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My first prototype worked pretty well, so I went on to design the final revision:
My first prototype worked pretty well, After measuring the spool and its position on the Ender 3 I came up with an inside inside space of 4.5” x 10.0” x 10.0” I use the Styrofoam because it is a good insulator and it is very light. I use 3 sheets of ½” x 12.0” x 12.0”styrofoam and cut them using the pattern in Figure 1, with a new Exacto blade to make a neat cut . Still, cutting Styrofoam is always a messy proposition which the new blade reduced the mess. Figure 2 show the fine detail for mounting holes on front & back panels.
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Figure 1 .............................. Figure 2

I used sewing needles with glass heads to join the Styrofoam together , I also use those same needles To connect the acrylic sheet to the Styrofoam through pre drilled holes (see figure 3 and 4).
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......Figure 3 ............................ Figure 4

On the Styrofoam sheets I pushed the heads of the pins into the Styrofoam so they would be invisible after the tape is applied. I countersunk the holes in the acrylic front sheet and recessed the pins into this sheet Figure 4.I prepared a heat sink By drilling and tapping for a #6/32 screws by super gluing 2 25 W 12V heaters onto this heat sink will be touching the wood top when everything is together, Figure 7. Since they are in series this creates a 24V 50 W heater on the heat sink. If I were to do this again I would recess this wood on the top of the box and attach it with screws. I show both pieces of wood in the plans on Figure 1.I brought the heater wires out of the off the Box. I then inserted 2 type K thermocouples into the side of the box 2.5” And 4.5” from top of the box.

I then sealed all of these sides and top with white duct tape, this has to be an airtight seal as in a hot air balloon.


........Figure 6..................Figure 7

I bought the cheapest drawer handles I could find and put them on the top and on the side of the box , the top was easy since it is wood just make sure the screws are shorter and shorter than the wood width is. Since I am in a wheelchair and unable to stand I put a handle on the side of the box also printing a piece of plastic to give the screw nuts something to hang on to without punching through the Styrofoam. I also added a ruler to get the wires away from the moving parts of this machine as shown in the main illustration, ugly but functional.

A note about my setup I have a remote access set up to my 3D printer computer enable and I'm able to turn the printer on and off using a smart plugI am then able to monitor the status of my print by accessing the 3D computer on my main computer and watching the video as it progresses I also Used a thermocouple thermometer I made in this project to monitor the temperature before I had that I used my DVM thermocouple function.



The one thing that took me the longest to work out the details on are the box stabilizers on top of the unit the plans of which are shown on figure 8. I tried to make the box stabilizers out of plastic and then aluminum and ran into hassles doing both so I dug up some half inch plywood I had kicking around and cut it up into one inch strips to make the stabilizers. They keep the box both flat and not touching the spool. I made all of the holes slightly oversized (5/32”) except the retainer screw which I used to #6/32 tap size (7/64”) on the retainer screw which I self tapped using a #6/32 x 2” machine screw into the soft wood as shown in Figure 8.You will also need a plastic piece I call a Wrap around spacer I also made a thin template to help drill the holes in the wood.

Click for full size:

.....Figure 8

Overall my top thermocouple measures between 60° C and 75° C.The top of the spool can reach 75° C if I don't use the filament while I have the have the unit on, I used a variable power supply at 24V @ 1.84A which turns on when I power up the printer. So far I have noticed no bad effects from this temperature on the filament. I also made a type K thermocouple meter w/LED readout in the completed projects.

Since implementing this project I have noticed a major improvement in my horizontal adhesion on my prints which used to vex me something fierce.

 

Oh yeah,

Parts List

Styrofoam sheets a substitution I originally bought 12” x 12” x ½” 6 pack, they were also cheaper too.
Heat Sink
Acrylic sheets
Type K thermocouple probes
Thermocouple panel meter
shelf handles

 

Hello,

Is there a temperature regulation used?
If so, are there details how?

Bertus

 

No temperature regulation other than room temperature, KISS rules apply. If I wanted to reduce the heat I would just reduce the voltage of the power supply . Frankly I wanted to see where it would go without a temperature regulator, just a power supply. Normal activity in the room will prevent thermal runaway. I am using thermal inversion to keep the heat in.

 

There are a number of youtube videos showing PLA prints after the filament material has been left submerged in water for 7 days – having no noticeable degradation on print quality, so you may be wasting your time (and electrical energy).

Being relatively new to 3D printing I’ve only used PLA, but having a fully enclosed printer (Creality K1) if I do find that I need to dry filament material, I’ll just place it in the enclosure and manually set the bed temperature to dry it out.

For the results, watch the video from 5 minutes in, TPU seemed to suffer most from being soaked in water, but the other materials tested printed surprisingly well.
(The video is mostly about comparing three different dry boxes performance)

 

There are a number of youtube videos showing PLA prints after the filament material has been left submerged in water for 7 days – having no noticeable degradation on print quality, so you may be wasting your time (and electrical energy).

Being relatively new to 3D printing I’ve only used PLA, but having a fully enclosed printer (Creality K1) if I do find that I need to dry filament material, I’ll just place it in the enclosure and manually set the bed temperature to dry it out.

For the results, watch the video from 5 minutes in, TPU seemed to suffer most from being soaked in water, but the other materials tested printed surprisingly well.
(The video is mostly about comparing three different dry boxes performance)

There is no doubt that drying reduces many print defects. I know this empirically. There is no doubt that some polymers, such as Nylon and TPU are more hydrophilic but I have seen improvements in prints using PLA after drying.

TPU is so hydrophilic that is can actually crackle when printing as the water boils off. For Nylon, stringing and poor layer adhesion is a sign of wet filament.

PLA prints succeed more readily even when filament has maximal moisture absorption but I have noticed that different manufacturer's formulations can be more of less susceptible. I Have used the Bambu Lab PLA that was used in the video. It does seem less affected by poor storage, but some other brands definitely act up when they haven't been properly stored, and not dried.

In the test, he used only one brand, and his choice of a Benchy is a good general test is reasonable, but there are standard printable for testing defects like stringing and layer adhesion and I would have liked to see those, in addition.

As an aside, most hygrometer/thermometer combos like the one he appeared to be using can't go under 10%. I don't know his is different, but as an example. my AMS (Bambu Lab automatic filament dispenser) reports 6% loaded with BL PLA and with 3A molecular sieves as the desiccant.

 

That particular problem went from bad to nonexistent overnight. Now if I could figure out the stringing problem.

 

I printed some wall brackets they looked great they broke with almost nothing loading them up I just open the bag and started printing them the next day PLA was broke coming from spool
I opened second box and printed them over same brand you couldn't break these I changed brands not any problems with it. heater probably a good idea

 

I think my problems with z axis is gone forever. I adjusted my temperature profile in Orca slicer and most of my stringing problems are gone.