Parts I used to build my Tronxy X5sa enclosure

thingiverse

I built an enclosure out of 8mm 'twinwall' polycarbonate - basically a hard coreflute material. The top is hinged, but also part of the front is hinged as well. Therefore you can reach in under the bed to turn the original power switch on, or insert the SD card. I had seen enclosures with only doors on the front and thought that must be a nuisance - most of the bed cleaning and belt tensioning etc. requires access from the top! Here are all the parts I knocked up to make this work. They were all designed using DesignSpark Mechanical, so it would be advantageous to install that if you need to make any changes. There are a lack of export file formats (e.g. STEP) so please don't ask me to provide STEP files or other formats. The standoffs for the sides are 25mm which provides clearance from the moving bed carriage and Y-axis gantry. The back panel has longer 40mm standoffs to clear the stepper motors. I made a sliding door to get the filament in and out - this runs on slide rails included here. There is a bracket to mount the standard filament holder in a different location - this is secured by longer bolts than standard. As you can see in the photo, an empty filament roll will tip over, but this doesn't seem to cause any problems (I've been using the enclosure for six months now). Please see my other things for the filament sensor holder and the inverted LCD mounting. The hinges used are taken from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4783423 There are brackets and 'thread plates' used to join the sides to the back and prevent the hinges from twisting. They look flimsy but seem to work fine. A knob on the front holds the top part of the front closed. The bottom part of the front is mounted directly to the frame with bolts and T-nuts. The rounded washers I have made accept countersunk woodscrews which secure the sides and the back to the standoffs. The size of the washer means you have a bit of leeway if you don't get the hole in quite the right place the first time! If you've read this far, you probably don't need me to tell you the benefits of enclosing the printer - large items will no longer warp off the print surface, the temperature inside the enclosure (40-50 degrees C thanks to the insulating effect of the coreflute) will allow you to store/dry filament rolls in the base, dust will be kept out, and you will save electricity on longer prints. I can't claim that it makes the printer any quieter - in fact the sides WILL rattle in some print moves. My printer lives in the garage, so this is not a problem for me. I hope if nothing else, this inspires you to make your own enclosure, even if you don't find all my parts useful. Thank you for reading!