Printer Closet Build

[Noah Burk]

Recently I embarked on a mission to turn the small closet in my apartment into a little printer den. This location will help keep the noise as low as possible, if you’re looking into buying a Bambu machine you should know they are not quiet, but that is part of the price you pay for speed. My pervious set up featured a printer a friend let me borrow that was much quieter and was able to sit on the floor next to my desk without causing too much distraction. This change also gives me some extra floor space, puts the printer in a more ergonomic position, and offers storage underneath the printer mainly for tools. The days of laying on the floor trying to swap hot nozzles and contorting in all sorts of funny positions when trying to make other tuning adjustments are over. Here is a picture of the outcome. 

Along the way I made some great mistakes that I thought I would share. When trying to find the best sized cube organizer I measured the closet dimensions at around chest height. Failing to realize that there is trim around the bottom. I also failed to take into consideration assembly and bought an organizer that had to be assembled in the closet, it couldn’t be assembled outside then moved into it. After reviewing the assembly instructions, I realized that a typical assembly wouldn’t be the easiest. The two red arrows in the image above represent the position and direction of some long lag screws, two in the front and two toward the back of the organizer. I could have done some assembly gymnastics and used those screws but one of the reasons I picked the printer I did was for speed, so I opted to whip up a quick bracket design that wouldn’t require gymnastics and printed out four. Printing took under 20 minutes and design took approximately 5 minutes. The bracket can be seen in the image below, featuring other random stuff that has found a home in the organizer, I did say mainly tools!

I just happened to have some left-over furniture risers sitting around that could be placed under the organizer to boost it off the floor 2 inches, clearing the trim. Got lucky there otherwise it was back to CAD. After I got the organizer assembled, I totally lucked out and had some clearance between the bottom of the top shelf and the top of the printer, not much but clearance is clearance.

(Printer images featuring my low cost painters tape seal for the front door, that is a project for another day) 
 

After getting the printer on the organizer I noticed a bit of wobble, not so much that it was at risk of falling but enough to make me worry about its effect on print quality. Naturally I design another thing to fix that, the models can be found here, the concept it simple two angled faces ride against each other, one side has a indent to slightly capture a nut, the other a slot for a screw. As you tighten the screw the angled faces slip and the width grows. Placing these on the left and right side of the organizer took care of the wobble. This could be incorporated into a printed designs where you need adjustment but don’t want to keep printing or buying shims to dial in the position. The link below is to a short video showing how it works.
https://www.loom.com/share/abccb46116b9484e8a8891af947ae83d?sid=510efe15-f30c-4ff0-8747-e75dcd1c9522

This made for a fun Sunday project, that took a little longer than expected, I probably had around 4 hours invested but the outcome was well worth it to me, and even more worthwhile to my girlfriend who probably wishes I had different hobbies. 

So, remember fellow builders, always measure the critical dimensions, be observant when you are approaching a project, and review the datasheets for things before you purchase them especially if assembly is required.

 

[manandwala]

Great project! I wonder what a Gridfinity design would look like for this or using 80/20 aluminum extrusions to build this?

[Noah Burk]

On 11/18/2023 at 7:42 PM, manandwala said:

Great project! I wonder what a Gridfinity design would look like for this or using 80/20 aluminum extrusions to build this?

Thank you! An 8020 rack would be awesome, then I could customize everything to my liking and in the future I might go down that path, but for now this was the most cost effective option. I use gridfinity in a pull out drawer in my desk and I love it, I would've used it in the organizer but I just had to pile stuff in there to make the apartment look clean for some visitors, I'm sure I will circle back in the future and better organize the organizer 🤣