor of something huge.

So I thought if I could mostly reduce draft , mostly contain the heat and mostly channel that heat around the part it may be “good enough”. I had a big piece of plastic recovered from an old rear-projection TV that I thought I would try and use. I have not tried to form plastic before and all I have is a heat gun, so this is very much an experiment on all levels.

So this is what I came up with (still bandaged together while experimenting): The intent is to be minimal and only enclose the build area covering most of the major holes but not trying to seal it - it should also be easy to remove. The biggest hole is the slot where the hot end travels, I didn’t want the plastic to close to the hot parts (visions of melted sheets all over the printer). So the heat will escape here but it will be going past where the parts are, keeping them warm (in theory). Note that it only sets up against the printer, it is not attached at all (except the cover for the left side under the spool).

It is a bit hard to test with a kitchen thermometer , but it seems to raise the temp about 30f-40f just under the top of the printer. I’m not that sure how to even know how much it is providing to the part or where on the part is important.

I tried this with something I thought may be a challenge – a 38mm/38mm/100mm block with a 25 mm hole mostly through the middle (A handle for something). I used Inland black ABS, the default ABS settings 235/80, 25% infill and did nothing special to the build plate (just hairspray) - no raft. I did print without coming loose but the ends did come up about 2mm on the edges and there is a very small crack about ½ way up - so still room for improvement.

So, I have 3 questions:

• Has anyone tried anything like this? Did it work?
  Is there a “sample” ABS print I could use to know what “good enough” is? I would want to use the same settings and HBP.
  What settings are used inside of such an enclosure?

CCVirginia wrote: Has anyone tried anything like this? Did it work?

Given the massive response, I'd say the answers are "no" and "not applicable". . .

Tim wrote:

CCVirginia wrote: Has anyone tried anything like this? Did it work?

Given the massive response, I'd say the answers are "no" and "not applicable". . .

Agreed. Welcome to the front line of testing. (Let us know how it works out.)

Really! I thought I must have insulted someone's grandma for such silence! Or perhaps my fly was open in the picture? On second thought, it was probably just trying not to say "stupid idea".

For those that have other enclosures, it would be very useful to know the ambient, bed and hot end temps you aim for.

Try putting "ikea" into the search bar. Most of the enclosures I've heard about people doing are based on one easily-modifiable cabinet from Ikea, so you'll find that most of the forum threads about the hows and whys of enclosures make some reference to it.

Tim wrote:Try putting "ikea" into the search bar.

Or, better, ask Google (or whoever) for: That gets you 70-ish hits, versus 30-ish for the craptastic phpBB search function... [sigh]

I was dreaming up and almost identical idea as your enclosure, i dont think its a unpractical at all. The only difference that I would have added is a horizontal sheet mounted to the bottom of the Z-axis arm that is the size of the box, this would act as a baffle to keep the hot box separate from the z-axis motor and the RAMBO. Also the smaller initial heated zone would be smaller and quicker to warm up.

Also what I had in mind was all cardboard, but plexi is reasonable too!

if you want it as a temp thing just throw a cardboard box over the hole thing after the print starts.

ON a 6 hour print the area will get to 150°F and the bottom area by the control stays around 100°F.

I didn't like doing it but it worked. Some selective holes could probably help.

As a bonus its real quiet.

Just get a cheap IKEA cabinet and IKEA LED light setup and be done with it. Easy and looks nice.

Nice scope.