Topic: Case Heater
Found this candle/Mug heater in a box in the garage. Figured I'd try it as a case heater. Threw some foil on as a heat sink. Seems to bump up the heat about 10 degrees from where it was.
- jawhn
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Re: Case Heater
That's a cool idea.
I ended up just throwing a 60W light bulb into the bottom of mine. Made it a pseudo "Easy Bake Oven" if you will. 
Gets hot real quick, on the cheap.
Two SD3s - One with Sang, One with Printrboard, Fans on control boards!!! Do this!!!, Dual Glass Beds, Blacklight "EZ Bake Oven" - Improves Ambient Temp, Sketchup, Repetier, Slic3r. Graphic Designer & Makeshift Engineer. Drinks Lots and Lots and Lots of Rum.
3 2013-12-19 03:18:13 (edited by curlrup 2013-12-19 03:24:52)
Re: Case Heater
I have a 12v dash mount car heater that would fit in my sd2. It has fan in it so it wouldn't be a passive element. The trick would be finding a 12v power supply that can handle that wattage.
Re: Case Heater
Are you trying to prevent print warping or layer delamination with the heated case? I'm struggling to prevent delamination of an unusually shaped print and would be inclined to throw a safe heater into the case if I thought it would help (approaching desperation).
Re: Case Heater
keeping a suitably heated environment - free from draughts - will help primarily with adhesion and also help prevent warping.
Re: Case Heater
Hey
I added a heater
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058V … &psc=1
and a temperature controller
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00862 … &psc=1
to my enclosure to help reduce the temperature delta between the air and the bed. I have bad warping issues with my glass bed. Anyway with the temp controller I set the case temp to be about 55C I think. If you get it too hot the the filament will soften in the extruder and it will strip it and not feed :-(
Anyway I can get the bed to 110C which helps but there is still warping. If I stop printing once the first layer is done and then pour acetone on the layer especially the corners it will stick well but other than that larger prints will curl.
I taped the heat sensor onto the extruder hanging over the front so it will measure the temperature there. Both the heater and the heated bed turn on and off so they are hitting their temperature goals but like I said it does not solve my sticking problem totally.
Re: Case Heater
What do you guys feel is optimum case temp for ABS and SD3?
I put a 60w lightbulb in the bottom of my SD3 (radiant heat - no drafts, and fairly small so doesn't hurt the Z-height print area too much) and it does help raise the case temp from what I was getting about 35c case temp before I added the light bulb as a heater, but with the heater it will now go up to about 40-42c during printing. I'm still getting delamination issues occasionally though and still warping on larger objects though not quite as bad.
I may swap out the 60w lightbulb for a "heat lamp" type screw in light bulb (red in color) that may heat the case up more, but I don't want to heat it up too much!
My SD3: Clear plexiglass case, case heater, X axis stabilizer, Z axis stabilizer, thumb screws, filament guide, heatsinks on all motors, extruder fan, controller fan, heatsinks on motherboard, Y rod pillow block, USB and Power on/off switch, fully calibrated including trimpot tuning. Am I missing anything?
Re: Case Heater
Our cased SD3 gets to 43°C when printing ABS at 202°C on a 95°C bed (office temp is ~72°F). I have been reluctant to add a case heater because many of the structural components in the case are ABS and under both constant and impulse stress.
I have recently printed 8" objects for a large assembly (see pic). I use generally 2.5mm walls and 40% infill for large components that have to do real work. In my experience, these parts will warp if you just hit "run" and walk away for 4 hrs. Here is what I do to mitigate it:
1. Glue down the ends, as mentioned by pmerana. My secret sauce of choice is ABS pipe cement SOLVENT you can get at the big box stores. Our glass bed has a build up of ABS so the solvent welds the building part down quite well. I apply the solvent around the edges of the long ends of the part after a few layers are printed and it wicks under nicely.
2. Print slowly. I find that everything is better at 33mm/sec. Warping is all about temperature gradients in the part as it is building. I believe printing slowly allows the part to better equalize between layers, which reduces the gradient. Tedious. But I get called tedious often for many reasons, so that is not much of a bother. To solve that problem, we are getting a second machine.
Re: Case Heater
What is that thing? Nutcracker? Sheepshearer?
j/k
It looks like a quality print job!
Re: Case Heater
knowack wrote:
What is that thing? Nutcracker? Sheepshearer?
I develop medical devices. It is a prototype for icky stuff (don't worry, you won't feel a thing).
knowack wrote:
It looks like a quality print job!
Thanks. The the SD3 is really getting there. Get it aligned and lubed and don't print too fast and it works pretty well. I also spend time finishing parts. The better the part the easier it is to sand (scraping with a straight edged razor blade is amazingly helpful). All these parts were printed at 0.2mm. The parts are brushed with the ABS solvent after some sanding. It seals the surface so the thing is easier to keep clean.
The machine mods we have done are:
- A case.
- Glass plate.
- A spool hanger that is not just plain stupid.
- A front bed brace to prevent the bed from shaking laterally.
- An M3 lead screw (fine pitch and, more importantly, flexible).
- Updated extruder driver. Detuned for smoothness.
- Smitty505000's front bearing blocks and rear pillow block.