BLV Enclosure - BETA

BLV Enclosure

For MK3S+ / Prusa Mini  - (Work in progress)

The BLV Enclosure is a universal enclosure designed entirely for 3D printers. Designed to be quick and easy to assemble, practical, modular, customizable, and most importantly affordable!
 
Hi, My name is Ben Levi (BLV) I'm an open-source 3D Printers developer.
The main reason I chose to develop the BLV enclosure project is because of my dear wife. our house is not that big and as the number of printers increased, she thought they were really ugly and not suitable for the house. Therefore, I chose to create an enclosure with a modern design, clean, round lines, and delicate contours that she might like.

NOTE 1: It's an open BETA and the frame kit is available here

NOTE 2: after the beta, it will be probably available for more printers too

Last update: 23/10/21 check the changelog

Small video about the project

Disclaimer

• Before I start telling you more about the project, I need to note that all the work I personally invested in the project and we are talking about over a year of work - is entirely a contribution to the 3D community. I get no profit from it. no seller, manufacturer, or store paid me for it. The only thing I got was the prototype parts I needed to complete the project and the joy I could share with you - the 3D community that I came from. And of course, the fact that my dear wife allowed me to keep my printers as long as they are inside the new BLV enclosure.
   
• Please don't buy the Beta parts, unless you have read everything and understand what you need. For example, this user got the frame but unfortunately didn't bother to read the project and left this feedback. If he had read the project page, he would have understood that the panels are self-sourced and the handle/hinges are 3D printed.

• BETA - it's a beta stage. I chose the Prusa MK3S+ and Prusa Mini to be the first to have the BLV Enclosure. Beta - which means in other words that there is no guarantee to have a perfect enclosure right out of the box. The plans may change, the quality of the parts may change,  you may need to re-print parts, develop parts by yourself and be part of the project yourself. if you have any corrections, comments, fixes, or any other information that may help - I encourage you to share it with me and the community. Please, come and be a part of the project. Feel free to improve and repair, add parts, re-design panels by yourself, offer different sizes for different 3d printers or Prusa setups, and make the project even better. Any improvements you offer are welcome, add remixes as you wish.
   
• Known issues (BETA)
  • 14/8/21 - If the Plexiglas cutting is not done accurately, there will be a problem during assembly. You can manually sand the edges and proceed with the installation
     
  • 17/8/21 - brittle corners parts: The factory decided to produce the first corners batch from a different aluminum type alloy which is lighter but softer than the commonly used type. Therefore the part where the screws are located may break if you apply too much force during assembly. Note that the enclosure parts must fit together without the need to apply any force. If you are required to use force - please stop, you may break the corners by doing so. I attached a photo showing how it looks like when it breaks. in my case, I even tapped it with an M4 instead of an M3, making it even more brittle. I will update you with any change

 
OK, now that you have the background and the known issues here is the project:

The project has 3 parts:

1. Aluminum BLV Enclosure frame.
2. Self-sourced panels (Plexiglass/perspex/composites).
3. 3D printed parts provided for free (STL, CAD/Step files) by me and the Community.

1. The BLV Enclosure frame

As part of the project, I designed from scratch a new aluminum extrusion system. The extrusions can be cut to any length and match a wide range of 3D printers. Throughout the extrusion, there is a channel on which you can mount any custom 3d printed accessories such as door/Panel hinges, camera mounts, cable holders, tools holders using M3x7x2 Square nut or any 1515 T-nut. You can easily mount COB led's strip inside the extrusion panels too. by using the Led's Double side sticker, it help dissipates the heat and extending the leds' life.
I wanted it to be practical - Let's be honest, it is very difficult to maintain your 3d printer through your enclosure doors. The best way would probably be to take the enclosure off and do what you need to do. The frame is 65% lighter than a regular aluminum extrusion frame wight, making it very easy to move and take off.

As you can see in the picture below, these are high-quality production parts, with a semi-matte black finish

In addition to the extrusions, I designed suitable aluminum corner brackets that were manufactured from casted aluminum using molds. The brackets are also equipped with channels for panels. Each BLV corner bracket joins 3 x BLV extrusions together using 6pcs of Hex set screws (provided). it has an auto aligning feature - so that during installation they would align themselves to the other extrusions quickly and easily. each corner assembly takes less than 1 min.
Making the corners took a long time and required several (expensive) attempts until perfect corners were created. The BLV corner brackets are very light, beautiful but can also be a bit delicate. I don't recommend sitting on the frame or applying too much force to the components while installing it.

Dimensions

Since it's a modular design, the extrusions theoretically can be customized and cut to any length we need. The max recommended length would be 1.2m length for a rigid structure.
I asked the manufacturer to consider making for start only with two BLV enclosure sizes: one for the PRUSA MK3S/MK3S+/MK2S and one for the PRUSA MINI and he agreed. I hope if and when the project develops and becomes mature enough, there will be more sizes to choose from and even customized lengths too.

Here are the dimensions for the BLV enclosure:

PRUSA MK3S+ enclosure dimensions:

PRUSA MINI enclosure dimensions:

Frame assembly

Assembling the case is quick very simple, Just slide the corner into the extrusion and lock the provided set screw using the Allen tool. panels assembly is even easier and just needs to be slid into the internal channels. 

I even asked my wife to try and assemble the frame without any previous knowledge or guidelines. instead of 10 minutes assembly, it took her 17 minutes but I was very proud of her since she had done it without any guide or manual.

BTW, next week I will add a complete video guide showing how to assembly the enclosure. I already took the video,  just need time to edit it. 

Here you can see how all the parts join together. Each corner has 6 Tapped Holes and using 6 Setscrews the parts can be easily fixed together.

It has a self-alignment feature, so while screwing the set screws the Corner pushes the extrusions to the right place.

Please notice the channel inside the extrusion using an M3x7x2 Square nut or any 1515 T-nut you can fix any add-on or mount to the frame.

after joining all the parts together it looks pretty decent. modern and clean look, I absolutely love it.

I used COB LEDs inside the extrusions and it fits amazing. in COB Strip the light-emitting diodes are much smaller, which allows a larger amount of light-emitting diodes to be inserted into the strip, creating a uniform light diffusion, and the top silicon layer acts as a diffuser and helps to evenly distribute the light. 

Check this video, at 0:18 you will see have I have connected the BLV extrusions using the BLV Corner bracket - very easy.

BLV Enclosure Frame kit link?

I gave my design for free to a manufacturer and in return, he is committed to giving us - the 3D community very low prices, leaving him a ridiculous small profit margin. I contacted a lot of manufacturers over the last year, told them about the project and one of my terms was a very low-profit margin in addition to quality, I really wanted it to be affordable. The vast majority of them didn't even bother to come back with an answer, while some just laughed at me. But I have done it before with the BLV Cube - Metal kit - (where will you find more than 65pcs of high-quality aluminum CNC machined parts for 117$? not a chance!).
Blurolls manufacturer was found again as the best supplier to give us the lower price without compromising on quality.

UPDATE:  Due to many requests (my private msgs box was flooded with requests 100+ - promise to respond to each one of you) I asked the manufacturer to make it an open BETA program. 

The manufacturer just listed the frame kits on his Aliexpress store: LINK

The shipping method is temporarily not so optimal. The Prusa MK3S+ kit weighs 3KG and the Prusa MINI package weighs 2.5KG (out of Aliexpress standard shipping limit). So I hope he will find an economical solution like a US/ES/EU local warehouse.

The manufacturer updated me the PRUSA mini beta kits are available and the MK3S+ frame will be ready in two weeks.

Each frame kit will include (without panels):

• 12 x BLV Enclosure aluminum extrusions
• 8 x BLV Corner brackets
• 6x neodymium magnets (3x5mm)
• 3 x Rubber grommets
• 4mm Kapton tape
• 50 x M3 flat hex set screws
• Allen tool

BETA testers

If you chose to be a BETA testing program please share with me your feedback using these platforms: BLV Discord channel, BLV Facebook group, or at my website.

Don't forget that it's only one part of the Project, Please continue to the next chapter..

2. Self-sourced panels

The frame supports any panel as long as it is up to 3mm thick. The preferred panels for the BLV Enclosure are obviously Acrylic/Perspex/Plexiglass because it is an accessible, affordable material and can be easily cut using CNC or Laser. All you need is DXF files that I and the community members will provide as part of the project.

I must mention that the original plan was to ask the manufacturer to include the panels too. unfortunately, the Covid-19 made shipping costs expensive even from china. before the Covid-19 the shipping price was estimated as 8$. now it's almost 4 times the original cost. getting it locally would be in most cases cheaper than getting it from china.

Please note that there are 2 types of acrylic panels:

• Casted Acrylic (preferred)- compared to extruded acrylic the casted acrylic panels are more expensive. the casting process yields a sturdier and more homogenous sheet. can be polished, less likely to bend or chip during the milling process. It's also Lightweight and has excellent optical properties which make it more transparent and clear. The downsize other than the cost is that the thickness is less consistent - it may vary between 2.7~2.9 mm thickness. 
   
• Extruded Acrylic - It costs less than casted sheets and is more dimensionally stable - thickness is more consistent 2.9~3mm. but has a high chance of poor optical transparency which is bad for us. it's softer, has a lower melting temperature.
   

Due to these differences, I personally prefer the cast acrylic but others may prefer to use extruded acrylic or cheaper composite panels. It creates another problem - the width of the extrusion's channel must fit all types of panels. a channel that is too wide will cause the panel to be too loose, but a too-narrow channel will be a real pain to assemble.

eventually, I have decided to set the extrusion's channel width to a round number of 3mm. this leads to another problem, what if you want it to be air-tight? So I came with an elegant solution: adding a gasket layer that will make it air-tight and fix the rattle for lower thickness sheets. I tested a 4mm wide high-temperature resistant Polyimide Tape or in sample words: “Kapton tape” that can be found anywhere and cheap enough. I also asked the BLV frame manufacturer to add it to every frame kit. You don't have to use it only if you want to (I got high-quality plexiglass panels so I don't the Kapton tape - they are 2.85mm thickness).

Panels Features

Rubber grommet
I'm sure you all agree with me that the BLV enclosure's panels should include dedicated holes for the PSU cables. Also after using a few cheap filament dryer boxes, I found the new SOVOL double filament dryer which is a fantastic dryer (will post a review on my website) - so I wanted another hole for the Filament, in a way the filament dryer box will be placed on top of the enclosure. for this task, I found a well-sealed rubber grommet that would be an excellent solution. It is basically a rounded sealed rubber cap, that has double edges and can be installed on your panels.

These rubber grommets can be found in many shapes. my grommets caps were purchased here and I chose the 35mm size. I asked the Frame kit supplier to include 3pcs of the 35mm grommet and he agreed. So if you are making a DXF file, make sure to use the right dimensions as stated in the grommet listing's table.

installing the rubber grommet isn't that hard. you do need to squeeze in a bit until it fits inside the hole and release it. Then take a sharp scalpel knife and create a hole for your desired filament or cables. 

Fan holes & Fan covers
I added two optional fans, and by optional, I mean that the fan's holes will be there, but you will have the option to cover it with a dedicated acrylic cover. please note that you can change the DXF files and customize the size and the location by yourself using any CAD software and basic knowledge. 

In the picture, you can see the hive holes with 4 holes for the fan's screws. on top of the holes, i made an acrylic cover that was fixed using 4 small plastic screws. For now, I'm not using any fans but maybe in the future.

This was a test I made without taking the acrylics protective layer. In this early prototype, the Hive hols were just too thin and they broke during shipping. I learned the lesson and increased the thickness of the hive hole's structure, as you can see in the first picture.

Panels - Overview

Just showing you a rendered image of the panels. Please notice that there is no panel underneath the Printer. 

DXF file names for the Panels

the DXF files are needed for the CNC/Laser service provider in order to know how and where to cut each panel. This image will help you find the right DXF file and where it goes to. the image is for the MK3S+ Panel's set:

and This is the image for the PRUSA MINI panels:

Double doors
As you can see I have made double for the BLV enclosure. It's not yet complete and probably next week I will release the DXF files so you could send the files to your local acrylic supplier. 

Please notice that you can customize and design your own doors. if you would like to add more doors on other panels - that's not even a problem. I should probably include a few panels option - also for a side door. please let me know if you like the idea.

I had another idea for the doors: a glowing logo. by using a led strip inside the door extrusions it will light the door and the engraved logo will glow too. cool idea right?

I also added a PDF with all the measurements:

• Panels measurements for the MK3S+ version
  for higher resolution documents, please check the pdf file: MK3S panels Drawing by Ben Levi BLV.pdf this file can be found in the file section below.

• Panels measurements for the Prusa mini version:
  for higher resolution documents, please check the pdf file: Prusa MINI panels Drawing by Ben Levi BLV.pdf this file can be found in the file section below.

Okay, where do you get the panels from?

Acrylics in China is very cheap relative to the rest of the world but at the same time because of the high weight, it is very expensive to ship! How much expensive? I contacted a high-quality acrylic manufacturer from china and sent him the DXF files - these are the files any acrylics manufactured would need to cut the panels for you in the right size and shape. a couple of hours later, I got back a shocking quote: the material was 36$ and due to the panel's weight, shipping was 78$!! . Therefore, I had no choice but to contact few local manufacturers only to be surprised. The local shops sold all the pre-cut panels for 50$ including shipping - awesome!!
I recommend that you download the DXF files (will be available to download next week) and try to get CNC/laser cut acrylic panels locally. It will be cheaper and more accessible.

I'm pretty sure in time acrylics suppliers from the US/EU and other countries will be recommended by community members and I'll add them to the recommended list here.

so the simple answer is: Get the panels from a Local supplier, it will be cheaper.

3. 3D printed parts: Add-ons, Hinges, Mounts, and more...

This is my favorite part and probably everyone's favorite. I had to start with :)
You can mount anything you want to on the frame extrusions using M3 1515 T-nuts are cheap M3 7x2 square nuts. 

I believe that in a while, wonderful ideas will come up by the community members and will be shared as remixes. I will give you starting ideas: Air ventilation adapters, Logitech Camera mounts, RPI camera mount, Fan's active carbon filter adapter cable holders, PSU bracket, Cable holders for Leds, Temperature indicator mount, Tools holders, PTFE tube holders, Raspberry box bracket, Filament guiders and many more…

as part of the project, I will constantly update and add new printed parts. The current STL files will be added probably next week and I promise to share all the CAD source files including STL files.

Door Hinges + Magnet stoppers

A set of two hinges that will be suitable for your enclosure's front and side acrylic panels.

As you can see I have made hinges for the BLV enclosure that supports 2 doors). at first I embedded magnets inside the hinges to auto-lock the door but it was too powerful.
The hinges can be opened up to 115 degrees giving excellent access to your printer. The hinges assembly process is very easy and will take no more than 10 minutes. for your convenience, i have uploaded the STL files + original CAD (step) source file and Gcode file to print the hinges. it is recommended to print it using Petg or ABS with 80% infill and 7 walls, please mind that you do need support for both of the parts.

Hinges installation guide (Click on the image to zoom/download)

Basic Filter Box 80mm

Basic filtration box, very cheap, easy to print and assemble.

This 3D printed upgrade adds an 80mm air filtration box on your Enclosure's panel. Using two layers of cheap activated carbon sponge and 80mm fan. It's very easy to print and assemble. please check the assembly guide below.

For this Upgrade you would need these parts:

• Print the file: Basic Filter Box 80mm.STL (files section).
• 80mm fan 24V and add long cable + crimped wires
• PSU 24V / 5A you can use it also to power the COB LEDs
• 4pcs M3x50mm Hex socket head DIN912
• 4pcs M3 nylock
• 2pcs of activated carbon sponge
• tools

Later this month I plan to add another upgrade for this box that will add an option to connect a 13mm dryer pipe. The pipe will be connected on the other side to this Windows Exhaust kit. This way the air will be filtered and disposed of outside of the working area.

Hope to get more ideas from you :)

Handles

I plan to make 4 types of handles that you can choose from and print. This is only one of them. Next week I will update and upload the files.

Air circulation system / Purifier

Will be updated - CAD files and STL files will be added

walls filament mounts
I plan to add a filament holder that can be installed on the side panels.

Changelog

• 13/08/21 - The project launched.
• 13/08/21 - all Alpha files have been uploaded.
• 14/08/21 - starting a BETA testers program.
• 14/08/21 - added Basic filter box 80mm + assembly guide.
• 14/08/21 - added all DXF files for the MK3S+ enclosure Panels.
• 15/08/21 - added the source CAD (step) files for the MK3S+ enclosure Panels.
• 17/08/21 - uploaded a new version 1.2 of the Hinges (STL+CAD/step+gcode)
• 17/08/21 - added Hinges installations guide
• 17/08/21 - added a link (aliexpress)  for the MK3S+ and Prusa mini frame kits
• 21/08/21 - uploaded the project to the Website
• 31/08/21 - added DXF files for the Prusa MINI enclosure + documentation
• 23/10/21 - added PDF with all MK3S+ panel measurements in addition to the DXF files.
• 23/10/21 - added PDF with all Prusa MINI panel measurements in addition to the DXF files.

To-do List

• add a huge fan duct covering the PSU venting holes, pushing hot air out using a fan.
• upload camera mount (cad/step, STL files)
• upload Cables holders (cad/step, STL files)
• add a shared 3d viewer for the project.
• finish editing the BLV enclosure assembly video guide
• design more handles.
• Search for a manufacturer that can make pre-wired COB Led's 24V
  that can be connected to the Prusa board.
• Search for a manufacturer that can make pre-wired fans with connectors
• upload an updated version of the pipe exhaust
• add self Adhesive Soft Anti Slip Bumpers links
• add assembly written guide
• design printed T-nuts for the channels
• many more upgrades
• add COB led's strip installation guide

final

I sincerely do hope that the project will meet your needs. My wish is that more people will take part in the project and will be involved, sharing their thoughts, creations, add-ons, and fixes to the project. Let's make it even better together as a community.

Contact me

Please feel free to contact me here, on Facebook - BLVproject group, on BLVprojects.com or at BLV Discord channel.

Thanks

• I thank each and every one of you for being part of this amazing 3D community. I came to the 3D hobby with absolutely zero knowledge. Thanks to you - the 3D community, I gained so much knowledge and so many experiences.. all because of you and from you. This 3D printing world soothed the pain and gave me joy every day...
   
• Many thanks to Blurolls the manufacturer for the assistance. thanks for your willingness to settle for little and make this universal enclosure project alive. I really appreciate your efforts. 
   
• To my lovely wife - while I'm sure you'll only read this in a few months, I want to let you know I'm grateful for your patience and support. Thank you for your forgiveness every time I sink for long hours into the Computer chair sketching and designing parts, joying this hobby.
  Thank you for the smile you give me every time I run excitedly explaining to you about mechanisms and parts I create, even if it does not interest you so much…
  Thank you for recharging my soul with happiness every day…