Modified Cat Guard TAZ 4/5 Cabinet

General LulzBot TAZ
1

Hi,

I recently started printing larger ABS parts on my TAZ 5 printer, and as such ran into issues with warping and splitting. Having discussed options with James Bruton, It was suggested that my issues were temperature related, so I took the box that the TAZ was shipped in and made a temporary cabinet out of it. It worked great! However, I did want something a little more permanent and easier to use.

My initial research took me to the cat guard which I liked the look of due to its simplistic construction, ease of modification, and that fact you could simply take the box off and the printer would continue to function stand alone. however, it did seem rather large, so I moved the cable spool and made a smaller modified verison of the structure. Also liked the idea of using the dead space above the printer for storage.

Here is my version:

As you can see above, the cable spool spigot needs cutting in half so it doesn’t interfere with the bed.

Initial temperature tests show that the internal temperature of the cabinet with the bed at 110 degrees, climbs by about 15 degrees warmer than ambient room temperature within 20 to 25 mins. I’m not sure it would go much higher than this without some additional insulation. I ran a print this morning, external temperature was 15, at the end of the job the internal temperature was just over 30.

I posted a few progress/build images to an old blog site of mine here: mantis robot build log

2

That looks very nice!

I’ve read where others have experienced print problems during longer prints due to the electronics box getting to hot and overheating, so you might need to add a vent for that at some point if you experience it.

3

Thanks.

Yeah I already have an inlet manifold printed that fits over the fan and would pull cool air into the electronics. However, due to the poor insulation of the acrylic cabinet, currently I’ve only seen internal temperatures of 35 to 40 degrees. The electronics should be happy at this temperature, and if anyhtunk help heat the cabinet a bit :slight_smile:

I have an exhaust fan mod standing by, temperature controlled but it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting hot enough to use it. Unless I insulate some of the panels better.