MakerGear Forum

I have finally ordered the M3-ID, just waiting for it to arrive.
Now on to the next point, do you guys have an enclosure for your printer?
There are some points I want to tackle using an enclosure:

1. The printer is in a cold area of the house (15 degree celcius 59 fahrenheit), So an enclore with a little heating build in is that needed or can the M3 handle the temperature
2. Noise levels can be reduced this way
3. Hepa or other filter for when printing other stuff then PLA
4. IP camera in the enclosure

Does anyone have any experience with this, or know some other issues that can be handled by an enclosure, do you have measurements?

If you search around on this forum, there are lots of people who have done enclosures. The "repurposed Ikea" enclosure seems to be the most popular.

But specifically for your points:

(1) The difference between a "cold" area of the house and a warm one is negligible compared to the difference between plastic going from several hundred degrees Celsius to room temperature. Plus even without an enclosure you'll get a "heat island" around the printer. The best way to prevent rapid cooling is to not use the fan.

(2) Noise levels are best reduced (or so I'm told from lots of posts on this forum) by Nema dampers, although I'm sure the enclosure works well, too.

(3) Filters are maybe useful for ABS, but most plastic doesn't outgas much at the temperatures used by printers, and I'm doutful that a HEPA filter is going to do much about that, anyway. The better reason for filtering (and/or an enclosure) is the *other* direction---keeping dust and particulates out of your printer.

(4) An enclosure is great for mounting a camera, but there are plenty of ways to mount a camera without one. Likewise for lighting.

The main reason to use an enclosure is to keep the atmosphere at close to the same temperature as the plate for plastics that shrink a lot. It is almost critically important for ABS, somewhat useful for PETg, and not particularly useful at all for PLA. I've managed to get by without an enclosure largely by never printing ABS (PETg is a fine substitute for most purposes).

I just received my M3 ID. I have had a Seemecnc rostock max V1 as my first and only printer. I only printed ABS on it as I could never get PLA to print well.

I am having some stringing problems with the M3ID using PLA. I built a crappy enclosure out of cardboard and the extruder that is not being used shows 40C, I have had better luck with printing since the cardboard setup.

Makergear told me to contact them at the end of Feb as they have an enclosure in the works. I am going to try some ABS now and see what I get.

Any news on the enclosure?

I'm also interested in the possibility of an enclosure from makergear!