Wire's Prusa XL enclosure

WARNING! Before you order, cut, drill anything READ THE BUILD NOTES!

This project is my take on an enclosure for a Prusa XL printer. Goals were to use materials I had on hand and common hand and portable power tools. Many of the choices were influenced by the materials I had on hand and could easily be swapped out for others with appropriate updates to the prints. 

Features:

• Full length doors and flat top for item storage (I use mine for build plates)
• Easily removable top (slide doors off and remove 4 screws to lift off) 
• Lighting and smoke detector mounts
• Door pockets for print tools 

Known limitations and workarounds:

1. Full size USB sticks block the right door. My workaround is using a stubby USB stick since I never remove it. An Alternative option is to cut out a small notch (not on prints)  in the right door and install the optional print to the side of the LCD cover. Downside is the doors are now unique and additional cover blocks the right door tray. 

For the printed parts ~430g of PETG is required. Build time was about a week or two of nights and weekends. 
 

Tools needed:

• I cut all my panels from surplus used acrylic. If you're getting laser cut panels and precut extrusion with gussets no drilling or cutting should be required. 
  • Circular saw with carbide blade for “thin metals”
  • Straight edge and clamps longer than acrylic sheets
  • Electric drill and drill bits 
  • Step bit (Reduces the chances of cracking the acrylic)
  • Center punch
  • Counter sink
• Solder and soldering iron for LED strips
• Metric allen wrenches and screwdrivers for fasteners
• Optional M3 tap and drill for smoke detector mount (“Chip-Clearing Taps for Through Holes” work best) 
• M4 tap and drill (“Chip-Clearing Taps for Through Holes” work best) 
• M6 tap and drill (“Chip-Clearing Taps for Through Holes” work best) 
• Mill / drill press with vice and 9/16” end mill to create pockets for internal anchors in 2525 extrusion. See build notes for alternative method that do not require these. 
• Vice or block and hammer to install pins and magnets 
• Small pick for sliding T nuts around during assembly 

Build notes:

1. Bill of materials links were picked to minimize the number of stores and use sources that would be around for a while. I did not buy from most of them as I had parts on hand. I would highly recommend looking at surplus, ebay, amazon, ect for better deals. Nothing from these suppliers is unique and are available from many sources. 
2. When cutting the acrylic clamp a straight edge to the acrylic sheet at the shoe offset of your saw. The saw will want to wander cutting the soft plastic. Run saw at a slow even pace along the straight edge for best results. 
3. When drilling the acrylic use a center punch to mark the center of the hole then drill with a small hole with a normal drill bit. Use light pressure especially when getting close to the other side. Once you have a pilot hole switch to a step bit for the larger holes as it is less likely to grab the material and suck in resulting in cracked plastic. (Again use light pressure) 
4. When drilling acrylic the friction will heat up the plastic and at time melt more than drill. Once the hole is done just let the plastic cool and solidify then run the drill back though a second time to clean up all the goobers. 
5. When drilling holes for the hinges, drill and tap one hole first. Then attach the hinge, align it, and use a center punch / marker to mark the center of the other 3 holes before drilling. 
6. I did not have an official model of the XL when I did this. Therefore the spacing between the upper side hinge and the lower 2 may be off!! Recommended process is to attach the upper hinge half and the 3 hinges on the door. Next hang the door on the upper hinge and use a clamp to hold the door close and square to the opening. Once that is done use the hinges to mark the locations of the lower 2 hinges mounting holes. There is enough slop in the hinge design to work without this but there may be gaps / binding without it. 
7. Note 2 holes on the side upper hinges are clearance though the acrylic and longer screws are used to attach them to Tnut in the 2525 frame. All other hinge screws are shorter and thread into tapped holes in the acrylic 
8. Verify door pocket alignment before drilling holes in acrylic sheet. Align pocket to lower edge of sheet and inside cutout for the LCD screen. Transfer hole locations using punch or marker. 
9. If you do not want to tap the acrylic you can drill out the holes larger and use longer screws and nuts (nylock recommended) instead. The only spot with interference will be the outer screw holes on the upper hinge on the door panel side. For these you will need to countersink the inside hole and use a flat head screw and nut on the outside so it does not collide with the outside frame. 
10. I used internal anchors since I had them and the tooling to do it. A easier alternative is to use corner gussets. You can either buy them (https://8020.net/14061.html) or 3D print them (https://www.printables.com/model/272035-bracket-90-degr-25x25-mm). Don’t forget to order the proper hardware (2x Tnut + 2x screws per) to mount them to the frame. If you go this route you will need 16 sets of gussets and hardware total. 
11. If you use internal anchors, note the lower horizontal extrusion needs the anchor pockets on each end on sides 90 deg to each other. (I messed that up and had to redo them on mine) 
12. The lower half of each hinge should be a light press fit to install the pin. I used a vice to press the pins in. The upper half of the hinge should be an easy slip fit on the pin and spin with no issues. If it is tight, drill out the 3D print slightly to clean up any surface defects causing binding. 
13. Magnets should be a light press fit into the 3D prints. I used a vice to press the magnets in. Make sure each pair of magnets are facing the same direction so they attract vs repel when the door is closed. 
14. Again due to the lack of an official model the 4 screw holes in the upper side panels may need to be slots to get exact alignment to the 3030 extrusion on the XL. If drilling by hand would wait till the rest of the top is assembled then fit it on the printer and transfer the location of those 4 holes over to the side plastics. 
15. If you want to use the original spool holders, print out the optional “spool holder adapter”. You will also need to drill out the existing hole in the spool holders you want to mount over the acrylic to accept a 6mm screw. On the rear edge of the lower side panels remove the second and 4th screw up from the bottom (look for the black screw heads in the photos of my enclosure). The adapter will clip over the edge of the acrylic and the 2 tabs on the bottom of the spool holder will slot into the 2 pockets on the adapter. Then secure with the M6 x 22mm bolts. (If going this route you can reduce the M6 x 12mm bolt count by 4). I did not use these as I am planning on printing from dry boxes or using the one remaining spool mounting location on each side of the printer. (see photos) 
16. As built the included prusa USB thumb drive and many others will block the right door. The work around is either use a stubby drive (what I did) or print and install with 2 M4 x 8mm screws the optional part “USB cover” Once installed mark the right door and cut out the inside cavity of the “USB cover” down to the top of the door pocket. This slot in the door clears the included thumb drive and should clear most normal drives. 
     

Project was designed in FreeCAD 0.21.1 all cad files including DFX for laser cut acrylic are included. There are also screen shots of the acrylic panels with dimensions for those cutting and drilling by hand.