Fantastic work @Bermudez ! I considered building an enclosure like the one you built and I even created the whole thing in Sketchup. But then I started doing the math on time/materials (specifically, the laser glass was very expensive), and instead chose the Snapmaker enclosure.
However, I did build a custom base:
I really like that spool holder! Canāt use it myself though - the basement is so humid in summer that I keep the filament in an airtight plastic box and run from there through a Torsden inline drier (and on particularly bad days, it still measurably swells inside the print heat if the enclosure isnāt shut with some dessicant inside).
whoa that really is cool, nice work.
@edf have you considered getting a large room/basement dehumidifier? Not necessarily for just printing, but in general. I looked at getting one but I live in a desert so not needed. Are you saying itās so humid it swells inside the print head while doing long prints?
I picked up a printdry system from matterhackers for about 180 bucks. I like it because it dehydrates the spools but also can be used to feed from. Once i finally assemble my enclosure i plan to run some of that tubing between it and the enclosure.
@MooseJuice exactly what I use. Pricy, but worth it. I may be selling it though as my parents had an unopened large professional grade food dehydrator that they gave me because they decided to go with freeze drying, and Iām going to use that instead. Itās massive, bigger than my fridgeā¦ I can fit 50+ spools inside lmao.
oh snap thats cool. i do know a local food processing guy i could probably ask him to do it for me lol
@MooseJuice itās completely modular, everything can be taken out, trays, shelves, everything. And it has rods for dehydrating whatever kind of food is ringed in massive quantities. They arenāt flimsy either, thick aluminum, which they are also heated to decrease dehydration times. May help with ensuring the filament further in the spool are also dried fully.
Sorry I might be getting off topic.
Have a couple, but none in this particular room. Running those things 24/7 is not a solution - even in the metal shop, I have it on a timer that only kicks on for two 2-hour periods of the day.
One of the reasons for building an enclosure was to address this, and it works to an extent. I have reusale dessicant packs in the enclosure and that keeps it to about 50% when the door is open. I picked up a cheap mini-dehumidifier that actually fits into the enclosure and I may use that on particularly bad days.
And yes, I measured the filament at 1.73-1.74mm in the airtight box, going into the Thorsden drier, and going into the print head. Then 1.79 inside the print head, which was sufficient to cause extrusion to fail. Or at least I think it was - I have since had other, less frequent extrusion problems and have been dealing with those as they arise. The humidity might have just compounded an existing extrusion problem.
Picked up a cheap food dehyrdator for $20 and that thing is awesome. Cut the shelves out of all but one level, glued the now-shelfless rings together (and the shelves together, along the wannabe spindle), and can now do one spool plus a bunch of dessicant packs on the remaining shelf. Saw the printdry but figured Iād rather spend the money on an inline drier.
Holy cow thatās huge. Do you live underwater? Iām kidding of course, but yeah, an environment like that a dehumidifier definitely isnāt a proper solution. Do you have standing water in your area by chance? In-line drying is definitely your best bet in this case.
There is a large body of standing water outside the house, yes. And this is a particularly wet year: that room has been at 80-90% humidity for almost two months. Rarely get that for more than a couple days. The only summer I can recall that was more wet than this one was the summer I had to do a lot of roofing work 
From my own experience over the last 10 years with large laser cutters I can say that this is definitely not true. We have a 150W Trotec laser and a 120W china-built laser and have mounted a webcam on the inside of the enclosure for close to 10 years now (different models over the years most recently an Arlo Wifi cam). It has survived literally weeks of laser cutting.
The laser beam coming out just above the material to cut is focused, meaning it is not a straight line like normally, but is focused like light going through a lens. Depending on the lens on the laser cutter there is a certain distance after which the laser does not have enough power to damage skin.
I have watched the laser cutter through a normal acrylic or glass window of laser cutter for literally hours and can report both my eyes are still very much intact. Of course only use materials that are save to use on a laser cutter.
By the way, our Trotec laser (which is in many ways the leader for semi-professional laser cutters) has a fully acrylic enclosure that does not have any of the orange filter material.
Of course be careful what you do and everything you do is at your own risk.
This is a borderline insane statement to make. This is trivial to calculate and the nominal ocular hazard distance for this particular laser given its beam divergence is something like 1600 ft from the last time I did the calculation, If it were to reflect off a mirror.
Like I said, this is from my experience and depends on the kind of lens you use on the laser. But from my experience if the focus of the laser is off by just a few millimeters it will barely scratch the surface of a material like MDF, even when focused correctly will easily cut through a cm of that material.
By the way larger laser cutters donāt even have an enclosure at all and are pretty safe to be around.
Anyways, I think for most people an enclosure is a good idea anyways. I will redact my other post so as to not give people a wrong sense of security.
Outstanding job. It wouldnāt surprise anyone if you told us you did things like this for a living. Very professional. As another suggestion, I printed a gadget featured on Thingyverse that fitted over the CNC module, like a kind of vacuum circle that surrounded the work bit and cleared the swarf as it was created, I found that a washing machine drain hose fitted it perfectly, the other end by shear luck also fitted one of these car vacuum cleaners. This would of course enter through the top of your enclosure. When I take the time I will post what I have thrown together and it will become more than obvious. Good luck!
I am pretty sure those all have a big sticker on them somewhere that you should wear personal protective gear like safety glasses that filter out the relevant wavelength. Do check the manual of your device and I would expect a statement it needs to be placed in a way that noone can just look at it and the operators are required to wear safety glasses.
In general, I would recommend you not to look into the laser with your remaining eyeā¦
Heat-induced damage to the cornea from infrared radiation is cumulative, not acute, and does not always appear immediately. Iād suggest make sure you have early-warning checks for cataracts as part of your personal medical regime. The damage may already be there but not yet be symptomatic.
Also: I recommend buying some safety glasses.
Iām making one out of wood. Itās exterior dimensions are going to be 24x24x30" with two 12x12 laser glass, fumes extraction, dust removal, camera and lights, exterior controls, sound dampening for under $300 using oak 3/4" ply. PLA will be up top (shouldnāt be a problem). I have the rotary module too which Iām spending most of my time with. Using the Snapmaker for 3d printing is cool, but not as cool as itās cnc and laser functions. I will post a pic when Iām done! It looks very similar to this one! Same window locations which just makes sense! Thanks for this!
I wish I could afford one of your sweet aluminum rigs.
Is that for the 250? If youāre building for the 350, Iād recommend taller than 24". I built my custom enclosure to be 24x24x30 internally, and itās a bit cramped, I would make the height at least 40" so you can mount the original spool holder, otherwise you end up having to do some custom solution.
