Ikea Lack Enclosure, Filament Issues
Hello all, I am new to the forum site so forgive me if I am posting this in the wrong place. I have a I3MK3, placed inside an Ikea Lack Enclosure. All prints have been fine until as of a week ago. Before that I was printing for 3 weeks straight no problem. I fall into a couple of problems...
1.TPU, the extruder will do first layers fine, but by around 5th layer the filament begins to bunch up by the bondtech in a big stringy mess. When I catch the issue and pull the filament out. it comes out of the extruder just fine. I know sounds like a filament jam, but if I manually push it through, there is no problem at all.
2. With PLA recently, it will print 1/2-3/4 of my object and then filament will jam. I am at suggested PLA temp settings from Prusa slicer. Filament will jam and then being to get stripped by the bondetch in the housing.
With this all said, on a hot day, I have had the temperature inside the enclosure get somewhere between 90-95 degrees F, inside. Yes! Don't worry the PSU is outside of the enclosure. I was reading that if the enclosure gets too hot it can cause filament jams? I thought a higher temp inside the enclosure helped regulate print from warping and printer having to work as hard? Any help is appreciated, thank you!
Best Answer by Neophyl:
Yikes. Yes a higher temp will tend to stop parts warping but pla especially isn’t prone to that anyway. Enclosures are for filaments like Abs that warp a lot, but they can take a higher temp anyway.
The extruder heatsink is air cooled. The Maximum rated temp is 40 degrees but in my experience it’s often less than that. You really need cool air available to the side fan being blown over the heatsink or you will get heat creep. The more retractions a print has the quicker it happens so some model will get further than others.
The other issue is the extruder motor itself gets pretty hot. This heat is transferred along the feed gears and can soften the filament before it’s fed in. Pla is especially vulnerable to this with its low glass transition temp.
You need the doors open on an enclosure when printing pla. There are also various additions on thingiverse you can print to help. Stuff like the extruder motor cooler with an extra fan, or even just sticking a heatsink to it can help with the motor heat and Ive seen a bracket and duct project that feeds outside air in to the extruder fan. Never needed to go that far myself but there are options.
RE: Ikea Lack Enclosure, Filament Issues
Yikes. Yes a higher temp will tend to stop parts warping but pla especially isn’t prone to that anyway. Enclosures are for filaments like Abs that warp a lot, but they can take a higher temp anyway.
The extruder heatsink is air cooled. The Maximum rated temp is 40 degrees but in my experience it’s often less than that. You really need cool air available to the side fan being blown over the heatsink or you will get heat creep. The more retractions a print has the quicker it happens so some model will get further than others.
The other issue is the extruder motor itself gets pretty hot. This heat is transferred along the feed gears and can soften the filament before it’s fed in. Pla is especially vulnerable to this with its low glass transition temp.
You need the doors open on an enclosure when printing pla. There are also various additions on thingiverse you can print to help. Stuff like the extruder motor cooler with an extra fan, or even just sticking a heatsink to it can help with the motor heat and Ive seen a bracket and duct project that feeds outside air in to the extruder fan. Never needed to go that far myself but there are options.
RE: Ikea Lack Enclosure, Filament Issues
@neophyl
Thanks for the response, this helps a lot. I will be putting a fan for my enclosure. Is it best to set up the fan to suck the hot air out or blow in air from outside? Where is the best position on the enclosure to put the fan?
Thanks!
RE: Ikea Lack Enclosure, Filament Issues
Just opening the doors should work, unless you are in a hot country ? I'm in the UK and thats rarely a problem lol. I did see a version of the lack enclosure that allowed the doors to be slid inside after opening. Wish I'd saved the link now.
Anyway for the E motor heat something like this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2975582
If I was going to fit a fan into the enclosure I would probably expel air. My reasoning is that drafts onto your printing parts are often the cause of curling in the first place so I would be wary of blowing air onto the part. With an extractor you will get airflow into the enclosure from multiple areas unless its sealed (which would stop air exchange anyway). Air coming in to replace that expelled shouldnt be as directional.
I found the project I remembered that brought cool air in directly, have a look at this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3502557 if I really really had issues I might be tempted but the easy option of just opening the doors works for me.