Saturday, April 07, 2012

Enclosure Dissaster!




The Hains printer in the semi-finished enclosure at the Makers Guild Meeting.

The the enclosure for the Hains /was/ in final stages, needing just windows, front door(s) and lots of work on attaining the piano finish that I want for the case exterior. The rough edges of the particle board, especially around the openings for the windows, is giving me fits. And I am a bit stuck about what to do about the front door. Fourteen inches is too wide for a door, I think, but dividing the door into two seven inch doors means that there will be an obstructed view from the front when the doors are closed. Plus, figuring out how to lock the doors when they close in the middle like that is challenging. I've decided to use t-nuts instead of printed trapped nuts for the screws that hold the case on to the base. T-nuts are awesome, and will give a nicer, cleaner profile on the inside of the case. They will also be less hassle than would be designing then printing up the bits I need for the trapped nuts.

Note: I said /was/ in its final stages.

I was in such a rush to get the enclosure finished before the expo at the KIA that I was slapping layers of paint on it right up until the night before. The paint wasn't completely dry, so the case got stuck to the base. In short, I busted the top of the case hammering on the underside to get it unstuck.




In my rush to repair it I fail to think things through sufficiently and break the case in two more places.







Yeah, so.... I think it's salvageable, but it's going to take some thinking.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

2 comments:

servant74 said...

Case for Mendel doesn't seem to be an easy task. Not many have done it, but I think I will (still building my Mendel).

It would be nice to be convenient to carry the completed structure and supporting electronics as one unit, including a spool or two of filament.

Sorry for your problem, but it can be repaired! ... Is it mainly MDF?

Unknown said...

Yep, all MDF. To fix it, though, I'm going to reinforce it with some whiteboard.