Ender 3 Case

thingiverse

This project was created as part of a comprehensive "silent" upgrade to an Ender 3. As part of the upgrade, the MKS Gen L and Trinamic TMC2130 stepper drivers were installed, which I won't cover here. A lot of upgrades were done, and it clearly needed a new case to house all the components neatly, so I took an already good case, remixed it, and added quite a bit. One of the images should be numbered with each number corresponding to one or more STL files to make putting this together easier. This upgrade has now allowed me to slide out the case with electronics if I ever need to access them, separates the motor/hot end/bed/etc. wires from the mainboard, changes out the power supply for a smaller and fanless one, moves the location of the power supply to allow for a second Z lead screw, and changes out the other noisy fans for less noisy Noctua fans. General things you will need (and probably want to have around anyway) include wire cutters/strippers, wire crimpers, JST XH connectors, XT60 connectors, wire (18-22 AWG), wire shrink wrap, a heat gun, cable wrap/organizer sleeve, and a soldering iron. Specific things needed are Noctua 5v fans (3x), Mean Well LRS-200-24 power supply, and feet to raise the printer up about 10mm (I like these ones: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3020865). Refer to TeachingTech's videos on wiring up the case this was remixed from for the board diagrams as they'll be needed. Most of this was printed in PETG while the faceplates were printed in TPU. After printing all the parts, you will need 400-500mm of your wires to go from the mainboard to the back of the printer. I like to color code mine so I have different colors for hot end heater, hot end thermister, fans, etc. Crimp all the wires with connectors. I use the XT60 connectors with the heaviest wire I have for the hot end and bed heaters and JST connectors for everything else with smaller wire. Then bundle each part's wires together with heat shrink to keep it all from tangling. Snake the wire bundles through the cable channels out the back and top left sides through the faceplates. Connect up the power supply wires before sliding it into place and bolting it down as there is not a lot of room to maneuver around that area. Once all of the wires are in the general right area, you can snap and slide all the pieces of the case in together. It's a lot easier to do this after putting the wires through and hopefully once these wires are in you'll never have to touch them again, even if you change every other component they connect to. Sometimes the wires don't like to stay in the faceplates when pushing with force to connect them so you may want to use some hot glue. Connect up the Noctua fans last before closing the electronics case. Plug all your hot end, bed, motors, end stops, z probe, lights, etc into their respective plugs in the faceplates. I'm sure this guide leaves a lot to be desired but I don't think I can explain how to crimp and solder very well in text. YouTube is a great resource for that.