COMPLETE Cheap detachable enclosure case for BigBox

Discussion in 'Guides, Mods, and Upgrades' started by Rob Heinzonly, Mar 21, 2017.

  1. Rob Heinzonly

    Rob Heinzonly Well-Known Member

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    Last weeks I've been building a case that keeps my BigBox printer warm during winter time prints, and while doing prints that are prone to warping. I just placed all the stuff on Thingiverse.
    I'ts made of aluminum profile, perspex and some magnets to keep the whole case together and make it simple to store and setup if needed.

    And because I'm lazy, here is a simple copy/paste of the description I put on Thiningiverse.

    This is a dismountable 3D printer enclosure I built specially for my E3D BigBox printer, but you can adapt it easily for any other size printer. It can be disassembled and stored when not in use. The principle is simple; the case is built with square (and hollow) aluminum tubes connected with 3D printed corner pieces. In every corner piece (except for the roof), I glued a small (10x10x4 mm) neodymium magnet (see the pictures), making it very easy to dismantle or rebuild the case. The whole enclosure can be built-up within a minute.

    The side perspex panels are mounted with magnets so they can be taken off in case you need to access the printer for maintenance.

    You can place a 80mm fan in order to regulate the temperature, but I found that the temperature hardly comes higher than 35°C, even when printing with the heated bed at 120°C.

    Printing filament used: PLA and Taulman Alloy 910

    Print settings.
    I printed the corner pieces and the hinges with Taulman Alloy 910. You can try another material, but Taulman did the job for me. Don't use PLA since it is too brittle !
    I printed the corner pieces horizontal with raft and support, just to be sure that the pieces were 100% straight, because Alloy 910 did tend to warp a little on my PEI bed. Infill was at 20%. The parts fit tightly in the aluminum profiles, I had to hammer them in. Don't hammer directly on the pieces, but use for example a piece of wood to dampen the blows (or use a dead blow hammer).

    Aluminum bars needed for BigBox
    The aluminum bar size I used is 15 x 15 mm

    Front / back panels

    • 4x upright bar 690 mm high
    • 4x horizontal bar 595 mm long
    Side panels

    • 4x upright bar 690 mm high
    • 4x horizontal bar 530 mm long
    Roof panel

    • 2x front / back bar 595 mm long
    • 2x side bars 560 mm long
    Magnets
    • 16 x cube magnets (10 x 10 x 4) mm for the the corner pieces
    • 12 x round magnets (12 mm diameter, 1 mm thick) for the doors and the side panels
    Perspex panels
    Clear perspex for front doors and roof.

    • 2 x Doors 295 x 688
    • 1 x Roof 558 x 594
    Channel plate for back doors and side panels

    • 2 x Doors 295 x 688
    • 2 x Side panel 528 x 688
    3D printed parts:
    Taulman Alloy 910 or any other high tensile strength polymer.

    • 4 x Roof corner piece
    • 4 x Front and back panels corner piece
    • 4 x Side panels corner piece
    • 4 x Hinge doorpost left
    • 4 x Hinge doorpost right
    • 4 x Hinge door left
    • 4 x Hinge door right
    PLA or any other (cheap) material:

    • 8 x Door and side panel knob
    • 2 x Doors upper magnet holder
    • 8 x Side panel magnet holder
    • 4 x Roof panel bearer corner piece
    • 4 x Roof panel bearer middle piece
    • 1 x fan protector (for 80mm fan)
    And here some pictures of the whole project....​


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  2. Henry feldman

    Henry feldman Well-Known Member

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    That's great. Thanks for sharing
     
  3. mike01hu

    mike01hu Well-Known Member

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    Beautiful! I'll bookmark this for the future.
     
  4. R Design

    R Design Well-Known Member

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  5. Rob Heinzonly

    Rob Heinzonly Well-Known Member

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    @R Design : The material cost was (Dutch retail prices)...
    • Magnets: € 28,-
    • Aluminum profiles: € 25,-
    • Clear perspex: € 35,- (laser cut)
    • Perspex channel plate: €20,-
    So all in all it was just over a hundred euros. My main goal was to have something that could be stowed away in a small place when not in use (during the summer).
     

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