I should have built this thing from the word go. I ran this printer for almost a year on my desk right next to my computer. But it was loud and smelly and the high traffic area played havoc on print quality and caused a lot of warping.

Now that it’s tucked away in a back room suspended in a corner by French cleats and sitting directly on top of dense foam and a big ass paver it is merely “audible” but certainly ignorable. There’s also no more headaches from the smell, and my print quality has never been better.

Do yourself and your printer a favor and get an enclosure sorted out asap.

  • cazssiew@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    16 hours ago

    Out of curiosity, what’s the advantage of the french cleats? Do they dampen the noise somehow?

    • felbane@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      12 hours ago
      • When you’re trying to make it level and hit the studs with your fasteners, it’s much easier with a stick than a whole cabinet carcass.
      • Cleats make the cabinet easy to install and remove.
      • French cleats have a substantial amount of bearing surface and are extremely stable as a result, even without additional fasteners.
        • That said, for a cabinet I would probably still drive a screw from the inside through the back panel into the cleat to eliminate any chance of a strong bump from underneath knocking the cabinet off the cleat. You know, like when you drop that last m4 nut on the desk and it bounces into the corner and you have to reach over your project and soldering iron and cup of coffee to retrieve it and then stand up too quickly in triumph and bang your head off the underside of the cabinet…
      • Marafon@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
        3·
        12 hours ago

        Nailed it! I had every intention of screwing the carcass directly to the cleat but the enclosure made of one and a half sheets of 3/4 ply so it was very heavy and didn’t budge even before I added the paver and the printer so I just never ended up doing it. 🤷‍♂️

    • Marafon@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      1·
      12 hours ago

      As the others have pointed out, the biggest reason is ease of installation. I hung this by myself and I’m not sure how you would do it solo using another method.