Hi all, I’ve built A box to cover my printer, the printer is prone to cold drafts, due to me entering and leaving my work shop, so I construction a box to cover the machine, when I open the flap it’s lovely and warm in there, I was wondering is there a potential problem off overheating, do I need some ventilation holes, I’ve only done one three hour print, but soon I’ll be printing for twelve hours plus, do you think I might have a problem, many thanks Andy
I have my old Anet A8 inside a closed cabinet for ABS printing. No vents at all. And no issues.
BUT, I added a fan cover with a air channel over the stepper drivers. Not sure if that prevents something from overheating, it works for nearly 4 years without any problem.
You might also want to keep an eye out for heat creep. That’s where heat from the heater block of the hotend migrates up past the heat break to the cooling block. If the cooling block gets hot enough, filament can begin melting in the cooling block, which can lead to clogging & failed prints. Obviously, the longer a model takes to print, and/or the hotter an enclosure gets, the more likely heat creep is to occur. A lot of this can be avoided by having robust air flow over the cooling block. And, there are hotends specifically designed to handle/avoid heat creep.
Many thanks for the advice, I’ll probably cut some ventilation holes, top and bottom, just try to keep a nice temperature, thank you
But this will causes a chimney effect, which is not what you want. Cold air streaming up inside your box while getting warm.
The only way would be so place the electronics outside the box. If your printer has the electronics below the printer, like most of the modern printers have these day, the build in fan should be enough as the coolest area in the box is below the print bed.
I think it is fine. The hole frame is a giant heat sink anyway.
As said I printed ABS in a box and had some non crucial parts (Raspi Mount, ATX mount, Toolholder) still being PLA and non of it failed over the years unlike parts next to the tool head and bed, which I replaced using ABS parts.
So I guess there is no risk in using the printer like it. If a few hours work fine, then it will stay that way as the temperature won´t raise above some value unless external temperatures as the room temperature are raising, too.
You could just add some an external thermometer like used for barbecue. That way you can see when the temp is stable maxed out and at what level.
Will do thank you