Monday 1 October 2012

UP Plus Enclosure




I've been working on this on and off for a few months, and I think its finally ready for prime time.

After having quite a few larger prints fail due to warping and delamination I decided to build an enclosure. The biggest problem was keeping the print area hot, but not overheating the electronics. Many designs for enclosures I had seen also enclose the electronics housed at the bottom. Not ideal. The unrestricted access to the air vents on the sides in this design leaves the electronics unaffected.

By not using active heating I feel I have come to a good compromise between reducing issues, and not creating new ones. Although I would like to get the chamber up to ~65 C during printing, this is just not an option with the extruder stepper motor inside. The thermal limit of which is 80C and normally runs around 30 C above ambient.

To keep the extruder temp under control I have mounted 2 40mm heatsinks and fans.  On testing I found just one kept the temperature at 60C  . So 2 should improve on this.

I settled on this design, after a few experimental builds. I wanted something that would compliment the UP Plus's looks, and yet still stay compact, and thanks to the handle on top, very portable.

All the mounting parts, handles and hinges are printed on the UP. While this allows for easy repairs and modifications it also keeps the costs down. Hey isn't this what 3D printers are for?

If there is enough interest I'm going to have a batch cut and powder coated red.

Contact me if you want one.

Here's an earlier prototype.






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