What parts of the printer should be moved outside an enclosure?
Having just ordered a Mk4 kit, I'm now thinking ahead to how it's going to fit into my current work space. My printer lives in a workshop up in my barn, it's insulated but not heated unless I light the woodburner in there. Last year I found my printer wouldn't start when the temp was below 10C so I bought a cheap, used network cabinet as an enclosure and stuck some celotex sheet around it. a quick blast with a heat gun would get the temperature up so the printer would start and after that it kept itself warm.
Iv'e only printed PLA and TPU so far but with the Prusa I'm planning to explore printing with PETG and ABS etc which will mean higher temperatures in the enclosure so I'm wondering if I should move any parts of the printer out of the enclosure like the PSU and display. If so, are longer cables or extensions available?. When I build the printer up, I might as well make any changes to cables etc while doing so if they're needed, or at the very least plan for them.
My Current printer setup is powered via a smart switch so I can turn it all on remotely and I'll probably add a small tube heater into the cabinet to warm it in colder weather and to raise the temp if needed for materials that need to be printed hotter. The printer is controlled by Octoprint on a RPi so that I can send files from my computer in the house and get things started and Octoprint runs a camera too so I can keep an eye on it. I'm planning to do the same with the Prusa.
I have the parts to make a smoke detector shut off power to the printer but I still need to connect it all up. I also have a vent fan and some duct to be able to vent the cabinet out of the building for when I get to printing ABS.
Photo of the setup attached.
RE: What parts of the printer should be moved outside an enclosure?
I was lucky enough to be able to afford the printer and enclosure bundle when I bought my Mk4, finished assembly last Sunday and the PSU and Display fit outside the enclosure - the cables are not long - have a look at the build instructions for the enclosure and you will actually get a bit of an idea of how much room there is for slack.
your old rack mount idea is rather clever! My printer lives in my garage and my old Elegoo Neptune 3 (now sold) would not print in the colder weather here in the UK, I’m hoping my enclosure helps with heat as well as dust etc
RE: What parts of the printer should be moved outside an enclosure?
Thanks very much for the info, I'll look at the build manual and see what the connectors are like, if I don't have room to extend them for now I'm sure it'll be fine all in there but longer term I think it would definitely benefit from having the PSU and display outside then if that's how the official one is setup.
RE: What parts of the printer should be moved outside an enclosure?
PSU, outside. It doesn't like much heat at all according to Prusa.
If your printer Y travel is to the door of the enclosure, there is just enough cable to mount the screen to the front of the enclosure. With a custom enclosure, where you put the screen and hole for the cable is up to you. If you offset the screen to the left, there is more usable cable length. I moved my printer to the far right in the enclosure to get a few more cm of cable for the display that is center mounted.
RE: What parts of the printer should be moved outside an enclosure?
Thanks very much for that, I'm hoping to get a couple of spare days next week to finally put it together
RE:
Official enclosure moves the PSU and display outside; in our office printer I didn't bother moving the display and the cables are probably awkwardly short for that anyway.
On the Mk4 the PSU is structural - the enclosure comes with a right angle triangular bracket (of bent aluminium sheet) to keep the frame rigid when the PSU is removed. Probably worth looking at the enclosure manual to replicate that.
We've only ever done small prints (in hotter filaments like ABS) and the enclosure barely heats up. In our case at least, moving the PSU outside is probably paranoia...
RE: What parts of the printer should be moved outside an enclosure?
Thanks very much indeed for that, that's really helpful. I think I'm going to build it as standard for now and monitor the temps in there. To start with I'll be just using PLA+, PETG and TPU which shouldn't need temps high enough to be an issue but I'll keep an eye on things when I try things like ABS.
RE: What parts of the printer should be moved outside an enclosure?
Just be careful of it getting too warm in your enclosure, you don’t want to soften or warp your Petg printer components