New enclosure the culprit?

SJ_Zero, 11 months ago

I recall a video from one of the 3d printing youtubers that showed that an enclosure could allow plastic printer parts to warp, causing prints to fail. It was really a surprising result to me, since I was considering buying an enclosure for my tevo tornado (which is mostly metal, but not entirely especially after some printer upgrades I printed)

hawkwind, 11 months ago

A handy chart: i.pinimg.com/…/18a42ffa5c733c7c6bb86b547fb0647f.p…

It’s a cruel irony that we use an enclosure to help print materials with a higher Tg but the printer itself is printed of materials with the same or lower Tg. It makes perfect sense that your ABS parts are going to get mushy when you crank your heated bed to 100 and put the whole thing in a box. :)

NaibofTabr, 11 months ago

The enclosure by itself isn’t really a complete solution, especially if it’s a retrofit and not original to the printer. Temperature monitoring and control is necessary.

But you can also take the very simple step of leaving the enclosure slightly open (if it has a door, prop it partially, or if it’s one of the growbox style zipper enclosures with mylar on the inside just leave the zipper partway open near the top). You’ll still get most of the draft protection benefit and some of the temperature stability inside the enclosure, but it won’t overheat.

akoenig, 11 months ago

Wow, that sounds alarming. I mean, one usually has good intentions when trying to protect the printer from dust and kids, but now I’m learning that it could potentially be more harmful than beneficial. Do you have the link to the YouTube video you mentioned?

SJ_Zero, 11 months ago

youtu.be/2D-WRCGcJbs

This video does a good job of showing and talking about some potential issues with using an enclosure.

fhein, 11 months ago

Sounds like a good guess. In general, PLA wants as much cooling as possible, so enclosing the printer can have an adverse effect. If you need the enclosure to keep pets etc. away from the printer, perhaps you can try adding some PC fans to get more cooling.

EnglishMobster, 11 months ago

This is what I did - I put a clip-on desk fan on the table in front of the enclosure doors.

When I print something that needs more cooling (PLA), I print with the doors open and the fan on. Haven't had an issue since.

NaibofTabr, 11 months ago

The enclosure will definitely retain heat from the bed. Is the filament spool also inside the enclosure with the printer? If so it’s probably getting pre-warmed, making it softer.

This isn’t a bad thing, but you should probably re-do your temperature calibration tests for your filament inside the enclosure.

SJ_Zero, 11 months ago

That’s a really good point – you can model a process as an RC where there’s a resistance and a capacitance. A major change to a process such as adding an enclosure that retains heat and reduces draft would change the process RC, so your PID settings would need to be different for optimal control.

NaibofTabr, 11 months ago

Yes, if you change the conditions under which a calibration was performed, the calibration is no longer valid and needs to be repeated for the new conditions.

TwanHE, 11 months ago

Hotend and and fan pid shouldn’t be too out of whack . But needed fanspeeds and bridging would change depending on ambient temps.

Daqu, 11 months ago

While cooling might be an issue, the bridges seem fine on the side. But you lack adhesion/overlap on the straight perimeters. Did you change the filament path with the enclosure? This might be related to a bit of under extrusion. Check your extrusion, if it is ok check the overlap in your slicer.

akoenig, 11 months ago

Awesome tip, thanks a lot!

akoenig, 11 months ago

Edit: Nozzle temperature was 215°C

CmdrShepard, 11 months ago

That seems really high in my experience. I print PLA at 195°C. Try doing one of those “all in one” calibration prints to see what your retractions and bridging are doing at this temp.