IKEA Lack box for Prusa i3 MK2 - modified for 0.22in thick plexiglass by taxilian

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

All credit to the original: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1914314
This is my remix to use thicker glass (0.22 inch acryllic, which is what I found at home depot).
I love this design, but it did take me a bit to fully figure it out. I made a few of my own modifications to it, and there are a few things I'm strongly considering doing that I either didn't have time or didn't have parts to do on this build (and I need to move to other projects for a bit).
Instructions:
There are 3 models for corner pieces; one is a generic (corner1_0.225in.stl) that holds glass on both sides, the other two (corner2_b_0.225in.stl and corner2_a_0.225in.stl) are left and right that hold glass on one side and have a stop on the other. Print four of corner1 and two each of the others. One will go between each table leg and the table itself and one will go under the leg above the base board.
It wasn't clear to me from the original model, but this enclosure does require a bottom to it. I used a 1/2" MDF board and just cut it to the same dimensions as the LACK table -- more or less. I'm impatient, it was raining, and I normally cut things outside... so I cut it with a circular saw without a table, which produced slightly uneven results. So sue me.
Anyway, I purchased a 72"x48" sheet of 0.22" acrylic / plexiglass clone from Home Depot and cut it in a variety of ways. I think the best easy way is probably to get a halfway decent circular saw blade (one with a lot of teeth) and go slow, but I also tried using a cutting tool (from home depot) to score halfway through the acrylic and breaking it and also using a jigsaw with a special blade. The jigsaw was much easier, but with both saws I ended up being too impatient to get a really clean edge.
All of that said, I think it would have been easier to find a place (quick google search turned up http://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic/acrylic_sheets_clear/508) which would let me order them pre-cut; not just easier, but also only very slightly more expensive. You choose =]
Anyway, putting it together is pretty straightforward; I modified the hinges to lay flat. I used http://a.co/3NQzZaW to hold the hinge to the glass (note the version of the hinge with 3 holes on the glass side) and http://a.co/iwv7c2z to hold the hinge to the wood. Make sure you don't drill too large of a hole for those screws; the legs aren't that robust, so you want as much grip as you can get from the screws. Same with the glass; I didn't need nuts on the other side because those screws will dig into the plastic just fine.
I found that with the thicker glass the original smaller magnet size wasn't good enough so I modified the handle and door stop to use 20x2mm (3/4" x 1/16") neodymium magnets.. mostly because I had them. Search ebay for "3/4 x 1/16 Inch Neodymium" and you'll find plenty of options to buy them.
For the lights I used a pair of LED rigid strip lights from eBay and a 45W 12V LED power supply with a inline rocker switch. I had to cut a notch in the edge of the glass on each side to allow the USB and power cables in; I'll likely do something similar when I add a camera.
Future considered mods:
Move the power supply to the outside of the glass so it isn't affected by the heat
Strap / bolt down the printer to the base so that it can't move and to reduce vibration
Move the rambo (control) board outside of the enclosure, which would probably require lengthening most of the wires
Move the control head outside of the enclosure
Good luck!