TLDR: Enclosure does its job, but components do get rather worryingly warm… should I be worried?
I have the A350 and the enclosure for it, but currently I’m waiting on a replacement converter (mine seems to be DOA so no lights/fan/door sensor). Support is already helping me out with that so that’s not the problem. So I’m in Australia, where Summer comes in two flavours of “oh it’s hot” to “oh it’s hot and humid”, and then variations thereof year round… I had a print run for about 12 hours, which left the inside of the enclosure rather toasty, including the rails which were very warm to the touch. Should I be concerned about this? I’ve seen a few threads already about heat issues with the rails (or at least, poor cooling due to a thermal pad coming off etc), and I’m wondering if prolonged prints like this with the enclosure will result in similar issues. I can always leave one of the doors open, or run the extractor fan when I get my replacement bits, but the Garage it’s in is a bit toasty during Summer too.
Anyone have similar experience (or can at least, put my fears to rest)?
Well, i cant really speak to the normality of it as i dont use my enclosure yet.
I can say that it is surely not uncommon, and actually as far as a print goes, beneficial. stable temperatures will help keep warping down and provide success in materials like ABS which are very sensitive to cooling.
I guess the definition of how hot it is matters but i dont think its a surprise that it will get hotter inside with the enclosure on it so unless you feel something is malfunctioning i cant imagine they didnt consider this when they designed the enclsoure.
the linear module with silicone pads, i think that is a valid thing to be concerned with, but unless your unit is older i would not think this would be applicable to you, and if it were - i believe you would start having symptoms such as skipped steps in the motor(s) before anything terribly catastrophic would occur.
Before I think about using my enclosure I’m going to modify and make an air intake with a 120mm adjustable fan on one side make a panel for a window so I don’t lose any HVAC out of my house. Do the same for other side only it’ll be exhaust. I’ll set up little electric motorized baffles so I can set temps off when it will trigger them to open. It’s simpler than it sounds honestly
You are better off letting it get hot inside when it comes to 3d printing, especially as you get into different types of filaments. airflow = cooling = warping.
I guess my other concern is… the controller is in the enclosure too… If I had longer cables I’d probably find a way to mount it externally. Still, it seems to be happily printing so far, and propping open one of the doors seems to have helped. Something for me to keep an eye on for now, thanks for the feedback though!
I did see that one, but that’s for the touchscreen rather than the rectangular control unit (the box all the cables plug into… I think that’s the controller?). Having a look through I can see a few good mods I’m tempted to try out though.