Spool Cover Box Corner Brackets for Lack Enclosures

thingiverse

Cats are notorious for loving things that move, breaking stuff, and playing with skinny string-like objects like spools of filament. When we put our printer in a Lack Enclosure, we realized we needed to protect the spool and filament going in. One Ekete "Cabinet" from Ikea ($15-$20 depending on size at the time of this writing) and some guiding corner holders later, we have a good solution. These are the corner holders that will work for pretty much any box that needs to be set down onto something and kept from sliding around as long as they can be attached. We decided not to print everything and went with two options. Option 1: Inner Corners. You can use the inner corners on the front, or the back, or both, or neither. The inner corners are much more difficult to position though. Option 2: Outer corners. You can mix and match inner and outer corners. Outer corners are much easier to place with tight tolerance. To get a tight fit, you can hold outer corner brackets in place against the box when screwing them down. The angle of all the brackets helps guide the box into place. A tiny piece of putty or clay can be used to hold the inner brackets close to position but slightly too far outwards and then slide the box over them very slowly to pull them in. For a sub-millimeter fit, it's better not to measure for the inner corner brackets as the rounded corners of the boxes involved make that a challenge. Even a millimeter of leeway will allow wiggle in the end result. To achieve an air-tight filament system: * Use silicone caulk around the top (back) of the cabinet box and the inside corners edges to make it air-tight. * Use a silicone membrane with a tight hole for a bowden tube to feed through. * Put an even bead of soft silicone caulk around the open side of the box, let it half-dry so its surface is dry, then place it on top to form fit. * Use a filament holder and/or bowden tube holder (even with a direct feed extruder) to feed the filament into the tube and down into the box through the silicone membrane. The bowden tube can still slip up and down through the membrane as the print head moves. * Some desiccant in the box, and you're set.