Sunday, April 1, 2018

3D Printer Enclosure

After searching a bit on the internet for inspiration, I finally began building an enclosure for the 3D printer. Even though I use PLA plastic for my prints (which generally warp less than ABS while cooling), the garage I keep the printer in tends to get very dusty, so I thought it would be a good idea to try and reduce its exposure to such pollutants. First I made a run on The Home Depot to pick up some supplies, which included 12 2' long (0.61m) PVC pipes, 8 3-way connection pieces, scotch tape, and one roll of 3'x50' (0.91mx15.24m) 4mil plastic sheeting:
Next up I assembled the cube that would serve as the skeletal frame of the enclosure. Nothing too difficult here; I just connected all the PVC pipes together:
I then rolled out the plastic sheeting to measure out how much to cut out so that it enveloped two of the sides and the top of the box, like so (if you're interested, it was about 82", or 2.08m):
The sheet required some trimming on the sides, and after that was done I taped it onto the PVC piping using the scotch tape:

There were still two sides left to cover up, so I cut out some more sheeting and taped it onto the skeleton. However, I made sure to leave the front side hanging free so that I could open it up later:
Finally, I went out and bought some Velcro strips to place on the front side; that way the enclosure remains pretty airtight while also letting me open it up to see the print running. I also trimmed this portion to make sure it cleanly fit onto the rest of the skeleton, and looked aesthetically pleasing :) Anyway, here's the final product:

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