Enclosure internal temperature vs PLA printer parts

I've been trying to print ABS latety and found out I'd probably need an enclosure to get good result.

My printer is a Wilson TS with PLA parts (corner brace, motor holder, extruder, all of it!).
I haven't got any problem with it and I also printed some more part in PLA to upgrade it a bit.

I'd like to know if anyone had issue with the PLA parts inside an enclosure.

Here's my first draft (don't mind the printer colors, I had to import it in Solidworks and that's what I got) :


Top will be fully closed acrylic that I'll remove to get the parts.
I'd like to avoid making a venting hole or adding a fan to the acrylic.
It should also allow me to print PLA without the enclosure if I wan't to.
The electronic will sit underneath and I have yet to find a good spot for the spool. (thinking about having it on the side and feeding from the bottom with a PTFE tube.)

Thanks

First, kudos for trying to enclose the printer and putting the electronics outside of the heated area. That said, I think you'll find that you'll lose too much heat by having the entire enclosure made of acrylic panels. ABS prints without warping or delamination when the build chamber temperature is 45-50C. Unless you plan to add a supplemental heater to the enclosure to get to that temperature, your bed and extruder heaters are going to be the primary sources of heat inside your enclosure. My machine has a 450W heater on the bed and when I tried to use only polycarbonate panels to enclose it, the temperature would not get above 40C. I started replacing the panels with foam insulation board one by one until the enclosure would get to at least 45C and I ended up with the top, bottom, and back panels being insulation board and the rest polycarbonate sheet. My printer's enclosed volume is a little bigger than yours probably is, so you may get away with more acrylic than I was able, but you should plan the structure of the cover or its frame to accommodate the different materials.

As to placement of the filament spool, I recommend putting it on top of the printer with the filament feeding through a small hole directly down to the extruder. The is no lower loss/friction way to get the filament to the extruder, and you will avoid some of the print quality defects that can be caused by too much drag on the filament going into the extruder.

Here is a picture of my machine:



The electronics are installed in a drawer in the base of the machine. See the link in my signature below for details.

I don't know how well PLA parts will hold up in a 45-50C chamber- one of the first things you'll want to do when you have a working enclosure is reprint those parts in ABS.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2015 11:50AM by the_digital_dentist.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

I'm aiming to get "better" result out of ABS with the enclosure.
From what I've read online, some commercial printer have heated enclose reaching close to 70C to get superbe result.
I'm not looking for perfection, just a way to print some "flat" object with less warping.

Currently my heated bed at 100C is the best result I could have.
My print did fail, but it feels like I was almost there, I had my cooling fan turned on (oups) and it did warp in the corners.
I hope the enclosure will reduce this just enough so I can print that 70x70 flat part I'm trying to print.

On a positive note, I was able to print some taller object without any problem.

I'm also building the enclosure to make the printer a bit more spouse friendly

But thanks for your reply, from what I understand I shouldn't need any venting hole as the enclosure won't reach crazy temperature on its own.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2015 02:11PM by andreq.

If you're just going to print ABS once in a while you could skip all the effort and expense of getting a bunch of acrylic panels and building a box by just finding a cardboard box that fits over the printer. If you want to get fancy, add an acrylic window and a few LEDs so you can see what's going on inside. Cardboard boxes are pretty good insulators, and cost is essentially zero.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Quote
the_digital_dentist
...just finding a cardboard box that fits over the printer...

That was my plan at first, explain that to my spouse.

I'll build it in plexiglass because I got a good deal for a couple of 21"x53" panels and want to use them.
The rest will be some cheap or left over plywood.

Should be ~$60 CAD for the whole thing, nothing crazy.