Active temperature chamber control (cooling, really)

[Maurici]

So... I've not been printing for a while, a bunch of shit life situations and the racecar kept me away from customer projects.

However I've taken a comission and i have my printers back to full capacity doing 5/6 hours long prints... And this made me remember that the zero and the micron are getting TOO HOT inside.

Zero is stabilises at about  55 degrees...

Micron at 65.

At those chamber temperatures, x/y motors become a consumable (they are cheap, but a faff to swap). And the overall wear a tear of the ABS bits inside (aka the whole friking printer) its greatly increased.

 

I would like to settle at 40 for ABS... and only go hotter when printing PC or PA... 

Do any of you have any extraction system to actively cool down the printer?

The actual cooling down i know will be detrimental to the bed and layer adhesion so should be a very subtle way to avoid temperature peaks...

Any ideas?

Im overthinking this and i should let it be?

The switchwire prints at 75 degrees for PC but is for extremely shorts periods of time... And is kind of over dimensioned for this... And honestly i dont care if she blows up. But the micron and the Zero would be a real bugger...

[netzwerg]

This works to control the chamber temperature using the exhaust fan: Chamber Temperature & Exhaust Fan | Voron Documentation (vorondesign.com)

Edited February 1 by netzwerg

[jmc5113]

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought most people's target chamber temp for printing warp free ABS was 55-60C?

[Simon2.4]

If I may add a detail to this discussion: chinesium grade magnets, like the ones used for the hall effect limit switches, loose their magnetism at just about 60c. I learned that the hard way. If you intend to heat your chamber, use limit switches.

[Maurici]

On 2/1/2024 at 2:46 PM, netzwerg said:

This works to control the chamber temperature using the exhaust fan: Chamber Temperature & Exhaust Fan | Voron Documentation (vorondesign.com)

Completely forgot i did open this tread. Ill investigate. In the micron i dont have exhaust... Nor space to realistically make one. We'll see how i deal with it.

9 hours ago, jmc5113 said:

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought most people's target chamber temp for printing warp free ABS was 55-60C?

Depends on the volume... And where the sensor is located i guess...

In my experience both V0 and micron dont need to go that high. Abs prints just fine at stables 40-45... Parts are not that big. If i need extra layer adhesion i rather tame the cooling down a bit that cook a printer made with plastic, with the steppers inside the chamber.

 

7 hours ago, Simon2.4 said:

If I may add a detail to this discussion: chinesium grade magnets, like the ones used for the hall effect limit switches, loose their magnetism at just about 60c. I learned that the hard way. If you intend to heat your chamber, use limit switches.

Mini rant.

Things have gone completely out of mind lately with printers.

Hall effect? Switchless endstops...

In something with this massive thermal variability like an enclosed printer, and where clashes are catastrophic... Why would you rely on something overly complicated? There is literally nothing better than a limit switch unless it gets destroyed, will rerely fail... And when they do they thend to double click or need more force rather than stop all together...

Same for sensorless endstops. For the sake of 2 cables per axis, you leave yourself exposed to mayhem if a software glitch happens... Let alone the variability with belts tension and motors temperature...

There is a point that we seem to build them to make them as cool as possible rather than functional. 

The only non mechanical sensor i currently have is an omron probe in the switchwire, and hones, is by far the worst. Has an incredible resolution and is stable along the whole bed providing the bed is at uniform temperatures, but i really struggle to trust her enough to send a print without manually checking and correcting the z offset.

Rant over.

[Champ1800]

A good while ago I did see where someone had made a simple fan to cool a DIY printer enclosure. If I remember correctly it was just something simple like a thermostat controller connected to a fan. Having a simple flap on one side of the fan will keep it a bit more sealed when the fan is off.

I think this controller has heating & cooling mode https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003256576173.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.310f1802896ogx

[Maurici]

2 hours ago, Champ1800 said:

A good while ago I did see where someone had made a simple fan to cool a DIY printer enclosure. If I remember correctly it was just something simple like a thermostat controller connected to a fan. Having a simple flap on one side of the fan will keep it a bit more sealed when the fan is off.

I think this controller has heating & cooling mode https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003256576173.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.310f1802896ogx

wow. I didn't think about that. I have like 6 or 7 like this in my  drawers... I use them to automate and test thermal driven events into cars before having them integrated in control units...

Sometimes the easier answer...

I still don't know how I'm going to fit a fan in there... but we shall see.

Thanks for the idea.

[claudermilk]

I allow the printer to start at 30C and see it get up to 45 after a while. In general that's good enough. I'll occasionally see warping--so I clean the bed.

@Maurici I agree. For the Trident I am happy to leave it using microswitches for X & Y. Tap is nearly as good since it's using a physical obstruction in a light sensor rather than an inductive signal. The V0 uses stepper stall for X & Y and it took me a little while to get it tuned, but it made me see how easily that can get messed up.

[Simon2.4]

On 2/18/2024 at 8:37 PM, Maurici said:

rely on something overly complicated?

I agree; that's what came with my Formbot kit and I didn't question it at he time. Had I known I would have avoided these.