I Build a (for Myself) Almost Perfect 3D Printer Enclosure for My Anycubic AI3M

Hi everyone, this is my first post here. Please excuse shortcomings in the text, but English is not my native language. If you find some mistakes you can use them for yourself or return them to google.

Unfortunately, I only had the idea to write all this down when I had already cleaned the housing and touched up the paint, but I think it's better that way ...

If you don't feel like going back to the history, please jump straight to the next chapter.

Introduction:

I have had an Anycubic I3 Mega S (AI3M) for about a year and have fun with it. I made a conscious decision in favor of this printer, the criteria were mechanical stability, equipment, standard heated bed and decent installation space, and of course the price.

If you think about buying such a printer, you start reading in forums. And very quickly you come across the horror report of burning printers, burned out apartments and other things, which of course can always be found at the front...

So for me, a purchase criterion was firmware that can detect and counteract a thermal runaway.

My Any couldn't do that as standard, but the excellent MARLIN firmware from David Ramiro could. So, before I even started the first print, I replaced the firmware with Marlin.

After the first few prints (with PLA of course) I quickly noticed that the printer was too loud and smelly to stand on the desk. So the idea of putting the printer in a closed chamber, somehow connecting it to an exhaust air and putting the whole thing in the cellar was very early on.

Desired features of this chamber:

- should be closed and have ventilation to remove the fumes.

- should be thermally insulated and heatable, e.g. to print ABS.

- should have a movable level / floor so that the printer can be pulled out and work on it when it is connected.

- should be so large that all necessary accessories such as power supply unit, camera and light fit into it.

- had to offer the possibility of heating the installation space and at the same time keeping all electronics cool.

- had to be fireproof (you never know ...).

- should look good (if possible).

In addition, I was too stupid to always transfer the data to the memory card, to run to the printer and then to start printing.

There has to be a better way of doing this, and so I took the detour with the Repetier-Host to the (for me) much better "Directly to the printer" program: the fantastic OctoPrint by Gina Häusge.

That worked brilliantly and there are many plugins for every need to extend and adapt OctoPrint in all directions. OctoPrint runs without any problems on various Raspberry hardware, and since I've always wanted a Rasp Pi ... The idea of putting the printer in a closed (metal) housing in the cellar kept growing. Bring the whole thing into the network using OctoPrint and the Rasp Pi, monitor it with a webcam, etc. I then looked around on eBay and other platforms for something like a 19" network cabinet, which is always good quality from around 50 euros to buy.

A few months ago my company decided that an older warehouse should be cleaned up and various old machine parts scrapped. This is where the case described appeared: Around 20 years old, 10 years in industrial use in a dirty environment, then (dismantled and cannibalized, but of course not cleaned) 10 years in the back in a corner under a whole bunch of other old machine parts in the warehouse .. Absolute scrap!

Of course, I immediately offered to dispose of / recycle this housing at my expense ... Yep!

So i open the closet door and sweep it through so that all the spiders and bugs move out again.

Then put it into the car and transported to a car wash, the unbelievable dirt then went off quite well with the high-pressure cleaner and the case didn't look that bad.

After two months in the garden shed and cleaning it several times with plenty of water and detergent, it didn't smell so bad.

Then I carried the individual parts into the cellar, removed many rust spots and from here on there are the first photos.

This Rittal housing was built around 1998-2000 to accommodate a PC and a 17“ CRT monitor and to protect it from dust and moisture in an industrial environment. The drawer could accommodate a keyboard and mouse, and the entire cabinet could either be suspended from the ceiling with one arm or movably attached to the wall.

The old drawer extension at the bottom of the housing is made of folded sheet metal, but the height did not offer enough space for all the parts that should be in here. So I turned it over, for which I had to drill out various welding points. I connected this with screws later. The rails for the extension also had to be reattached, but this gave me 3cm more height.

As I said, the printer should be stand stable but it should be removable
if necessary, so a pull-out floor was needed. Used on eBay, these parts cost the same as new, so I ordered a new one, along with the mounting rails.

The chamber is insulated with 2cm thick Styrodur (XPS),
which I glued to the walls and ceiling on approx. 1cm thick Styrodur strips as spacers. Styrodur is like Styrofoam, but stronger, more stable, flame-retardant and cheap available as an approved building material in specialist shops. The panels are available in different thicknesses, the color varies depending on the manufacturer.

I glued the panels apart to ensure ventilation and air exchange in the housing without the air having to go through the heated chamber with the printer. The lower housing of the printer is also sealed with Styrodur panels so that the air below the panels and the pull-out base can circulate freely to keep the printer electronics cool

My plan is for the air to enter through the large hole in
the center of the floor, for the most part to flow into the drawer with the electronics and to be carried to the rear by the fan of the ATX power supply. Some of the air will certainly be sucked back down immediately and passed through the drawer again, but some will also rise up behind the double walls and exit through the hole at the top. Here later, a regulated flap with a small (80mm) speed-regulated fan is supposed to direct the exhaust air directly outside.

I wanted to use an ATX power supply to power everything.
Conveniently, a standard ATX power supply which I still had lying around, fit right in the back of the drawer box.

I made a cutout in the back oft the drawer for the ATX Air-outlet and powercord.

I had already bought the heater for the chamber, but for safety I really wanted a safety temperature limiter which switches everything off in the event of a fault. The entire controls for the case (heating, lighting, ventilation) and the RasPi should be in the old keyboard drawer. The printer should also be supplied with power from the ATX power supply via a connector, but it should also be able to be operated outside of it if necessary without major modifications.

For this reason, I mounted large DC plugs on the printer and on a 12V branch of the power supply. I simply connected these in the printer in parallel to the 12v power supply output (these are reverse voltage proof), so I can supply the printer inside the housing through the ATX power supply and outside with mains voltage via the built-in power supply.

A Proto-Shield with clamps and bridges sits on the Pi, it is good to try out something, but later it will be replaced with something solid.

On the big connector of the ATX-PSU is an "Electronics-Salon 24/20-pin ATX DC power supply breakout board module" which I bought from Amzn for € 15. This is of very good quality and will not cause me any problems, even with high currents. All the necessary connections from the ATX are brought out here.

Next to the ATX breakout is a small MOSFET that switches power for the LED stripe i´ve glued in the Chamber. Like the SSRs for the heater, it is controlled directly by a GPIO pin on the Raspberry.

For temperature measurements in the drawer, under the lower housing of the printer and in the chamber, I use DS18B20 which are connected directly to the Pi. The safety temperature limiter has its own PT100. You can see two of this in the upper right corner on the backside.

Next, I'll be making the air duct on top of the case, with a PWM controlled fan and a flap operated by a small servo, controlled by the Pi.

As I said, Octoprint runs on the RasPi, for the housing I installed the
“OctoPrint Enclosure” plug-in from Vitor Henrique and the “PSU Control” plug-in from Shawn Bruce.

With these two plugins, light and heating are controlled, the temperatures are recorded and the ATX power supply and the printer are switched on and off. "Octolapse" from Brad Hochgesang is also installed and provides wonderful time-lapse recordings with the small webcam, you can see printing a "Calicat" by downloading the Video below.

This is the combination that´s perfect for me. The housing looks good, the printer can hardly be heard in it and everything can be operated completely via the OctoPrint web interface, whether at home or via the WWW if necessary.

I had a lot of fun building this case and it included a bit of everything: metalworking, electronics, computers, 3D printing ... I'm very happy with it.

Now a few little things are still missing, such as the exhaust air. And that starts experimenting with ABS, nylon, etc.

...and then, later, when everything is really done ... maybe rebuild something ... the printer ... the housing ...you know?

If you are a hobbyist, the goal is always the way!

Thank you for your attention

Tom