Expert Model Case & Door (Page 1 of 2)

I have my cover, but I have yet to run a print with it on.

I think I'm going to make my own sides for the purpose of holding heat in, but I'm going to do it with clear acrylic like the front door, and either magnets to hold the panels in place, or hinges like the front.

I found that I like to reach in from the top and sides when unsticking parts, or grabbing some of the oozing abs from the nozzle with tweezers just before a print that would be too hard to do with the cover on.

While I'm not mad that I bought the cover, I really think I'd prefer a different solution.

I hadn't thought of the raised top cover.  I like that idea a lot, I'm pretty sure I'm going to go that route now.

I need to find someone in the mid Michigan area that'll let me use their laser cutter for this project.

I found there might be a little more to the metal case than I thought.

I made clear plastic sides and a top today that stick on with magnets.

The metal of the printer gets very hot during a print.  I like that it keeps the temp regulated inside, but I'm afraid there might be a heat syncing benefit to using the metal case vs what I was trying today.

My sides don't seal as well as the metal case, allowing some air to get out.  I can only imagine how hot it would get if I captured all the internal air.

I haven't run my machine with the metal top on it yet to find out how warm it gets, but I suspect it dissipates the heat better this way.

I can report that the case and outside of the case gets to about 35 degrees C when on and printing. The x motor gets to 45, the y to 40 and the z to 35.

Clearly the air temperature inside would be hotter than this, but not by much.

Pointing the laser thermometer at the acrylic extruder yields ~90 degrees C, but its hard to know how accurate this is with the acrylic being clear.

All of these measurements were made in the last layers of an hour long print.

using http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/linea … _1379.html

a rise in temperature from 20 tp 40C will expand a 30cm piece of steel by 0.1mm
that shoukd not be a problem. there would be little stress since pretty much the whole box will rise in temperature.

Will the cover (of the expert model) affect the printing?  In all Solidoodle videos, the plastic filament is fed into the extruder from the top to minimize the bending. With the cover on, the filament needs to be fed from behind, causing a lot of bending.

Shouldn't the cover be taller to minimize the bending?

Thank you.

My case stays permanently on. The filament does rub on the top inside of the case but this just adds to the noise. I've even mastered filament changes without taking the case off. I also use Zimmer62's bushing design, which I highly recommend.

The case should stabilise temperatures and prevent uneven shrinkage and corners lifting.

I am still waiting for my case and door as well.

Yes, we have raised the prices. Fortunately the base model is still the same price. This was due to operating costs steeply raising. The good news: Orders will be coming much faster.

Brad, we will make sure to get you that case straight away.

I have the case version. I am glad i got it becasue i wanted to keep dust and what not off of everthing when its not in use.
and case makes the light in it alot brighter

But i do think that there are alot of design flaws in it.

1. Like other users have mentioned the filament does rub on the top of the case and makes it significantly louder. I only printed once with it on and it was enough to annoy me. I have thought about printing some blocks to raise the case up the height of bottom frame so that the case still covers completely to see if that would solve that issue. 

2. not a big deal with the front door is. the magnet that keeps it close is just a simple 1¢ piece of sticky roll magnet. and it doesnt even stick anymore. im going to look at other solutions for that.
i would have liked to see those issues worked out for the extra 100 i payed, and you guys that are paying the 699 i would really want those issues worked out

3. this is only a personal thing, But i do wish it was black so it didnt look like a pc from the 90's,

this is jsut a side note for those interested but ive seen on thingiverse a knob that snaps into the hole, thing:30335
im gonna print that out tonight

I've superglued one to my door.

It's also how I hold the plexy sides and top on.

The case comes powder coated in grey. We have seen great results with users powder coating a bare case in green, or spray painting a case. Not sure about doing a second powder coat with the first already applied.