Building a Compact Insulated 3D Printer Enclosure for a Garden Shed

How I converted the unused space under a workshop bench into an insulated 3D printer enclosure using leftover materials and parts from a half-finished IKEA Lack enclosure.

3D Printer Under Workbench

My 3D printer had spent the better part of six months sitting unused in a half-finished enclosure after a house move. The new house came with something the old one never had: a shed. The challenge was finding a permanent home for the printer without sacrificing valuable floor space.

The space under an existing workbench looked promising. With a bit of insulation, some leftover materials and a healthy amount of repurposing, it turned into a compact enclosure suitable for printing ABS and other temperature-sensitive materials.

Why Build and Enclosure?

For some time my 3d Printer stood on a table in the dining room. I then started thinking of printing ABS, and wanted to add a HEPA filer and fan, to keep all the nasties out off the air. 

Enter the Lack table enclosure. There are millions of them all over the internet, and I copied one of the enclosures I liked. Never got round to fitting the sides and the doors, as I bought a house and moved.

That was 6 months ago.

Since then the printer has stood forlorn and abandoned in the same half build enclosure in the living room.

The new house is smaller than the old house (but it's mine 😁) and the printer and enclosure just took up too much space. 

Choosing a Location

I do however have a shed now. Something that the old house lacked. In said shed, the previous owner had installed a workbench, and due to my motto of "everything as cheap as possible", I re-used the workbench in situ. Standing in the shed one day and looking at the workbench, I noticed that the space below the bench is quite substantial, and mostly unused. I have plans to add some drawers on the right hand side but on the left, the space called for a 3d printer enclosure.

The size of the available opening below the workbench was:

• Width: 700mm
• Depth: 650mm
• Height: 850mm

Comparing this with the lack table dimensions of 550mm x 550mm x 650mm, I could see how this could work.

Space below Workbench

Insulating the Cabinet

The picture above is of the area on the right hand side, but basically just a mirror image on the left. The shed is much cosier after all the work done on it, but some of the areas are still a little, let us say, coldish. ABS does not like wind or fluctuating temperatures, so I decided to insulate the cabinet, at least from the sides and the top. The additional space available when compared to the Lack table, allowed me to include the insulation without encroaching on the Lack Enclosure dimension benchmark.

Materials Used

• 50 mm insulation board
• Rockwool insulation
• OSB board
• 2x4 timber
• Acrylic panels from previous enclosure
• LED strip lighting
• Multi-socket extension
• 3D printed hinges

Building the Cabinet

I purchased some 50mm insulation panels and had some rockwool laying around from the "Keeping the Atlantic at bay" project. I lined the floor with rockwool and installed a very sturdy OSB base in the area. Then lined the left, top and back with insulation and installed an OSB board on the right hand side. The insulation on the right is actually on the  other side of the board. I left the OSB board exposed on the right hand side to give me something to mount sockets etc against.

All lined out and ready to trim

To mount the door I decided to create a frame around the front with 2x4's that I had laying around. As this is a shed and not a living room, the frame was just but-jointed. No fancies here.

Frame Installed

Repurposing and Reusing Materials

For the hinges, I used some hinges that I 3d printed previously for the lack table enclosure and the door is the plexiglass sided that was never fitted to the Lack Enclosure. Waste not Want Not.

That left me with a little bit of a gap at the top and on the right hand side because this panel is lack table size. A nice piece of laminate trim at the top to pick up the gap and to give me something better to stick an LED strip light to, did the trick. For the gap on the right hand side I cut one of the other pieces of leftover plexiglass and secured it in place.

And, hey presto!!

Cabinet Complete

The height of the cupboard obviously does not allow for the mounting of the top fed spool holder. On the Lack table, the spool stood on top of the table with a grommet through, but this is not an option here with the worktop above. 

In days gone by I had an old Anet A8 printer that came with a floor standing spool holder. Repurpose alert.

Power and Lighting

For power, I fished a multi socket in from the worktop above and mounted it on the OSB board on the right hand side. A length of LED lighting stuck to the white laminate trip and connected to said multiplug rounded off the installation.

Finished Cabinet with Printer Installed

  It's not beautiful, but it works. Benchy printed. Equilibrium restored to to galaxy.

Future Improvements

Some items still needs attention.

The Wi-Fi signal from the house is not reaching the printer in sufficient quantities. I need to install a remote access point in the shed.

The repurposed spool holder is a temporary measure. It needs a permanent solution.

No cooling fans currently installed in cabinet. I will monitor the heat in there, and if required I will install a fan to cool down the internals. It will probably only come in play for long prints. Benchy did not even lift the needle at the bottom of the cabinet.

All in all, I am satisfied with how this turned out. Some tinkering still required, but functional and working at the moment.

Benchy Happening 

Still To Do

Improve Wi-Fi coverage

Design permanent spool holder

Monitor enclosure temperatures

Add cooling if required

Rats!!

I have a rat problem. In fact, I think most of our neighborhood is having that same problem. We are close to the city centre, and there is currently a huge rat infestation there. I assume we are getting some spillover.

Problem is… I have a very inquisitive dog that just absolutely has to taste everything. That includes poisoned rats as well. And then her hair falls out. And it is never nice. And I’m not doing the poisoning thing again.

So, what to do about the rats then?

Enter Google and some time on the interwebs. Found a nice little diy rattrap on YouTube. Have a look at it here.

So today was “build your own rat trap” day, amongst other things.

Baited it with Peanut Butter.

Let’s see.