Enclosure Question - Attach to Taz?

I am in the process of making my own enclosure for a Taz 6. I am thinking it would be beneficial to secure the taz to the enclosure in order to further stiffen the chassis of the printer. From all the pictures of enclosures that I have seen it looks like the printer is just sitting on the bottom panel of the enclosure. My thoughts are to bolt the bottom and top of the printer to the panels of the enclosure. I am also thinking it would be beneficial to remove the rubber feet on the bottom of the printer at the same time.

Does anyone have any experience with this or recommendations?

I’ve found one on these forums from a google search that I really like where he tied the enclosure to the TAZ frame, but left the control box outside. It’s my eventual goal to build one similar to this myself:

https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/taz-6-enclosure-relocate-lcd-controls-outside/3408/1

I would not remove the square bumpers as they help to prevent the motor vibrations from being transmitted into the surface the printer is sitting on.

My Taz5 sits on a hardwood butcher block work table that weighs a ton. The printer sits directly on the wood surface and it’s plenty stiff.

The Overkill Enclosure I’m building is made out of T Channel Aluminum and Plexiglas. The Enclosure also sits on the Table (around the edges) and has an open bottom. My inspiration to use Aluminum and Plexiglas came from here - http://imgur.com/a/O3H5r
Designing and building it was more fun than my first Erector Set!

I wouldn’t attach my printer to the enclosure. I think it would be very noisy. The enclosure would resonate with the song of the stepper motors. One benefit of the enclosure is to dampen the noise. I used rubber gaskets to secure the Plexiglas panels in the Aluminum Frame, but still think it would amplify the noise in my setup. It would also be harder to access the printer if you want to do any fixing or modifications. You would have to detach the Printer from the Enclosure before you could work on it.

The Electronics Box definitely needs to either be outside of the enclosure or have access to fresh, cool air. I designed and printed a small duct that penetrates through the Plexiglas and mates to the Electronics Box. On the Taz5, both the intake and exhaust happen on this side so all is well. You can see my Duct project here - https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/enclosure-duct/4742/1

I should be able to share my completed project in a week or so.



Best regards,
PCH

pyrokid - It is funny you mention that enclosure as that is the one I liked the best when poking around the internet. The only reason I joined this forum was to pm him about details on that enclosure. He ended up emailing me a pdf of his entire build with a complete parts list and schematic drawings of every part. I definitely plan on having the control box outside the unit like his but I dont believe his printer is attached to the enclosure in any way. I can zoom in on the picture and see the rubber feet still installed.

kmanley57 - My thoughts were to put the rubber insulators on the bottom of my enclosure so that it is isolated from the desk, but the printer would be anchored to the enclosure.

phugger - Are you saying that you place the printer on the butcher block without the rubber feet? Trying to understand your post a little better but setting the printer on the butcher block alone is not any different that placing it on a very solid table.

My enclosure design so far is to have all four sides of the enclosure be removable for easy maintenance on the printer. I plan to use the channel in the extruded aluminum to slide the plexiglass into and seal it at the top via some pile weatherstripping. I was hoping you guys could give me more feedback on the rubber feet. If i anchor the printer to the enclosure but maintain the rubber feet then that kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion. Wherever the printer is anchored to the enclosure would allow vibrations to be transmitted but since I plan to use rubber feet on the bottom of the enclosure to isolate it from the table. Noise is not necessarily my highest priority, I am hoping that increasing the rigidity of the frame of the printer will result in higher resolution prints.

My Taz still has the rubber feet installed. It sits on the Table, not the Enclosure. My Enclosure is 4 Sides and a Top with Doors on one side. The bottom is open over the Table. The Table Top is 24"x36" so I needed to create a bit of a “caboose” that hangs 6" past the back on the table so that the Build Plate had full range of motion. The floor area inside the Enclosure is now 30"x36" (24" of Table and 6" of Plexiglas). The Enclosure only touches the Table around the edges. I’ll post some pictures this week. I guess my point is that the Table is very sturdy and a good base for the Printer. If you want to attach the Printer to your Enclosure, the Enclosure would need to be much beefier than the one I built to gain any stability. The guy who I linked to above had his Enclosure and Printer sitting on the Box that the Taz shipped in… (c8



Best regards.
PCH

Looking more at the printer the bed is bolted to the frame so the rubber feet can’t be helping isolate vibrations between the two. They only have to be isolating the entire printer from the table that they sit on, or box if that is what you choose to put it on. Does this sound right? Would bolting both the frame and bed to the enclosure and then using rubber feet on the bottom of the enclosure help significantly in reinforcing the printer and still keep vibrations out of the table? Or will this possibly hurt performance?