Looking for shielding mod for openings

Henz · 2015-04-23T14:17:28.000Z

Hi guys. I keep my printer in quite a tall room with a fair amount of draft. I was wondering if anyone knew of a service which makes shielding to keep the heat in the print area? I’ve seen the one from Critical Mods but don’t really want to have to ship it from the states. Thanks

Eduardo_Garcia · 2015-04-23T15:11:57.000Z

Buy acrylic or plexiglass and make your own. Should not be difficult.

muckychris · 2015-04-23T15:13:34.000Z

Something like this is a good cheap start.

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Chris_Donovan · 2015-04-23T15:20:29.000Z

Critical Mods does the best hood kits in my opinion.

Other hood kits are “bolt together” to save for shipping. I wouldn’t recommend that.

MidWestMade · 2015-04-23T17:11:32.000Z

See this confuses me … people keep recommending “local” fans to cool the prints, I don’t use an enclosure for that reason. Why would you want to keep heat in when you want the print to cool down as you print? When I first started printing I “thought” I needed an enclosure, but users on this site told me not to and to let air flow and cool everything naturally … Let me know what you all think … any benefits to an enclosure that I’m missing???

adamcooks · 2015-04-23T17:11:44.000Z

There are some hosted on thingiverse that use only square cut acrylic. Making straight cuts on acrylic is fairly easy using the score and snap method. I use the makercoast version.

You could also try using a different material. PET(x) varieties will give you the strength of ABS and not need the enclosure. It does require printing at a higher temperature though.

adamcooks · 2015-04-23T17:14:15.000Z

You only really want local cooling for PLA prints. ABS, should not be cooled rapidly. The pro-level ABS machines use circulated WARM air directed at the prints. There are some situations when a filament cooler should be used for home FDM, like overhangs and such. but its a fine line your dancing there…

RobertPaul · 2015-04-23T17:45:06.000Z

I’m assuming you’re printing with ABS to want to keep the warm air in. Why don’t you just hang cardboards/towels on the sides? You could wrap some cardboard with heat reflective tape pointing in. Would probably work better then acrylic.

adamcooks · 2015-04-23T17:51:04.000Z

Just for safety’s sake, please be careful when hanging potentially flammable things on top of your ( borderline safe) printer. 1kg of plastic will produce more energy then 1kg of gasoline.

MidWestMade · 2015-04-23T17:55:17.000Z

Gotcha, that makes sense! I’m going to measure the dimensions of my makerbot replicator later today and laser cut some acrylic for an enclosure, would anyone want me to post the Adobe Illustrator files so they can also use them to laser cut?

Henz · 2015-04-24T11:53:08.000Z

Thanks for the advice guys. I’ll look at making my own methinks.

Eric_Haulotte · 2015-05-07T20:29:44.000Z

yes can you post the metrics so I can cut my own?

Eric_Haulotte · 2015-05-07T20:30:24.000Z

yes can you post them so I can cut my own?

MidWestMade · 2015-05-08T18:53:59.000Z

Hey, so the shielding I made fits the “CTC-3D” printer. I have three adobe illustrator files, a front panel, side panels, and then a separate panel that has room for a fan mount for a 12V fan for when I use PLA. They are all blank and have small holes for the mounting scheme I have developed. Do you still want them? I could also send the dimensions as well.

Andy_Williams · 2016-02-02T11:09:09.000Z

Hi, any chance you could send me that file please ?! I’m in the UK and no one sells enclosure kits and would not be cheap to get a pre made one from the states. Thanks

MidWestMade · 2016-02-02T15:48:14.000Z

I’ll check today, I made the front and sides so they are somewhere on my computer. The top part of the enclosure I bought … so I’ll have to check to see if I ever received those files.