Enclosure design sanity check...

Greetings. Great forum you all have here, one of the prime reasons, after a year or so or research, I’m about to pull the trigger on a TAZ.

http://a360.co/2E0Pd1g This is a link to a Fusion 360 file for an enclosure/storage cabinet I am in the process of designing. I would really appreciate any comments re size/clearance and any other considerations I should be aware of prior to construction.

The design is unfinished. It will have two doors in the front. The entire top half will lift off the base cabinet if needed. The fan in the top will be controlled by a thermostat, temperature determined by filament being used. Also, it will live in my garage with a lot of dust producing woodworking machines, one of my other hobbies.

This will be my first 3D printer so my knowledge level is pretty much zero. Also, I’ve bootstrapped myself through Fusion 360 this past year for my CNC router needs. So, I know just enough about it to be dangerous. Sorry, ATM I don’t know how to export other file types from F360.

Thanks!

I really like your design!

Here are some things to consider:

  1. The larger the enclosure the longer it takes to heat up, there is quite a bit of space above the printer in your design, that is where the heat will go. (If your thinking of printing with abs)

  2. Having the electronics inside the enclosure may be a bad idea for the long run.

  3. I have had my TAZ 6 for almost 2 years now, I have never been a fan of the spool holders on the side with the filament tube. I designed my enclosure with filament holders on top that feed directly into the extruder.

My design is not as refined as yours but maybe you can get some inspiration from it?

I hope this input helps!

Here are some pics of my enclosure https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/taz-6-enclosure/4933/4

Your designs look fantastic, I could never build anything like that! I was lazy so I bought an enclosure from amazon- it was made by a company called printedsolid.com, I’m yet to put it together but it does have some limitations- I went to Thingiverse and got someone’s extra bits to block up any holes in it, however I’ve got some issues with my printer at the moment as one has to print out four brackets for the enclosure to be attached to the frame- looks good in the promotional photos though! bit pricy! hope it works…

That enclosure is awesome. I would make sure to make the front or back easy to take off in the case you need to remove or work on the TAZ. Enclosures are great until you need to fix/troubleshoot something.

As svanwhy mentioned the electronics won’t do well in enclosures. I would find a way to get air from outside the cabinet going through the chamber with your electronics. Here was my first step towards keeping the electronics cooled: https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/enclosure-for-lulzbots/4571/6

Recently I’ve had an issue with my prints shifting which I’ve read could be a symptom of the Rambo’s driver ICs overheating. So this weekend I am upgrading the 80mm Fan in the cabinet to move substantially more air over the electronics. To protect my prints from being affected by the higher level of air movement, I am creating a duct for the exhaust to get it outside of the cabinet.

Once I have everything nailed down, I’ll post my files to my Thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/sneaks/designs

If you print in ABS - check out a company called Hoffman. They make heaters designed for electronic enclosures that work great for printer enclosures. New they are $500 - but if you watch ebay you can get one under $100.

Here are some pics of the vent installed.

STL Files at: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2790186