Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
This has taken a while to design/source/build but I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out.
It's a 4040 extrusion frame with Polycarbonate side panels/sliding doors, and some bathroom worktop/counter top.
Dimensions: Frame is 80cm tall, 66cm wide & 60cm deep. Worktop adds another 3cm thickness to the top and 3cm overlap on the front, plus 1cm each side.
There are a total of 36 filament feeder holes to allow fast swapping between colours/materials without having to open the doors. Hopefully I can keep the often over 60% humidity out (I live in the south of the UK).
Just using desiccant for drying and a small very lower power heater fan. There are 3 lines of filament on the bottom and 2 more hanging from the top, giving about 2.5m of rail space for filament reals to rest on. The rails are covered with Teflon tape which seems to provide a good low friction surface for the reals to spin on.
To control the fan heater and lighting, there is a ZigBee dual relay switch and then a Ikea ZigBee two button remote on the top right.
I set up a generic Hygrostat control in Home Assistant that uses the humidity values sent back by the ZigBee sensor & temp display, you can side on the inside left. There is also a backup Bluetooth humidity sensor at the back of the cabinet.
Workbench with built in filament dry box.
All the brackets (PLA for stiffness, everything else is PETG), upper rail hangers, handles, feet, filament feeders are my own design. At some point I'll get around to posting them on Printables.
Feel free to ask questions and give feedback on what I should have done differently 🙂
Antony
3D printed rotating filament feeders.
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Oh, I guess my pictures didn't make it through the 'system'. And the formatting has gone - sigh.
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
your pictures didn't make it, because there was formatting information preceding the image
I Don't know how it got there, but removing it revealed your images
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
Thank you very much for fixing it Joan, much appreciated.
Thanks Antony
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
My Pleasure Anthony.
You mentioned formatting...
Formatting actively blocked your pictures
Did you actually add any formatting details. if so, can you tell me where and how you did it
I have seen a number of instants where formatting has caused an issue like this. but so far, I don't know what causes it. and when I ask my Prusa contacts to look at the issue, I Don't get satisfactory responses.
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
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The original text had paragraphs separating, what is now, a fairly unreadable single block of text. Strangely the text after the first picture seems to have kept the paragraphs correctly.
I suspect the issue arose because I copied out the text into another editor where I fixed a few typos and grammar issues, before pasting it back into the post. I used Gmail to keep the draft in.
I learnt a long time ago to make a backup of any long posts before pressing the submit button 😉
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
in the early days I struggled with posts. wonder if that improved when i became a moderator, or when the forum platform changed...
your pictures show now,
if you have a recurrence of disappearing pictures, you will soon be able to DM me... or report the post and ask the moderators to make the pictures visible.
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
Very nice setup, Antfurn!
What are the colored circles/disks used for in your last picture?
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
Thanks BigToeDaddyO,
They are for feeding the filament out of and up into the side XL filament sensors. There are 18 on each side and have PTFE tube connectors on each one. In the 2nd pic above you can see one on the right hand side with a short length of tube inserted. I made them so that can swivel to help reduce any tight angles on the filament path.
Here are a couple more pics of prototypes I printed:
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
Doh!
I just did not zoom in (thought they were decorative).
Apologies for asking the obvious…
Thanks for answering so completely…
And, as I said before, very nice!
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
Very cool! I’m wondering what the orange parts below each parked nextruder are?
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
Hi, they are these, for collecting the rubbish that the brushes brushes off:
https://www.printables.com/model/644228-debris-bucket-for-prusa-xl-nozzle-brush-auffangbeh
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Update: now with all 36 feeding PTFE tubes fitted and ready to feed the beast.
Also added an overhead shelf for feeding flexi filaments.
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
Feedback incoming. That shelf above the XL... move the printer or that shelf please.
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
I definitely need to lock the overhead drybox to the shelf to stop any chance of this being pulled off by the printer.
I'm not someone that leaves the printer unattended for very long. If only I had the space to lay everything out in a perfect way...
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
I’m pretty sure I get PLA embrittlement when I leave it inside the PTFE tubes.
Maybe it’s the age? All my filament (some over 10yo) live in sealed totes with desiccant always below 10% humidity.
But with some rolls if I leave them in the feeder tubes from my 5x feeder drybox to my MK4 MMU become brittle and snap off in the tubes.
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
Yep, I'm getting that on some (cheep?) reals of PLA, never yet on Prusa PLA or any PETG.
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
Did you relocate the filament sensors for 4/5 to the left side? If so, what wire did you use to get it to reach?
RE: Custom Dry Box / Work Bench
I was planning something like that but then I realised that the side sensors seemed completely pointless for the simple stuff I print. They add too much friction to the filament path and I couldn't come up with a good way to route filament threw them from both sides of the enclosure. So instead I'm just completely bypassing them and have short lengths of filament stuffed in them to keep them happy, this also allows me to trigger a filament change when ever I like by pulling the short section out too.