Modified Ikea enclosure

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benavery
Posts: 110
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:31 pm

Modified Ikea enclosure

Post by benavery » Fri Jan 16, 2015 7:15 am

I bought the popular Ikea-parts M2 enclosure, but even a single print with the printer sideways drove me crazy, so I headed to a workshop and made some modifications. You only need to add about 5cm of depth to the box to get clearance. I made the back sloped, mostly just to look cool, as I only need the additional clearance in the box from about 9-32cm up from the base. I also made a last minute choice to make the new piece slide inside the existing box and fit into the existing slots at the top/bottom. Makes dismantling it everything super easy, as there are no additional fasteners. I still need some edge banding to clean up the visible plywood edge.

To be honest though, getting the new piece to fit exactly, and dealing with angles, probably meant the addition was about as much work as making a new box from scratch. Though I don't care as I chose to do so mostly as a challenge. The Ikea one has its benefits though - namely the nice looking glass door, and that the cheap panels they use are super light, which makes moving it easy. I think my tiny addition weighs more than the rest of the box, due to being make of solid 3/4 and 1/2 ply, rather than particle board and honeycomb.

For anyone wanting to use the nice cabinet with the printer oriented forward, but doesn't doesn't fancy woodworking - I'm fairly sure you could get away with making a new back out of foamcore boards, and some hot glue.

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Full size, and another image are at: http://imgur.com/a/hNy9d

benavery
Posts: 110
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:31 pm

Re: Modified Ikea enclosure

Post by benavery » Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:03 am

Just occurred to me that the sloped back means I can mount a fan in the top section, have the case still hard against a wall, but get airflow out the back.

I've seen around on the forum that running the M2 inside the enclosure with the door closed will run above safe temps for the electronics. Is it worth the hassle to actually temperature control the inside. Looks like I can get a LCD temperature relay on Amazon for about $15, then need to find a big (140mm-ish) fan I can run off 5v (as I have copious usb chargers around at home, but not sure I can find a spare 12v supply I want to destroy). Means I can maintain a super consistent temperature inside.

I haven't really had any problems with warping, so I'm not sure what problem I'm trying to solve. I think I'm trying to jusify to myself to spend the money on more gadgety electronics to hook up...

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Matt_Sharkey
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Re: Modified Ikea enclosure

Post by Matt_Sharkey » Fri Jan 16, 2015 3:54 pm

benavery wrote:I haven't really had any problems with warping, so I'm not sure what problem I'm trying to solve. I think I'm trying to jusify to myself to spend the money on more gadgety electronics to hook up...
My advice is stop justifying and just do. (not really sure why I have a triple GTX 480 watercooled setup...BUT I DO!)

very cool enclosure though, im sure it will make nice ABS prints!

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pyronaught
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Re: Modified Ikea enclosure

Post by pyronaught » Sat Jan 17, 2015 8:02 am

benavery wrote:Just occurred to me that the sloped back means I can mount a fan in the top section, have the case still hard against a wall, but get airflow out the back.

I've seen around on the forum that running the M2 inside the enclosure with the door closed will run above safe temps for the electronics. Is it worth the hassle to actually temperature control the inside. Looks like I can get a LCD temperature relay on Amazon for about $15, then need to find a big (140mm-ish) fan I can run off 5v (as I have copious usb chargers around at home, but not sure I can find a spare 12v supply I want to destroy). Means I can maintain a super consistent temperature inside.

I haven't really had any problems with warping, so I'm not sure what problem I'm trying to solve. I think I'm trying to jusify to myself to spend the money on more gadgety electronics to hook up...
The problem you're trying to solve is not damaging your machine with heat. If left running in a closed cabinet it will get well above 100 deg. in there and you will cook something.

Get the STC-1000 temp controller off Amazon and then pick up a 120v AC muffin fan at the same time. That's all you need. Just split a suicide cord and run one end to the fan and the other end into the relay on the controller and then stick the remaining lead on the fan into the other side of the relay. No extra power supplies required and you'll have enough airflow to vent the box. I put a 2" PVC elbow on the back of my box and use a shop vac hose to run the stinky ABS air out the window.

The STC-1000 only reads temp in C, which is kind of annoying but you get used to it. If you really want to geek out on it there's a firmware hack out there that will make it read in F, but you'll need something like AVR studio to upload it to the board. It's not hard to convert C to F though, 1.8*C + 32 = F. I've run mine as high as 111F continuous for hours, but my Rambo controller and power supply is located outside the chamber. There's enough length on those cables to get that stuff outside the box, then you only have to worry about burning up the steppers ;)
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

benavery
Posts: 110
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:31 pm

Re: Modified Ikea enclosure

Post by benavery » Sun Jan 18, 2015 6:54 pm

I have an sct-1000 on order, should be here today. I hope to keep all the electronic inside the case though (especially the PSU which has the noisiest fan of all)

Anyone know what the safe environment temp is for the Rambo board ? The specs on the power supply say up to 60C (which is way higher than I plan to run it), but its impossible to find numbers for the Rambo. Googling for 'rambo temperature' only gets hits on discussions about extruder temperatures. I would guess the Rambo should be able to handle over 40C given that on the M2 its sucking air straight from the bottom of a 100C HPB, with no apparent problems.

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pyronaught
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Re: Modified Ikea enclosure

Post by pyronaught » Sun Jan 18, 2015 9:27 pm

The other option is to just run it with door open. The main reason I close mine off is to get rid of the noise and fumes, but with the door open the internal temp will stay in the 80F to 90F range if your room temp is in the 70s and I've never had issues with warping at that temp. I think the ambient temp has to be in the 60s or even lower to get the warping problems with ABS. So if you were running the printer in an unheated garage or cold basement then just leaving the door open probably would not work.

I don't mind the fan noise, but that musical robot sound during a print really gets annoying after a while.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

msmollin
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Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2014 3:07 pm

Re: Modified Ikea enclosure

Post by msmollin » Fri Jan 30, 2015 4:54 pm

Relatively new M2 owner here - could you post a link to this Ikea enclosure? I'm curious on materials and such - I'll probably just wind up building a plywood box for it but if I can use the fancy door like the one you've got that would be cool.

benavery
Posts: 110
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:31 pm

Re: Modified Ikea enclosure

Post by benavery » Fri Jan 30, 2015 5:37 pm

This is from the youtube video of someone who put this together (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym7PK_hCkrY):

Ikea Parts
BESTÅ VARA Glass door
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/produ ... #/40178586

STUVA Frame, white
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30128177/

msmollin
Posts: 55
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2014 3:07 pm

Re: Modified Ikea enclosure

Post by msmollin » Fri Jan 30, 2015 6:54 pm

Awesome thanks! Maybe this will be a weekend project. I re-read your post, and do agree that their cheap side panels means it would make the box lighter. Things to think about.

jsc
Posts: 1864
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2014 4:00 am

Re: Modified Ikea enclosure

Post by jsc » Fri Jan 30, 2015 7:12 pm

Check out the "M2 tips" post in the tips forum. It has links to the original discussion and a list of the parts.

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