So I thought if I could mostly reduce draft , mostly contain the heat and mostly channel that heat around the part it may be “good enough”. I had a big piece of plastic recovered from an old rear-projection TV that I thought I would try and use. I have not tried to form plastic before and all I have is a heat gun, so this is very much an experiment on all levels.
So this is what I came up with (still bandaged together while experimenting): The intent is to be minimal and only enclose the build area covering most of the major holes but not trying to seal it - it should also be easy to remove. The biggest hole is the slot where the hot end travels, I didn’t want the plastic to close to the hot parts (visions of melted sheets all over the printer). So the heat will escape here but it will be going past where the parts are, keeping them warm (in theory). Note that it only sets up against the printer, it is not attached at all (except the cover for the left side under the spool).
It is a bit hard to test with a kitchen thermometer , but it seems to raise the temp about 30f-40f just under the top of the printer. I’m not that sure how to even know how much it is providing to the part or where on the part is important.
I tried this with something I thought may be a challenge – a 38mm/38mm/100mm block with a 25 mm hole mostly through the middle (A handle for something). I used Inland black ABS, the default ABS settings 235/80, 25% infill and did nothing special to the build plate (just hairspray) - no raft. I did print without coming loose but the ends did come up about 2mm on the edges and there is a very small crack about ½ way up - so still room for improvement.
So, I have 3 questions:
- Has anyone tried anything like this? Did it work?
Is there a “sample” ABS print I could use to know what “good enough” is? I would want to use the same settings and HBP.
What settings are used inside of such an enclosure?