Prusa Mini Z Gantry Skirt (Experimental)

prusaprinters

Note: Experimental design/proof of concept. Careless use may cause gantry crashes or stuff to break big time.In an effort to make a (better) passively heated chamber without enclosing the entire printer, I've designed the “skirt”. In theory, this kind of approach has important upsides compared to a full enclosure:Electronics, motors, and even the cold side of the extruder is kept at ambient temperatureSmaller chamber volume greatly increases ambient temperature and time required to reach itEasy to switch to PLA printingA lot less material compared to a full enclosure (and therefore cheaper) This design, being unfinished, has a lot of issues that need to be worked on:Bed cables are a fairly significant issue, which I've worked around by cutting sides of the foil into strips. This has additional downsides of just not keeping the shape of the sides well, and requiring a few layers of the foil to act insulatively. I recommend cutting the foil into stripes only in the  area where the bed cables travel, and try keeping sides foiled more consistently everywhere else.The bed cable is bent somewhat upwards and may catch on the back right edge of the rod connector. Make sure to test how well it slides under the skirt at very low Z heights and to add plenty of duct tape to shape the path.The foil sides would need to be fairly long (or extendable) for the skirt to be useful at heights. This causes issues (in addition to bed cables) at the electronics box and the display as well.The X axis travel area is not covered at all. While it still improves temperature under the skirt and reduces the overall opening for the hot air to escape, it is not optimal. Some sort of bellows may be required, however the already extremely tight space at max X.Some of the tolerances are somewhat tight and may not even fit with enough headroom on your printer. Make sure to check full range of motion manually before starting a print.I am aware this should be called a canopy, but I called it a skirt from the start. PLA with 2 perimeters is plenty as well, since even when somewhat heated, there is very little strain on the printed parts. Additional hardware needed:1 pc M3 x 30 cylinder head screw (DIN 912) - to attach the skirt to the holder1 pc M3 square nut (DIN 562) - to attach the skirt to the holder2-3 pc M3 x 25 cylinder head screw (DIN 912) - to attach the holder to the gantry3 mm thick rods: (I used gas welding rods)4 pcs 280 mm - parallel to the x axis2 pcs 390 mm - parallel to the y axis, these protrude ~160mm from the fronts of the printed partsThin foil such as an emergency blanket and a lot of patience with duct tapeReading the bolded parts of the text so you don't destroy your printer