Enclosure for Lulzbots

Hello Lulzpeople,
I have made my own enclosure for my Lulzbot Minis because I am a biology researcher and aspiring doc and the ufps (ultra fine particles) scared me because of their potential health hazards. This cat-guard inspired enclosure features rubber seals and hot glue gun sealing and an exhaust fan. You will never operate your printers without this once you open the enclosure and smell how horrendous these things are when they don’t dissipate the smell (to your house or where ever you keep your printer) but contain it. I feel like they are really really hazardous. Anyways I attached some pictures below. If anyone want’s to build their own please comment and I will upload the STL files and materials I have used, and where to get them. If you have your own garage and ventilate it after your prints I think that’s fine but I live in a cold place in an apartment so I don’t have that option :smiley:





I’d love to see how you built yours- especially the exhaust. I’m about to build on for a TAZ 6.

Thanks.

@DrBoz,

Great enclosure! Could you post some more pics the exhaust? Do you have an intake to keep the RAMBO board cool? I’m making my enclosure now. I’m routing leftover banister wood into a similar extruded slotted system. It was cheaper this way but in hindsight I think I should have bought the extruded aluminium. I also placed a fire alarm ( with wireless activation of the others.) just over my enclosure because I print in doors and can’t risk a fire.

Hello…
I didn’t have time to post how I built mine. Stay tuned it is coming soon. I will share the exhaust files and also include digikey link (where I got mine). I don’t have an air intake for cooling the boards but it seems like they are doing just fine. Sometimes the temp inside the enclosure go as high as 60C. I think go with the extruded aluminum. There is pretty much nothing in my enclosure that can burn. I mean take it with a grain of salt but probability of having a fire inside the enclosure is pretty low. The raw materials probably costs around 350$ with exhaust fan and all that.

Nice work, just be careful with fully enclosing a printer and it’s electronics. Heat will really shorten the lifespan of any electronics. I think you should be OK because your box is so big so it may not get too hot but maybe get one of these for inside. https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-00613-Indoor-Humidity-Monitor/dp/B0013BKDO8

Also being sealed like that worry a little about humidity but a bowl of desiccant inside will help keep things dry. I like the kind that changes color when it’s full of moisture and I just put it in the oven till it changes back.

I’m building a TAZ 6 enclosure and made the intake pull air from below the cabinet. It turned out a bit more crude than I had hoped because the hole saw was too big. It does seem to work well though. I don’t know where the intake is on the Mini, but I attached the STL in case anyone can use it.
intake_hood_04.STL (633 KB)



I would try to keep the general temperature below 95F for any extended time frame. I have started to have heat issues after about a year of running inside an +95F enclosure. Plus I am not sure the Raspberry Pi is expected to run correctly in that hot of air temp, along with any other electronics(camera/power supply/etc.). I am running my Raspberry outside the enclosure, but the camera I have inside shuts down above 90C now.