Cooling with enclosure

Hello everyone I have built an enclosure for my Taz 6, and have been trying to add cooling for the electronics.
I found and printed adapters from Thingiverse to use 1.25 hose to vent the electronics tower outside the enclosure.

I tried the stock fan inside the tower and had no air movement, I replaced the stock fan with a fan with more cfm and still no air movement.
I finally found if I use the fan to blow the air into the tower at the bottom I was able to get some cooling. The air going in does not seem to match the air leaving. I have sealed all the holes I could find in the tower. If I unhook the hose I feel a lot of air being blown out of the fan, so I am not sure if when I hook the hose up it creates some back pressure and reduces my air flow? I would like the fan inside the tower to help reduce the noise level in the room. Have the fan outside the enclosure it is very noisy.

Thank you

Mike






Hello Mike,

This is my custom setup, since I print almost exclusively in polycarbonate.

I print at 325C E3D copper nozzle/block and 145C bed which is mic6.
My enclosure is a cheap IKEA Ivar with lexan clear plastic covers.

I chose to rewire my Taz 5 such that the entire box is completely outside of the enclosure.
Also, my heatbreak is not fan cooled anymore - it is water cooled.

A hole on the side of your enclosure brings air into the electronics, but it also leaks into the rest of the enclosure and your prints (and vice versa). I also tried that method, but it did not adequately cool my electronics, and the Rambo board/prints kept giving errors after being heated a while. Also your nozzle fan/s will affect your prints (if your filaments actually need an enclosure). I don’t use a nozzle fan - even the E3D heatbreak fan caused delamination in my PC prints before I watercooled.

So I would also suggest to move your box outside the enclosure or perhaps it would be easier in your case to slide a lexan sheet in between your Taz 6 frame and the box (to completely isolate your enclosure from the box with electronics).

Best of luck,

Rex

(P.S. Sad to hear about Lulzbot’s/Aleph’s problems - there is so much they can do. Open source really doesn’t work to keep companies alive in the long run, except for companies in the Far East.)