Prusa XL draft/dust guard

Since there is no official enclosure I decided to use my rapid prototyping frame to create a cheap and fast draft shield. It should fit any other printer too. Just cut different length tubes. 

After printing, it took me about an hour to assemble (but I use this system more), and 20 euros of materials. Painters sheet (thin transparent plastic sheet) and electrical conduit (16 mm or 5/8 inch PVC tubing)

It is by no means a full enclosure that filters and condition the air around the printer. However it does:

• Reduced the smell in the my attic by a lot. 
• It also traps all the warm air so the bed heater uses less power. It should help with printing ABS, but I mostly use PLA and PETG so I wouldn't know.

Be safe; don't print in occupied rooms with this enclosure.

Update: 

• I made the clips more stiff, since they were too weak. So they look slightly different than in the pictures.
• I did some tests in my 16 C attic, the temperature in the enclosure went up to 26 C with the print bed at 60 C.

Assembly

To assemble the draft guard, you first need to print all the parts. Get some additional materials and then follow the guide below.

If you have a big workplace, it is slightly easier to make a big cube. Print the straight cube corner pieces 8 times and make a big cube, this is slightly less work. But probably slightly less stiff.

Printing:

Print the required parts. If you prefer plain stl files:

• 4 x Knee16p2_90+90deg
• 4 x Knee16p2_90+120deg
• 2 x Knee16p3_2x90+150deg as is
• 2 x Knee16p3_2x90+150deg mirrored
• 34 x Clip

Or print the four 3mf files; Bottom.3mf, Middle.3mf, Top.3mf and Clips.3mf. They have all the parts in the right orientation and number.

This should look like this:

Yes I was very optimistic with the number of clips initially.

Other parts

The non-printed parts are:

• 1 x plastic sheet (I used 6 m2 cheap paint cover sheets, which was way too much)
• 10 meter of 5/8" or 16 mm PVC tube + cutting loss
• Something to cut the sheet
• Something to cut PVC tube
• Optional: PVC glue

Building the frame

If you have a two print head version like me, start at the right side, measure a length of pipe that lets the pipe extend the cables on the back and the display on the front.

If you are smart you immediately cut 6 pieces of the same length. If you are not smart like me, there is a trick later.

Next measure the backside past the filament holders:

If you are smart you immediately again cut 4 pieces of the same length. 

Now you can finish the bottom side:

Now cut a piece of pipe such that the middle parts end up roughly flush with the top of the gantry:

Again cut 4 sections of the same length. And insert all the PVC tubes to finishe the middle section.

If you are dumb like me and forgot to cut the pipes in advance remember that the pipes insert flush with the outside wall. So you can measure where to cut like so:

On to the top layer, cut a piece of tube so that the top pieces stick just above the cables:

Again cut 4 pieces of that length and install the four top connectors, you should also have two more long side tubes left over and finally cut two short sections for the top:

We have built a Prusa house! Now would be a great time for a fit test.

I was happy and secured the tubes with drop of PVC glue in each connector. This dries in 5 minutes or so and bonds the PLA to PVC.

Time to do the walls. Best to start with “roof” and left and right side. Cut a rectangular sheet of the right width, place it over the frame and cut to size.

I just cut it too large at first. Then clip it on with the clips then remove the excess.

Use the clips:

For the back side I used the same technique, cut a too large sheet of material, clip it on, and cut off all the excess.

Looks so cozy now:

Front side I did with two separate strips of material, so that I can easily acces the front. But when you let go it just falls back into place.

And we are done. Just place it on the intended location, put lots of clips on and trim off any pieces of material that are still in the way.

At the side of the filament rolls I did something similar to the front “door”. I first cut a hole through which I can comfortably load/unload filament. Then put two overlapping strips of material back. I would just do this when it is placed on the final location and you know how it is most ergonomical to load filament. Initially I just lifted the entire side up and clipped to the top while loading the filament. This also works, but is a few more actions.

Happy printing.