RepRap heated chamber
Posted by Matouš
|
RepRap heated chamber March 03, 2013 01:27PM |
Hi!
I just wanted to contribute to this problem, as it seemes rather underestimated by the comunity. If this is not the right place or way to do this please correct me, thanks!
So - I built a box for my MendelMax, which works as a heated room (heat from my heatbed and extruder proves to be sufficient to hold the ambient temperature well above room temperature).
It is made from wood, which has been treated with a indoor water-soluable paint with few holes in it and a plexiglass front door, so that I can watch my machine in action!
It was meant mostly as a digestory to hold the fumes from ABS in and filter them through a carbon filter, using a 120mm PC fan (which proves to be sufficient as well! - no smell in my room anymore), but works as a heated room too.
There were no big problems in building it - in fact it was rather easy and cheap. I can only recommend this way to anyone having warping problems or trouble with the fumes.
I saw some questions at the wiki (wiki), so I will try to answer them as well as I can;
"How big does the heated room need to be for a Mendel -- including the maximum extension in both directions of x,y,z ?"
Well I guess this very much depends on the size of your Mendel... But I built a simple box with about 5cm spare room in all directions around my Max and its outer dimensions are 55x50x50cm. There is even enough room to fit a large fan for the filter, some lights and all the cables...
"Would it help to mount the electronics on the outside or under the heated room? Could the temperature be raised even higher then?"
I did it, because I thought it would be better and I believe it is
Only the motors are still inside, but their temps seem to be OK.
"Would it help to mount the extruder motor outside the heated room -- Bowden extruder? Could the temperature be raised even higher then?"
How high a temperature do you want, actually? I'm pretty satisfied with my ~50°C. But I think, that the motors should handle temperatures up to 100°C, so unless you want to get really high, they shouldn't be much of a problem.
"What part of the system limits the maximum air temperature?"
I believe that would be the motors, as the electronics can be mounted outside pretty easily (if you have long wires
). And maybe if your printer consists of any PLA parts, it would not be a very good idea to raise the temperature very much... Wonder if ABS can deform in any way at temperatures over 100°C (like glass does over time for example, due to its amorphity)...
"Even if we *could* raise the temperature even higher, does that really improve anything?"
Maybe. Probably warping issues would go away. But the part has to cool to the room temperature at some point anyways, only it could be a bit more controllable... But also very time consuming, waiting for the whole heated room to cool slowly, so that the part does not warp.
"How much less power does a Mendel use inside the hot box rather than outside the hot box? I.e., how much progress have we made towards the "60 watts" mentioned in the Gada Prize contest?"
Don't know and don't care as long as Temelín is running...
"How does this rigid room compare to the non-rigid "turkey bag" setup? Does it make any sense to *both* have an inner turkey bag *and* have an outer rigid heated room?"
Well I guess if you wanted to keep the motors cooler, this could be a solution... But I find the turkey bag not very trustworthy...
OK, thats it!
In addition to heat and fumes control, the box could serve some other purposes, I think;
Maybe with some changes to the printed parts of my MendelMax, I could incorporate it into the box more strongly. Than the box could be used to transport the printer much easier and in one piece with the electronics and all... And maybe it would even solidify the printer, giving it more accuracy at higher speeds - but I'm probably a bit over my head here.
Hope someone finds this interesting!
Edit:
OK, so I took some photos and a short video to this project.
Links: photos video
I'm planning on improving the filtering process by adding a tube back to the box, making the air circulate through the filter, which should also reduce heat loss...
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2013 11:50AM by Matouš.
I just wanted to contribute to this problem, as it seemes rather underestimated by the comunity. If this is not the right place or way to do this please correct me, thanks!
So - I built a box for my MendelMax, which works as a heated room (heat from my heatbed and extruder proves to be sufficient to hold the ambient temperature well above room temperature).
It is made from wood, which has been treated with a indoor water-soluable paint with few holes in it and a plexiglass front door, so that I can watch my machine in action!
It was meant mostly as a digestory to hold the fumes from ABS in and filter them through a carbon filter, using a 120mm PC fan (which proves to be sufficient as well! - no smell in my room anymore), but works as a heated room too.
There were no big problems in building it - in fact it was rather easy and cheap. I can only recommend this way to anyone having warping problems or trouble with the fumes.
I saw some questions at the wiki (wiki), so I will try to answer them as well as I can;
"How big does the heated room need to be for a Mendel -- including the maximum extension in both directions of x,y,z ?"
Well I guess this very much depends on the size of your Mendel... But I built a simple box with about 5cm spare room in all directions around my Max and its outer dimensions are 55x50x50cm. There is even enough room to fit a large fan for the filter, some lights and all the cables...
"Would it help to mount the electronics on the outside or under the heated room? Could the temperature be raised even higher then?"
I did it, because I thought it would be better and I believe it is
Only the motors are still inside, but their temps seem to be OK."Would it help to mount the extruder motor outside the heated room -- Bowden extruder? Could the temperature be raised even higher then?"
How high a temperature do you want, actually? I'm pretty satisfied with my ~50°C. But I think, that the motors should handle temperatures up to 100°C, so unless you want to get really high, they shouldn't be much of a problem.
"What part of the system limits the maximum air temperature?"
I believe that would be the motors, as the electronics can be mounted outside pretty easily (if you have long wires
). And maybe if your printer consists of any PLA parts, it would not be a very good idea to raise the temperature very much... Wonder if ABS can deform in any way at temperatures over 100°C (like glass does over time for example, due to its amorphity)..."Even if we *could* raise the temperature even higher, does that really improve anything?"
Maybe. Probably warping issues would go away. But the part has to cool to the room temperature at some point anyways, only it could be a bit more controllable... But also very time consuming, waiting for the whole heated room to cool slowly, so that the part does not warp.
"How much less power does a Mendel use inside the hot box rather than outside the hot box? I.e., how much progress have we made towards the "60 watts" mentioned in the Gada Prize contest?"
Don't know and don't care as long as Temelín is running...
"How does this rigid room compare to the non-rigid "turkey bag" setup? Does it make any sense to *both* have an inner turkey bag *and* have an outer rigid heated room?"
Well I guess if you wanted to keep the motors cooler, this could be a solution... But I find the turkey bag not very trustworthy...
OK, thats it!
In addition to heat and fumes control, the box could serve some other purposes, I think;
Maybe with some changes to the printed parts of my MendelMax, I could incorporate it into the box more strongly. Than the box could be used to transport the printer much easier and in one piece with the electronics and all... And maybe it would even solidify the printer, giving it more accuracy at higher speeds - but I'm probably a bit over my head here.
Hope someone finds this interesting!
Edit:
OK, so I took some photos and a short video to this project.
Links: photos video
I'm planning on improving the filtering process by adding a tube back to the box, making the air circulate through the filter, which should also reduce heat loss...
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2013 11:50AM by Matouš.
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.