If you own a 3D printer of any kind (and let’s face it, why would you be reading this if you don’t?!) you may well be aware that temperature and airflow are major contributing factors to a successful print.

The ideal environment to house your printer is one with a high ambient temperature, low humidity and no draughts. This isn’t easy in the average house, particularly if you live in England as I do!

This is where the printer enclosure comes into play. Some printers, such as the Creality Cr-6SE or any of the Flashforge range, are self contained which means they have their own built in enclosure. Such a luxury would be nice to have on every printer but it comes at a price.

The majority of cheap or mid range printers (Ender 3 range, Anycubic Vyper etc) are open; both to view and to the elements. So, your options are to either completely insulate and draught proof your garage/workroom and never open a door during a print. Or, you can buy an enclosure to house your printer.

Creality do actually make a self assembly enclosure which is great but it’s essentially just a small tent. The construction is fairly flimsy and it costs more than half of what you’d pay for an Ender 3!

So, how do you solve this problem without shelling out a small fortune? Answer; make your own.

There are lots of tutorials and different versions of the (in)famous IKEA Lack enclosure which basically involves using 1 or 2 of the Swedish furniture elves’ coffee tables. I actually made one of these to my own unique design and it’s served me well. I did however completely revamp the cosmetics on it to match with the overall theme of my print factory.

If this is the way you want to go then it’s definitely an economic and adaptable model.

This though brings me on to my latest and most ambitious enclosure. It all started with this:

Part 2 will follow…