3d printing enclosure which material

Hi which material did you used to print your enclosure?

I thought about pla, petg or nylon but nylon is a bit overkill. I don’t like abs for some reasons.

Thanks

PETG is the most common

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I did it in petg. Tried in ABS but the long sides are really a problem even with enclosure.

If ABS is warping… go with lager brim and even tape the brim down to heat bed and rock and roll.

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I do print with ABS but the enclosure has to be printed vertical to increase the strength. The problem is not first layers or the brim. But the 3mm wall that after a while starts warping and it ended up with the nozzle touching it… This the result in the morning

PETG much easier for longer prints.

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You sure that printing it vertically will increase strength? I would have guessed the other if you see the layers as the weakest parts (which is surely is) :thinking:

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True, but judging the # of z layers in that preticular pic, it didn’t get very far before it failed.

I hate when you return to your printer only to see a plastic hair ball.

Indeed that was the worst case. In that case the problem that ABS doesn’t like the raft. So the print didn’t fused well with them. Later on I tried again with just brim and it went further but aroubd 5 cm it failed again. I do print ABS stuff, but when I know that I can decrease the pulling force on the surface due to holes in the STL file. Like this raiser

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To print abs, mix some abs with acetone, smear the bed with it. It looks a mess, but it will never detach from the bed due to warping again. I fill an old glass coffee pot up with acetone and chuck scrap bits of abs into. Its also great for glued bits together. Also for thin walls, use minimal shells and 100 % infill, its much much stronger than multiple shells with filament all orientated in a single direction. Getting of the bed can be fun, nice sharp scraper and brute force.

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ABS slurry, nice.

Acetone vapours in an enclosed space is alse good for finishing ABS parts,preferably on a rotating bed

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you leave your clamp handles on? How do you stand the rattle noises all 4 make :laughing:

I tried ABS and my enclosure snap in half (70% infill). I print again with PETG and 100% infill

Here is my final result

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This is also a good way for an explosion to happen, so beware

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Main reason i love abs is because of acetone. If i redesign something i only need to reprint a specific section, cut the bit out and glue the redesigned bit back with acetone. Its as strong as the rest of the part. Oh and acetone something of course. Its so versatile.

Did my first enclosure out of abs your right about using acetone mixed with some abs as paste but it eventually gets gross. Right now using a pla one, I had planned to make a mold but after some practice with that I realized the walls I modelled are too thin and won’t work well in a silicone mold so I just glued the pla parts together and sprayed the whole thing with some filler spray and sanded it down then covered with regular paint so far has held up better than the abs one. I tried nylon like 8 times but always failed like half way through the print, it’d be ideal if warping and slipping in the extruder wasn’t an issue.

I also use ABS juice to stick ABS, PETG on the glass. If you do not use the clamp how do you keep the glass on the heated bed? or do you print directly on aluminium? Now I got some PEI sheet and I will try to use those without anything else.

PLA is a lot my abrasion resistant, but i sometimes leave my board in the car, and on a hot day it will warp :frowning: plus ive tried every glue imaginable sticking pla to pla. It always fails. I need to try petg soon. Fibreglassing a 3d printed enclosure is best idea, which ill do once ive settled on my final design.

The chrome metal handles on your clamps are removable. Everyone leaves them on not realising the noise they make :laughing: I used to take them on and off they got fed up and bought these.

Yeah true on the warping luckily mine is typically just outside or hanging on the wall so hasn’t really had any issue with that. For gluing them I just used some gel super glue I’m pretty sure… that did an okay job and I designed my enclosure with a split where a screw can hold both sides together so it’s supported by that screw (also think the filler and paint is helping quite a bit just to keep it all together). Think PETG does sound like an ideal compromise and possibly lining with fiberglass, my original one I just lined with gorilla/duck-tape which by itself helped quite a bit.

Regarding the clips they do make quite a bit of noise, but personally built an enclosure around my printer so don’t hear that so much but can also flip them up onto the glass if you aren’t using the whole print area and they stop rattling around.

Never noticed it, I will pay attention to it next time. Thx