Just finished my PrusaBox assembly last week and couldn’t agree more with your thoughts. I can’t believe they haven’t made RUclips assembly videos…the website instructions were hard to follow for some steps. Also, had to significantly shave down many of my corner pieces to fit the metal edge beams. Ended up being a two week assembly for me, when i was expecting maybe an afternoon or two.
I was debating between getting a Voron (or something along those lines) versus just enclosing my Prusa. I know the Voron would have been more work, but I had no idea how much was involved in getting the enclosure together. I was the same as you, I saved it for an afternoon, and it stretched out over a few weekends.
Great video and touches on some valid points you should consider when buying. I had my PrusaBox about a year and I am a big fan. I used to have issues with printer noise and vibrations but it is now super quiet. For extra noise reduction I use squash balls as feet and put a 30kg tile underneath the box. An enclosure of any kind also keep dust and draft away from the printer and combined with higher temperature around the print have increased quality of every print a lot (I do mainly PETG). I love building stuff so for me the whole assembly and printing all the parts and choosing options, colors and mods was just perfect, no complaints there. I tried adding a HEPA filter and fan but the fan was quite noisy by itself, so that was a bad call. Also fan is not really needed. I have a custom temp sensor that displays enclosure temperature in the Octaprint UI. I just leave one of the doors slightly open and tends to keep a nice temperature. I also added the web-cam and use the Octoeverywhere plugin so you can monitor printer from work, and that is a huge game changer. Once in a while I do prints that is more than a day and I do not want to leave printing a full day without any supervision in case a print goes wrong. Now I can start a long print and just remote stop it if something goes wrong while I am not at home. I agree things can get a bit pricey when you add all the parts but the final result look so cool and with the added benefits of noise reduction and better prints, for me it is well worth it and I would for sure do it again. Best of luck
Yeah, valid points all around. From my personal experience, I haven't seen any improvement in print quality (why would there be unless your printer was in an less-than-ideal location previously?) and features like the HEPA filter and such don't really work as advertised. I ultimately regret getting it, but I only occasionally print with ABS or PETG.
Minor correction, I believe the company is out of France. Also, if you're in the United States the conversion rate at this moment should make it more attractive than months ago as well. Great review and keep up the great work!
I almost did not buy the PrusaBox due to this video. Now, after having built it I am glad I did anyway. I agree with your video in some aspects. I don't in others. In the end it comes down to whether you enjoy the building process and have fun in customising the box to your needs. If you managed to build your Prusa printer from the kit version you will be able to do this too with a bit more effort and creativity. Sure there are a lot of parts you need to print yourself. I think I used up more than 1,5 spools of Prusament PETG for the basics plus some of the more useful mods. The assembly takes quite some time and the instructions might not be 100% perfect, but sufficient to figure everything out. Only in very rare occasions did I find them to be misleading/confusing, but even then I managed to do it and I actually liked that it gave me room for testing some own ideas. Seeing many of the comments on here, I do not agree with the very negative ones. I think the design of the box is well-thought-out. I like that it is a smaller footprint than the original Prusa one. Regarding the prize, I do agree it is not cheap. The quality of the components (delivered and self-printed) justifies it in my opinion. My Prusa MK3 is dialled-in ok and I printed all parts with an 0.6 mm nozzle even though the instructions did not recommend it. In the end all of the parts I printed myself fit perfectly with the components delivered.
I think the main point for their enclosure over the official one is that they also sell a pre-assembled "pro" version. Since my time as a business owner is more expensive than the additional cost, I'm probably ordering one. Also it comes with a HEPA filter, which is why I want to get one in the first place.
That thing looks like a pain, Glad you have a video showing a lot of the problems. I was thinking about buying one but for the cost it ends up being I don't think I'll end up buying one.
Yeah, I would look at the Prusa enclosure instead. I really like the octoprint integration, but I'm not really sure it's worth it. I just had all that stuff tucked at the bottom of my closet. It's cleaner now, but I'm not sure it's really any better. For PETG, I need to keep the doors open or else it gets too hot and I get layer shifts. So it's not really even benefiting me.
So, wait for the Prusa enclosure? (Looks like they start shipping this month.) I assume their enclosure will have the same high level of pre-made parts, thoughtful instructions, gummi bears, etc as the actual printer. Two weeks of printing is ridiculous - at a minimum they should give you the option of buying all those parts pre-printed if time is more important than money to you.
Yeah, I'd wait. I think I know you Chris, and you'd hate this. I almost sold it twice while putting it together. Hell, when it was DONE I almost listed the whole thing on craigslist. They're selling this specifically for Prusa printers, but it has none of the attention to detail. As a Prusa owner, you pay the extra premium for those little details and it was missing that. Go for Prusa.
@@RobertCowanDIY Got it and will do. I think Prusa “gets it” so I’ll plan to get that enclosure. I, and I assume many of your subscribers, appreciate you spending the time and effort on both the build and the video to save us all the trouble.
Have you seen the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon, and what are your thoughts on it. Obviously a kickstarter so... kickstarter things apply, but it seems like it includes all the features of the prusa plus this box and more.
I like the look of it. I considered getting one, but I'm going to wait and see if they actually deliver. Unfortunately, the build volume is a bit small, that's the only thing holding me back really.
Hi you should check out printer box magnetic door handle on printables by nozzleshift. He has them for the front / back panels and the side panels. I use them they’re great.
I actually bought a couple of them, but the design doesn't allow for ENOUGH airflow to actually cool it down a reasonable amount, which is the bigger problem. But I want to get temp and humidity integrated into the dashboard.
@@RobertCowanDIY Humidity as far as I am aware is only in the OctoPrint web interface, OctoDash does 'only' temp. I added some additional logic to control temperature outside of the Raspi, for safety. So I have a small LCD for Fan control and few other things. Which communicates via USB/Serial with Raspi/Octo - a deep black rabbit hole.
And with a relay board, you can also control the fan according due the temp via Octoprint/Enclosure plugin. I have also two physical buttons for switching fan and light on/off, and they are connected to the raspi gpio as well, so enclosure plugin know whats manual set.
@@carlopittini7958 Yep, I personally prefer to run hardware apart from Raspi, meaning I rather drop-in a micro controller to do the work and only receive additional control signals from an Arduino. Power, environmental controls are a pain to debug or work around when working on the Raspi. Having an standalone unit just makes it more stable and reliable IMO, plus raspi's can be a bit fidgety with DHT sensors.
I noticed you have two buttons for the internal lighting, you can set it in OctoDash/OctoPrint to toggle, saving one button for an other function ;) - unless you like to have two buttons.
Yep! I could NOT figure this out and if you read the documentation it doesn't mention how to actually toggle the pins. I've been thoroughly unimpressed with OctoDash. I realize it's free, but I really dislike it as an interface. having 6 very small buttons as the ONLY interactive portion of an already small touchscreen is just odd. Just make them as big as possible! But if you can figure out how to make it just toggle a pin on/off, let me know! It's not documented as a function. I tried POWER, TOGGLE, etc, nothing worked. It seemingly only accepts discrete commands like ON or OFF.
@@RobertCowanDIY I hear you, feel you and fought the same battles :). There is a new version somewhere in the pipeline - just not sure how buggered that pipeline is. For lighs, you can always add a external push button - just for convenience. I know it sort of defeats the purpose of the touch screen - an argument I was having for many years by now with the developer. I have all hooked up via MQTT, some NodeRed logic, turns the lights on when the printer comes online and few more things. I added LEDs on the print head it self, as this is usually the darkest and most difficult to see are for my aging eyes. The LEDs change color according to status - like flashing red, transitioning from blue to red while heating. how can one reach you if I dig out the solution ? I am not on insta nor facebook, twitter ?
YES! We need to see more honest reviews of these products. Way too many reviews are sponsored, and it's hard to not give a product the benefit of the doubt when there's areas of criticism.
@@RobertCowanDIY I am also working on a review of the Modular Box for Caribou 3d Duet WIFI Edition. To be honest, yes there are many parts. But they can be ordered or printed and it's the same way like building a Prusa or Caribou. For my Caribou I am printing new parts with ABS and it takes also 1-2 weeks and over 1kg spool. And the enclosure has bigger parts so at the end it's the same concept like for a printer. I am curious how it will be but the ModularBox seems to be very nice and compact so no useless space. And yes, people try to make good reviews to continue their cooperation with manufacturers. For me at the moment it's seems to be a good value and yes, at the end it's more expensive but it exactly fits to the printer and their are many upgrade possibility's. My self made printer enclosure for 2 printers costs 2800 dollar :D BTW: IN my enclosure there are minimum 60°C after 5 hours printing ABS. And the printed PETG parts and also the acrylic doors have a temperature res. of maximum 60°/80°. So I would recommend to print them in ABS and maybe to change the acryl doors to Makrolon or something similar. But this would cost more. I tried to isolate my doors from inside but I good problems with my PINDA probe.
Please do some setup tutorials for the electronic, I know you said it was a giant pain, but it appears you did an amazing job of getting everything to work... Please share that knowledge :-)
You know, if I thought other people should buy this, I would gladly make that video. But seeing as how the company basically said I'm NOT having any of these issues and is not owning up to any of their shortcomings, I'd rather not create more content to help others with their product. As THEM to make videos! Why should I be making technical resources for them!?
@@RobertCowanDIY I had to revisit this comment. Now that I have finished my PrusaBox and all associated mods... I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND IT! Dare I say, this dang box has nearly soured my entire 3D printing hobby experience. It has taken weeks to get everything ironed out, and pretty much convinced me to buy a Voron and replace this monstrosity. You were right, I should have listened.
Time is money and a Voron takes a long time to build. I actually did look at Voron MANY times and have almost pulled the trigger a few times. I actually went on the Voron forum and asked people to show me their best test prints and was unable to really find anyone able to produce prints better than what I'm making right now, it can just print a lot faster. I wasn't willing to spend the time and the effort necessary to put one together (and source parts, etc) just to get the same quality (or slightly worse) than I have right now. It's faster, but if that's the only benefit I get, I'd rather just stick with what I have. I was assuming this enclosure would be a 1/2 day project, but it turned into MUCH more than that.
Hello Robert, i don’t think it will get very hot in your enclosure. Of course, this depends on bed temperature and your room / workshop temperature, but it doesn’t look like it has any kind of insulation or gasket and the surface is kind of big. With a bed temp of 100C° I don’t think u can hit > 45C. have you never tried to turn the fan off? Every 3d printer is a nasty fire risk and is often running unattended for days... i am always worried. less flammable parts inside the enclose and real glass doors maybe a good idea. prusa is offering a fire extinguishing system at least for EU.
Peter, it will and DOES get hot inside. The whole thing is pretty well sealed up. Obviously, there aren't gaskets, but there are almost no gaps anywhere, except for the air intake, which is too small to vent the heat. In the video, I show you that I'm easily hitting 45C after just an hour or so. I feel like I need to do another video showing how it actually does heat up. There's a large radiating surface (the heated bed) dumping 85C into a confined area with insufficient airflow. The thermal mass of the printer acts as a heat sink, but at soon as that starts to saturate, it ramps.
Hello Robert, I just finished the initial build of my Prusa box and I have to agree with everything you said about the building process. I have a question for you. You show that you are able to turn off and on your LEDs with your Octodash. I have search and have not been able to find a solution for that. Where did you find it? Thanks for the video. It was a really great honest review and I appreciate the information.
I'm using the enclosure plugin. I don't recommend it. Just use a switch. The interface is annoying. When a print starts, it locks you into a specific screen and you can't use the controls to turn on/off the LEDs, you need to use the octoprint interface. The whole thing is a mess and I'm waiting until the Prusa XL comes out so I can sell this whole thing.
I don't feel so bad about the generic one I bought for my prusa mini now. With that said there isn't a whole lot of options for it or stuff I needed to print for it. Question though as I'm more beginner/novice level, since the printer is in a sealed box it does get a lot warmer than if it was just sitting out in the open. Will the printer components life be shorted prematurely since there's no cooling for the important parts like the stepper motors?
As long as the components are within their stated operating temperature rating, the lifespan should not be decreased. But you'd need to find that out for most of the components and go from there. The power supply should not be inside the enclosure though, you should remove that and situate it outside (or at least vent it outside) the enclosure. Stepper motors can run fairly hot though and the main electronics should be OK, assuming it doesn't get beyond 50-60C in side the enclosure.
@@XenonG Yeah, I've watched builds on Vorons, and that seems somewhat accurate. I'm sure sourcing and organizing the parts is a lot of work, but it wasn't inconsequential for this either!
Hello, Just finished my PrusaBox too, had to post-pone it a couple of times, was very frustrating, even the website user experience is annoying, specially on the ipad, I do not recommend.
Oh, I'd agree with you. I should have added things up sooner and done more research on what I was getting myself into. It was out of stock when I first learned about it and when it came back in stock, I just kinda pulled the trigger without thinking about it more. For the amount of effort, I could have just built something, I wasn't actually looking for a project.
One of the worst enclosures ever made for the Prusa MK3s, looks good but is impossible to get around and maintain the printer properly even when you take the door off it still gives restrictive access. I have to take the frame apart to remove the printer itself. and then you have to contend with the wiring from the PSU and display. Even when I Order this as a complete kit with all the extras, I didn't receive what I paid for poor customer service not impressed. should have just ordered a Prusa enclosure. But anyway, it looks good but not at all practical.
I honestly think this is overpriced. The customer has to do a lot of work just to get it started. I also think it's an ugly design but that's subjective. I see it a bit overkilled too. I don't like it at all
I'm starting to agree with you. I kinda wish I had never bought it. I absolutely recommend the official one, or just buying a printer that's already enclosed.
@@RobertCowanDIY Well the Prusa Enclosure is also a bit pricey just for a hobby, might me justifiable if it was for a business and I think it's a bit overkilled too. It has too many parts and there are some design choices I don't like. Well it's not that you made a bad decision buying this Prusa Box, it's just that I think it's a lot of work. I have to say that you choice of all black is the best it can look in my opinion.
Not worth time and effort. Get a lamp and put it on the work if you want warmth. Open a window and use fan for ventilation. Who cares of it's noisy. Put earplugs or headphones on.
Your complaints seem well justified. Sounds like you could get to this printer, by creating designs and sending them to Send-cut_send. The send you the parts all cut to sized, then you could choose which off the shelf parts to buy, since you'd have a lot more money left over to spend on them.
Just finished my PrusaBox assembly last week and couldn’t agree more with your thoughts. I can’t believe they haven’t made RUclips assembly videos…the website instructions were hard to follow for some steps. Also, had to significantly shave down many of my corner pieces to fit the metal edge beams. Ended up being a two week assembly for me, when i was expecting maybe an afternoon or two.
I was debating between getting a Voron (or something along those lines) versus just enclosing my Prusa. I know the Voron would have been more work, but I had no idea how much was involved in getting the enclosure together. I was the same as you, I saved it for an afternoon, and it stretched out over a few weekends.
@@RobertCowanDIY I think they just wanted more 3D parts to print and test their print farm. They are launching the XL and pro AFS after all.
I had the exact same experience. I would not recommend this product. It is extremely overpriced.
Thank you so much for this video, I have been going back and forth and your review helped me decide to pass on them for now.
No problem, glad you found it helpful.
Great video and touches on some valid points you should consider when buying. I had my PrusaBox about a year and I am a big fan. I used to have issues with printer noise and vibrations but it is now super quiet. For extra noise reduction I use squash balls as feet and put a 30kg tile underneath the box. An enclosure of any kind also keep dust and draft away from the printer and combined with higher temperature around the print have increased quality of every print a lot (I do mainly PETG).
I love building stuff so for me the whole assembly and printing all the parts and choosing options, colors and mods was just perfect, no complaints there. I tried adding a HEPA filter and fan but the fan was quite noisy by itself, so that was a bad call. Also fan is not really needed. I have a custom temp sensor that displays enclosure temperature in the Octaprint UI. I just leave one of the doors slightly open and tends to keep a nice temperature.
I also added the web-cam and use the Octoeverywhere plugin so you can monitor printer from work, and that is a huge game changer. Once in a while I do prints that is more than a day and I do not want to leave printing a full day without any supervision in case a print goes wrong. Now I can start a long print and just remote stop it if something goes wrong while I am not at home.
I agree things can get a bit pricey when you add all the parts but the final result look so cool and with the added benefits of noise reduction and better prints, for me it is well worth it and I would for sure do it again.
Best of luck
Yeah, valid points all around. From my personal experience, I haven't seen any improvement in print quality (why would there be unless your printer was in an less-than-ideal location previously?) and features like the HEPA filter and such don't really work as advertised. I ultimately regret getting it, but I only occasionally print with ABS or PETG.
Minor correction, I believe the company is out of France. Also, if you're in the United States the conversion rate at this moment should make it more attractive than months ago as well. Great review and keep up the great work!
Yep, that's fair. Thanks!
We are located In Baume-Les-Dames, East of France!
I almost did not buy the PrusaBox due to this video. Now, after having built it I am glad I did anyway. I agree with your video in some aspects. I don't in others. In the end it comes down to whether you enjoy the building process and have fun in customising the box to your needs. If you managed to build your Prusa printer from the kit version you will be able to do this too with a bit more effort and creativity.
Sure there are a lot of parts you need to print yourself. I think I used up more than 1,5 spools of Prusament PETG for the basics plus some of the more useful mods.
The assembly takes quite some time and the instructions might not be 100% perfect, but sufficient to figure everything out. Only in very rare occasions did I find them to be misleading/confusing, but even then I managed to do it and I actually liked that it gave me room for testing some own ideas.
Seeing many of the comments on here, I do not agree with the very negative ones. I think the design of the box is well-thought-out. I like that it is a smaller footprint than the original Prusa one. Regarding the prize, I do agree it is not cheap. The quality of the components (delivered and self-printed) justifies it in my opinion. My Prusa MK3 is dialled-in ok and I printed all parts with an 0.6 mm nozzle even though the instructions did not recommend it. In the end all of the parts I printed myself fit perfectly with the components delivered.
That's a LOT of caveats to say it's worth the price.
You can order it pre-assembled, which is what I'm looking into as a business.
@@Alex-kr7zr When this video was released they did not have a pre-assembled option.
Very honest and goodreview, to the point. Thank you!
I think the main point for their enclosure over the official one is that they also sell a pre-assembled "pro" version. Since my time as a business owner is more expensive than the additional cost, I'm probably ordering one. Also it comes with a HEPA filter, which is why I want to get one in the first place.
They've made some improvements since this video was published. I'd still make sure you know what you're getting into though. Best of luck!
Love your videos! Got introduced to your channel with your Stratasys rebuild project. Keep up the great work.
Thanks!
That thing looks like a pain, Glad you have a video showing a lot of the problems. I was thinking about buying one but for the cost it ends up being I don't think I'll end up buying one.
Yeah, I would look at the Prusa enclosure instead. I really like the octoprint integration, but I'm not really sure it's worth it. I just had all that stuff tucked at the bottom of my closet. It's cleaner now, but I'm not sure it's really any better. For PETG, I need to keep the doors open or else it gets too hot and I get layer shifts. So it's not really even benefiting me.
So, wait for the Prusa enclosure? (Looks like they start shipping this month.) I assume their enclosure will have the same high level of pre-made parts, thoughtful instructions, gummi bears, etc as the actual printer. Two weeks of printing is ridiculous - at a minimum they should give you the option of buying all those parts pre-printed if time is more important than money to you.
Yeah, I'd wait. I think I know you Chris, and you'd hate this. I almost sold it twice while putting it together. Hell, when it was DONE I almost listed the whole thing on craigslist. They're selling this specifically for Prusa printers, but it has none of the attention to detail. As a Prusa owner, you pay the extra premium for those little details and it was missing that. Go for Prusa.
@@RobertCowanDIY Got it and will do. I think Prusa “gets it” so I’ll plan to get that enclosure. I, and I assume many of your subscribers, appreciate you spending the time and effort on both the build and the video to save us all the trouble.
Have you seen the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon, and what are your thoughts on it. Obviously a kickstarter so... kickstarter things apply, but it seems like it includes all the features of the prusa plus this box and more.
I like the look of it. I considered getting one, but I'm going to wait and see if they actually deliver. Unfortunately, the build volume is a bit small, that's the only thing holding me back really.
Hi you should check out printer box magnetic door handle on printables by nozzleshift. He has them for the front / back panels and the side panels. I use them they’re great.
Thanks! I ended up just making my own. It's fine, but the doors are so flimsy and thin it's still 'meh'.
You could add a DHT22 module to the Raspi, then use Enclosure-Plugin to display internal temp and humidity on the bottom of OctoDash.
I actually bought a couple of them, but the design doesn't allow for ENOUGH airflow to actually cool it down a reasonable amount, which is the bigger problem. But I want to get temp and humidity integrated into the dashboard.
@@RobertCowanDIY Humidity as far as I am aware is only in the OctoPrint web interface, OctoDash does 'only' temp. I added some additional logic to control temperature outside of the Raspi, for safety. So I have a small LCD for Fan control and few other things. Which communicates via USB/Serial with Raspi/Octo - a deep black rabbit hole.
And with a relay board, you can also control the fan according due the temp via Octoprint/Enclosure plugin. I have also two physical buttons for switching fan and light on/off, and they are connected to the raspi gpio as well, so enclosure plugin know whats manual set.
@@carlopittini7958 Yep, I personally prefer to run hardware apart from Raspi, meaning I rather drop-in a micro controller to do the work and only receive additional control signals from an Arduino. Power, environmental controls are a pain to debug or work around when working on the Raspi. Having an standalone unit just makes it more stable and reliable IMO, plus raspi's can be a bit fidgety with DHT sensors.
I see the PTFE tube is also not long enough to reach the nozzle. I thought i was the only one.
I noticed you have two buttons for the internal lighting, you can set it in OctoDash/OctoPrint to toggle, saving one button for an other function ;) - unless you like to have two buttons.
Yep! I could NOT figure this out and if you read the documentation it doesn't mention how to actually toggle the pins. I've been thoroughly unimpressed with OctoDash. I realize it's free, but I really dislike it as an interface. having 6 very small buttons as the ONLY interactive portion of an already small touchscreen is just odd. Just make them as big as possible! But if you can figure out how to make it just toggle a pin on/off, let me know! It's not documented as a function. I tried POWER, TOGGLE, etc, nothing worked. It seemingly only accepts discrete commands like ON or OFF.
@@RobertCowanDIY I hear you, feel you and fought the same battles :). There is a new version somewhere in the pipeline - just not sure how buggered that pipeline is.
For lighs, you can always add a external push button - just for convenience. I know it sort of defeats the purpose of the touch screen - an argument I was having for many years by now with the developer.
I have all hooked up via MQTT, some NodeRed logic, turns the lights on when the printer comes online and few more things. I added LEDs on the print head it self, as this is usually the darkest and most difficult to see are for my aging eyes. The LEDs change color according to status - like flashing red, transitioning from blue to red while heating.
how can one reach you if I dig out the solution ? I am not on insta nor facebook, twitter ?
Very cool!
I wish, it's too hot!
Great and honest review. I am using some Caribou 3D printers. Maybe I will also wriite an review about this specific box. 🕶
YES! We need to see more honest reviews of these products. Way too many reviews are sponsored, and it's hard to not give a product the benefit of the doubt when there's areas of criticism.
@@RobertCowanDIY I am also working on a review of the Modular Box for Caribou 3d Duet WIFI Edition. To be honest, yes there are many parts. But they can be ordered or printed and it's the same way like building a Prusa or Caribou. For my Caribou I am printing new parts with ABS and it takes also 1-2 weeks and over 1kg spool. And the enclosure has bigger parts so at the end it's the same concept like for a printer. I am curious how it will be but the ModularBox seems to be very nice and compact so no useless space.
And yes, people try to make good reviews to continue their cooperation with manufacturers.
For me at the moment it's seems to be a good value and yes, at the end it's more expensive but it exactly fits to the printer and their are many upgrade possibility's. My self made printer enclosure for 2 printers costs 2800 dollar :D
BTW: IN my enclosure there are minimum 60°C after 5 hours printing ABS. And the printed PETG parts and also the acrylic doors have a temperature res. of maximum 60°/80°. So I would recommend to print them in ABS and maybe to change the acryl doors to Makrolon or something similar. But this would cost more.
I tried to isolate my doors from inside but I good problems with my PINDA probe.
Please do some setup tutorials for the electronic, I know you said it was a giant pain, but it appears you did an amazing job of getting everything to work... Please share that knowledge :-)
You know, if I thought other people should buy this, I would gladly make that video. But seeing as how the company basically said I'm NOT having any of these issues and is not owning up to any of their shortcomings, I'd rather not create more content to help others with their product. As THEM to make videos! Why should I be making technical resources for them!?
@@RobertCowanDIY fair enough, thanks for the reply.
@@RobertCowanDIY I had to revisit this comment. Now that I have finished my PrusaBox and all associated mods... I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND IT! Dare I say, this dang box has nearly soured my entire 3D printing hobby experience. It has taken weeks to get everything ironed out, and pretty much convinced me to buy a Voron and replace this monstrosity. You were right, I should have listened.
Interesting if you already own a Prusa. If not a Voron will cost you less for better fully enclosed printer imo.
Time is money and a Voron takes a long time to build. I actually did look at Voron MANY times and have almost pulled the trigger a few times. I actually went on the Voron forum and asked people to show me their best test prints and was unable to really find anyone able to produce prints better than what I'm making right now, it can just print a lot faster. I wasn't willing to spend the time and the effort necessary to put one together (and source parts, etc) just to get the same quality (or slightly worse) than I have right now. It's faster, but if that's the only benefit I get, I'd rather just stick with what I have. I was assuming this enclosure would be a 1/2 day project, but it turned into MUCH more than that.
Hello Robert,
i don’t think it will get very hot in your enclosure.
Of course, this depends on bed temperature and your room / workshop temperature,
but it doesn’t look like it has any kind of insulation or gasket and the surface is kind of big.
With a bed temp of 100C° I don’t think u can hit > 45C.
have you never tried to turn the fan off?
Every 3d printer is a nasty fire risk and is often running unattended for days...
i am always worried.
less flammable parts inside the enclose and real glass doors maybe a good idea.
prusa is offering a fire extinguishing system at least for EU.
Peter, it will and DOES get hot inside. The whole thing is pretty well sealed up. Obviously, there aren't gaskets, but there are almost no gaps anywhere, except for the air intake, which is too small to vent the heat. In the video, I show you that I'm easily hitting 45C after just an hour or so. I feel like I need to do another video showing how it actually does heat up. There's a large radiating surface (the heated bed) dumping 85C into a confined area with insufficient airflow. The thermal mass of the printer acts as a heat sink, but at soon as that starts to saturate, it ramps.
lol. Thanks for the video. Saves me a bunch of money
Hello Robert, I just finished the initial build of my Prusa box and I have to agree with everything you said about the building process. I have a question for you. You show that you are able to turn off and on your LEDs with your Octodash. I have search and have not been able to find a solution for that. Where did you find it?
Thanks for the video. It was a really great honest review and I appreciate the information.
I'm using the enclosure plugin. I don't recommend it. Just use a switch. The interface is annoying. When a print starts, it locks you into a specific screen and you can't use the controls to turn on/off the LEDs, you need to use the octoprint interface. The whole thing is a mess and I'm waiting until the Prusa XL comes out so I can sell this whole thing.
is it me or does the stainless look like a popcorn machine?
Nice review!
Thanks!
I don't feel so bad about the generic one I bought for my prusa mini now. With that said there isn't a whole lot of options for it or stuff I needed to print for it.
Question though as I'm more beginner/novice level, since the printer is in a sealed box it does get a lot warmer than if it was just sitting out in the open. Will the printer components life be shorted prematurely since there's no cooling for the important parts like the stepper motors?
As long as the components are within their stated operating temperature rating, the lifespan should not be decreased. But you'd need to find that out for most of the components and go from there. The power supply should not be inside the enclosure though, you should remove that and situate it outside (or at least vent it outside) the enclosure. Stepper motors can run fairly hot though and the main electronics should be OK, assuming it doesn't get beyond 50-60C in side the enclosure.
@@RobertCowanDIY yeah, power supply is outside. Ok, I'll look into the other stuff. Thanks.
Might as well just go full Voron 2.4 or something similar. Or Prusa's own enclosure.
Sure, but isn't the voron even more involved than building just the enclosure?
@@RobertCowanDIY Personally to me, from how you described how to build the enclosure, it's about a little more than half way through a Voron 2.4.
@@XenonG Yeah, I've watched builds on Vorons, and that seems somewhat accurate. I'm sure sourcing and organizing the parts is a lot of work, but it wasn't inconsequential for this either!
I'll take my laminated MDF box for $200 Alex! Pocket hole jig I already had and some stock Lexan panels.
Yep! This is 'nice' when it's done, but it wasn't worth the effort, that's for sure.
Would you be willing to share your TPU feet design? Thx!
Sure thing, I added it to the description, but here it is: www.printables.com/model/240858-printer-box-enclosure-tpu-feet
Hello,
Just finished my PrusaBox too, had to post-pone it a couple of times, was very frustrating, even the website user experience is annoying, specially on the ipad, I do not recommend.
Yep, I'm at the point now where I flat out regret getting it and wished I had never bothered with it.
For the enclosure that size I’d spend money on the same size Corey printer with enclosed in panels. This is not a good investment IMO
Oh, I'd agree with you. I should have added things up sooner and done more research on what I was getting myself into. It was out of stock when I first learned about it and when it came back in stock, I just kinda pulled the trigger without thinking about it more. For the amount of effort, I could have just built something, I wasn't actually looking for a project.
One of the worst enclosures ever made for the Prusa MK3s, looks good but is impossible to get around and maintain the printer properly even when you take the door off it still gives restrictive access. I have to take the frame apart to remove the printer itself. and then you have to contend with the wiring from the PSU and display.
Even when I Order this as a complete kit with all the extras, I didn't receive what I paid for poor customer service not impressed. should have just ordered a Prusa enclosure. But anyway, it looks good but not at all practical.
Yep, my thoughts too. I'm surprised that people keep buying it.
Sounds like a complete ripoff for the price. Thanks for the detailed review!
I wouldn't say it's a rip-off, but maybe just an immature product. It needs a LOT of refinement IMO.
I honestly think this is overpriced. The customer has to do a lot of work just to get it started. I also think it's an ugly design but that's subjective. I see it a bit overkilled too. I don't like it at all
I'm starting to agree with you. I kinda wish I had never bought it. I absolutely recommend the official one, or just buying a printer that's already enclosed.
@@RobertCowanDIY Well the Prusa Enclosure is also a bit pricey just for a hobby, might me justifiable if it was for a business and I think it's a bit overkilled too. It has too many parts and there are some design choices I don't like. Well it's not that you made a bad decision buying this Prusa Box, it's just that I think it's a lot of work. I have to say that you choice of all black is the best it can look in my opinion.
Not worth time and effort. Get a lamp and put it on the work if you want warmth. Open a window and use fan for ventilation. Who cares of it's noisy. Put earplugs or headphones on.
haha, ok.
From France not the UK, that alone should tell you why the instructions are useless, lazy very lazy
OH come on, that's not fair.
so weres's the link to the box?
Your complaints seem well justified. Sounds like you could get to this printer, by creating designs and sending them to Send-cut_send. The send you the parts all cut to sized, then you could choose which off the shelf parts to buy, since you'd have a lot more money left over to spend on them.
For sure, I was considering that but figured this would be quicker. I was wrong.