Edward's S2 Enclosure
Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 10:01 pm
Building an enclosure for Shapeoko has been on my list of things to do since the beginning of the project (almost 3 years ago!). I have tried building several, maybe 3-4 different styles in all, but none of them really worked out.
The problem has always been that I wanted to enclosure to follow the same principles as the project itself: low cost, no fabrication, simple to do.
There have been quite a few enclosures on the forum that are impressive, especially recently it seems that a lot of new users have built their own rather quickly and effectively. Seeing all of them put me back in the mood to design one of my own.
This isn't finished yet, but it's very close.
It's a simple extrusion based enclosure The only modification I made to the actual Shapeoko 2 was to use longer pieces of 20mm x 20mm extrusion across the front. instead of the stock 550mm, I used 650mm.
At a casual pace it took me about 3 hours to bolt everything together and square it up. I'm really pleased with the results. Right now, all I need to complete the main build are the panels for the sides and a couple of brackets for the top.
Instead of putting the panels into the extrusions (slot style) I am instead opting to bolt them directly to the sides via the tapped holes on the sides of the brackets. This will keep some of the frame color visible and allow me to use smaller panels to cover the gaps. I will be using 1/4" acrylic.
The front panel is made from 1/4" acrylic and slides in between the extrusions to act like a vertically sliding door. It's not a super tight fit but was surprisingly effective at blocking the sound.
For the main area inside the box, the distance works out to be 570mm from inside to inside. Which, no coincidence, will allow me to cover it with HSQN4 t-slot panels to cover it edge to edge. I already have 500mm from my current build and will be adding an additional 70mm (HFSQN4-1570) to close the gap. From there, I will need to drill an access hole through the t-slot to route the wires into the bottom section and then create / purchase some sort of tight grommet to close it back up.
I left 60mm of open space on the bottom of the machine. My though is to build, basically what bluecamel has in his controller box, right onto the front of the enclosure! So looking at the machine from the front, one will see buttons, switches, and a small joystick for jogging. The top of this control section also works out as a positive stop from the vertically sliding door. On the back of the machine, I will route out line power and USB connection.
Sound reduction:
I did some testing with 1/2" MDF panels on the sides, top and back, and with the panels on, the sound (from 5ft) was reduced from 89dB to 82dB (via a free android app). I'm not sure if that's good or not good, but to me it seemed like a huge difference. Especially when comparing with the door open and closed. I imagine that once the main platform is completely closed (with the HSQN4 t-slot) the sound will be reduced even more. I'm also not sure about how well the 1/4" acrylic will work compared to the 1/2" MDF. I picked up a box of 12"x12" panels that are supposed to reduce sound. I'm not sure where I'll use them, but figured they'd be handy to have around while working on this.
Once the whole thing is put together and I get a baseline measurement for sound (with the 1/4" acrylic) I'll start testing other materials to compare.
Cost:
Right now, the BOM cost at around $150 for all of the extrusions, brackets, hardware, and even a new 3mm t-handle. All of the parts can be purchased from misumi and mcmaster. After the panels are cut and know their cost, i'll pass that information on. I wouldn't say that at this point the enclosure is low cost, but it's not *crazy* expensive either.
If the whole thing can be done for less than $250, I will consider that a win for a version 1 build. We can do a community cost reduction when the build is finished to see how low we can get it.
The problem has always been that I wanted to enclosure to follow the same principles as the project itself: low cost, no fabrication, simple to do.
There have been quite a few enclosures on the forum that are impressive, especially recently it seems that a lot of new users have built their own rather quickly and effectively. Seeing all of them put me back in the mood to design one of my own.
This isn't finished yet, but it's very close.
It's a simple extrusion based enclosure The only modification I made to the actual Shapeoko 2 was to use longer pieces of 20mm x 20mm extrusion across the front. instead of the stock 550mm, I used 650mm.
At a casual pace it took me about 3 hours to bolt everything together and square it up. I'm really pleased with the results. Right now, all I need to complete the main build are the panels for the sides and a couple of brackets for the top.
Instead of putting the panels into the extrusions (slot style) I am instead opting to bolt them directly to the sides via the tapped holes on the sides of the brackets. This will keep some of the frame color visible and allow me to use smaller panels to cover the gaps. I will be using 1/4" acrylic.
The front panel is made from 1/4" acrylic and slides in between the extrusions to act like a vertically sliding door. It's not a super tight fit but was surprisingly effective at blocking the sound.
For the main area inside the box, the distance works out to be 570mm from inside to inside. Which, no coincidence, will allow me to cover it with HSQN4 t-slot panels to cover it edge to edge. I already have 500mm from my current build and will be adding an additional 70mm (HFSQN4-1570) to close the gap. From there, I will need to drill an access hole through the t-slot to route the wires into the bottom section and then create / purchase some sort of tight grommet to close it back up.
I left 60mm of open space on the bottom of the machine. My though is to build, basically what bluecamel has in his controller box, right onto the front of the enclosure! So looking at the machine from the front, one will see buttons, switches, and a small joystick for jogging. The top of this control section also works out as a positive stop from the vertically sliding door. On the back of the machine, I will route out line power and USB connection.
Sound reduction:
I did some testing with 1/2" MDF panels on the sides, top and back, and with the panels on, the sound (from 5ft) was reduced from 89dB to 82dB (via a free android app). I'm not sure if that's good or not good, but to me it seemed like a huge difference. Especially when comparing with the door open and closed. I imagine that once the main platform is completely closed (with the HSQN4 t-slot) the sound will be reduced even more. I'm also not sure about how well the 1/4" acrylic will work compared to the 1/2" MDF. I picked up a box of 12"x12" panels that are supposed to reduce sound. I'm not sure where I'll use them, but figured they'd be handy to have around while working on this.
Once the whole thing is put together and I get a baseline measurement for sound (with the 1/4" acrylic) I'll start testing other materials to compare.
Cost:
Right now, the BOM cost at around $150 for all of the extrusions, brackets, hardware, and even a new 3mm t-handle. All of the parts can be purchased from misumi and mcmaster. After the panels are cut and know their cost, i'll pass that information on. I wouldn't say that at this point the enclosure is low cost, but it's not *crazy* expensive either.
If the whole thing can be done for less than $250, I will consider that a win for a version 1 build. We can do a community cost reduction when the build is finished to see how low we can get it.