I’m trying to put my enclosure on my a350, but I have to use it on a desk that is restricted in depth, so the ‘back’ position for the filament holder won’t work. I’ve seen some people use a modified holder from thingiverse that puts the holder sitting on top. I think this could work. However, I’m also trying to add a couple of large shelves above the unit, and would love to see if there was a way to put the holder beside to the right (technically behind the printer, as it sits sides sideways in the case)? I’d love to reduce the vertical and depth spacing, but use the width which I have lots of.
I guess I could technically use the ‘on top’ filament holder design, but put it to the right of the enclosure, and add a similar loading hole height to feed it in. hmm…
I built my own enclosure but pretty much the same size as the SM one.
I just lowered the reel holder a few screws and it works great.
I did have to print a filament guide because the filament would occasionally try to wrap around the z pillar, especially when it was going home.
-S
Thanks! I read about that, but without an enclosure the filament fits within the depth (to the right) of the unit. Once you put their enclosure on it then it moves behind the enclosure (increasing the depth) like yours.
Depth is my primary limitation, and height is my second.
I had half your problem (shelf above) and used the exterior filament arm but ‘upside down’ so the spool isn’t quite as high. (A250 in my case.) You can see it in the background of this pic:
I’m not sure you can just use the same hanger as-is on the right side of the machine, given that the door is intended to hinge back. I don’t know if you can essentially totally “invert” all the sides and doors so you have front and left opening not front and right…but if you didn’t have room for the spool on the left you won’t for the panel to accordian-fold out either, will you? Hm.
It looks like to me that a spool would fit INSIDE the enclosure, either mounted with axis parallel to the machine’s “Y” on the back wall, or mounted with axis parallel to the machine’s “Z” suspended from the top. The Z modules don’t move relative to the housing so there’s always the same space back there, aside from room for the heated bed cable to wiggle around during printing.
You’d have to drill holes in the enclosure and rig some sort of hub fitting, similar to how the duct port screws in and swapping filaments might be a bit more cumbersome with the chance of cables being in your way if you were working thru the side door or whatever. But the filament would be inside an (in use) warm closed area and likely a little more protected from humidity in the longer run. (Of course you might not want filament in there while lasering or definitely millling!)
Foreground of the pic above has my secondary filament hubs mounted on the same pipe that supports the shelf above - I’ve got a total of 3 spools mounted these days, one “on” the machine and two adjacent on the pipe, any 3 of which can route thru the grommet.
I think for now I might just look to build one of the spool stands then I can see about putting it beside the unit and just figure out how to allow the filament to move smoothly.
I’m not too worried about enclosure holes, more just usefulness. And, as you mentioned, I’m a little worried of moving the spool up near the door hinges.
I’ve got a filament carrier that will let me put the filament on top of the enclosure and feed it down, directly into the machine. All I need do now is drill a .5"/12.7mm hole directly over the print head.
I’ve been having delamination problems and the pile of powder on top of the feed plate tells me it’s due to friction dragging. Top feed should improve things.
Second one was desigend by me and cnc’ed by the snapmaker, this works with aluminium(5mm step down by 0.2) as well as with some plastics(cnc’ed e.g. wood abs composit, 5mm, step down 1mm).
You can basically do the same thing as the 2nd one with the stock SM bracket just by lowering it a few holes. Still has plenty of clearance from the x-axis.
Hi,
Yes this will work in most cases.
But for bigger print you would need to place it on the outside and this will not work if you try to screw it there. My model is optimized for such cases.
Kinds
Wolf
My A350 sits on a desk, close to the wall with no room for the stock filament arm. I used some rollers that I found on Thingiverse, made a bracket to hold them apart, and fed the filament through the port in the back side of the enclosure. You can also see in the wider picture that I moved my controller and the USB port outside the enclosure, for easier access.
This is exactly what I did with the stock mount (minus your additions). Even with the gantry at its highest point, the top of the spool still sits above the extruder. Printing at the highest height shouldn’t be a problem at all.
Edited to include pictures
I did things a bit different. I cut a hole in the top and fed down from above. The hole is in the middle of the sheet, directly over the printer head path.
But note the red top - that’s what happens when you try to drill a hole into unsupported acrylic and have to get it replaced.
Having the spool holder on the outside of the enclosure on the side wasn’t the best idea. I’d have preferred it be mounted on the back if anything. I just moved mine to mimic your placement. Should work out well. I’ll update later if we run into any issues. I’ve not worked up nerve enough to print a large/tall item yet.
Hello! I’ve been thinking about moving my reel inside of my enclosure. I like how you have yours set up, you posted this in Oct 2020, do you still use this method? Still no issues?
I’ve had mine this way since I got it. Closing in on a year now.
Only thing you need to watch out for is that the filament will try to wrap around the z-tower when you home. Either need to just watch out for it when you start a print, or print a filament guide. There are a bunch of different designs on Thingiverse.
I had skate bearings on mine, took them off as it ran too easily and I ended up with the filament spooling out and catching in things. Shame as I really liked the efficiency of the bearing design
