Drawers for AnyCubic Chiron by kevinthefixer

Last crawled date: 3 years, 3 months ago

First let me say this is not my original work; I simply resized some models from more skilled people than I. Since I couldn't get the "this is a remix" checkbox to work right I thought I'd give credit here. The core of the project comes from:https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4606144
I resized the drawers to 200mmWx250D and left the height alone. The rails were lengthened accordingly, and the .stl of these 3 pieces is here.
The upper cover started out being:https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4082884
And resized it to 215Wx250Dx1H; it doesn't need to be very strong, it's just a dust cover and it helps in installation.
Sorry I can't find the originals of the standoffs you need for the center mounts nor the knobs. The standoffs are 1/4"x3/4" or 6mmx20, two for each drawer, and a knob of your choice for each (I didn't care for the one fab3dLab supplied). These may be purchased at a hardware store also.
All the electronics for the Chiron are under the frame on the right side of the printer, so that leaves a lot of extra space on the left for storage, but I didn't find any models that took advantage of that.This one works for me, but beware, there are days of printing time involved, each drawer takes almost a full (2Kg) roll of filament and installation is not for sissies! So if that didn't scare you off here's what you'll need in addition to the above (per drawer: there is room for 2 under the Chiron):
--2x 5mmx10 button-head screws (Phillips might work, socket-heads are too high)
--2x 5x30 button-head screws
--4x 5mm T-slot nuts (hammer nuts)
After you've printed it all and put it in a pile, make sure the rails slide smoothly over the drawers. If they don't, sand stuff until they do, it won't be so easy later. Set the rails on the drawer sides (the screw holes on top), flip the assembly upside down and glue it to the dust cover (I used clear epoxy), as centered as possible. Once the glue dries you can move on to drilling the screw holes (don't drill into your dining room table).
Note the screw holes are oblong from resizing the model, don't worry about it too much. Drill the front holes first (the front of the rails have the little tongue with the bump that fits in the groove in the drawer), just set a 6mm or 7/32 bit into the front of the oblong hole in the rail and drill through the dust cover. Measure the offset between the outer edge of the lower left frame rail on your printer to the left edge of the middle-left rail, the one the heatbed rolls on. Then add 20mm. This was 118mm on my Chiron. Mark that on the drawer rails measuring from the first holes, and drill the others. "Measure twice, drill once!" On mine, it landed on the back part of the countersink for the center hole on the rail. Sorry I forgot to take pics but I'm not about to take it apart again for that. You can see in the second pic the standoffs above these screw holes on my front drawer.
Now you can mount it! Flip the printer over so you have access to the underside. I found it easiest to put scrap pieces of 2x4 lumber under the left corners of the printer frame and lay it over on that side with a bit of the gantry protruding off the table. Put all 4 screws into the holes in the rails/dust cover, short ones to the front. Start the T-nuts on the front ones. Put a standoff on the long rear ones, then start the T-nuts on them too. The short T-nuts on the front of the rails go in the slot that's now the lowest point on the printer, that is, the far left slot on the underside when the printer is upright. This puts the front of the drawer just about flush with the left frame rail. The other holes and T-nuts line up with the far slot on the left-center rail. Tighten up the screws. Now, that's easy to say but it took me 3 or 4 tries to get each one right! T-nuts can be uncooperative, especially when trying to defy gravitational orientation. But eventually, with the help of some not-so-carefully-chosen expletives, I got it done and didn't get any blood on it. Tighten it all up carefully and evenly and right the printer and install your new drawers. They will fit either way, I liked the plain side and installed a plain knob, YMMV.