Tag drawer

The CR-10 is an amazing printer. However, it does take up quite a bit of precious area in my small workshop so I decided to build a thin case under it. The computer is in the rear part of of the case, and the front will have drawers for storage.

The Materials

• 1/4 MDF
• M4 screws
• CR-10 3d Printer
• Wood glue

The Tools

• CO2 laser cutter

The Build

Here is the original CR-10. There’s that big ugly box on the side of it. It’s so tall that another couple inches isn’t going to matter.

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I took apart my CR-10 to examine all the wires, components, etc so I could get a good idea of where to place everything.

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Here are the internals of the printer. Pretty basic stuff actually. The power supply is the biggest thing. The board for controlling stuff, the mosfet for handling high current to the heating bed, a couple fans. I also added a raspberry Pi to run OctoPrint.

Based on previous projects, I am not going to leave any tolerance for the drawer. I put 1-2mm before and there was a huge gap, so going to gamble with a perfect fit here.

I glued the drawer together to prevent any screws sticking out messing with the clearance. The main case however is bolted together with M3 hardware. Getting ready to mount the components in! I decided to add a 1mm clearance to the drawers, I think that’s the right amount for all projects going forward. I did a quick test with 0 and it was just too tight.

I used double sided tape to mount the power supply, Raspberry, and other stuff. Surprisingly all the hole cutouts I measured pretty accurately! Maybe I’m finally getting better at this.

Put everything back together, removed the printer rubber legs and let the printer sit flush on the enclosure. Everything fits perfectly, the drawer works great. I left the top screws off just in case I need to get back into the internals. Gravity does a good enough job of keeping it in place.

Back on line printing again. Steady helping to make masks/equipment for donation for this CoVid-19 thing.

Updates

I added a nice coat of matte black paint to match the printer. Normally I like to leave MDF unpainted, but wanted a more unified look for the printer.

I thought I did a pretty good job with the fan grill.

I left the inside of the drawer unpainted to make it easier to see the stuff inside.

This is a little cubby drawer station I made to go with my Breville Barista Express machine. It is meant to store drink mixes, tea, espresso supplies, sugar, cups.

The Tools

• 60 watt CO2 laser
• rubber bands
• Fusion360
• Lightburn

The Materials

• 5mm birch plywood
• wood glue
• sandpaper

The Build

The empty space will have a drawer that slides in and out for main storage of tea bags, supplies, etc.

I designed the drawer with a 2mm tolerance on all sides and found out that was way too much. I should have done 1mm or less. I put the hole handes on both sides to allow for air to escape because I assumed it would be a tight fit.

This is my first project with birch plywood. I did NOT know that the middle layers of the plywood were not 100% filled. Surprisingly, this 5mm birch cut much easier than 6.3mm MDF.

Putting together the pieces was messy. I used steel wool to brush off the ash from the laser cuts, but it still got everywhere.

I tried to sand off the dirty ash, but found out that a damp cloth worked even better to clean up all the dirty ash from the surface.

I engraved a little coffee logo on the front just for fun. In retrospect, the design is much too long, I could have made it a little more compact.

Mistakes

• top-front piece was designed with no interlocking joint and relies entirely on glue
• the 2mm gap tolerance for the drawer is way too much
• tried to sand off ash instead of wiping it down
• design too long, need to shorten it
• found out i added tolerance to BOTH pieces, doubling up on the gap
• need to engrage the logo a bit darker next time
• need to round off the fillet on the handles more to match the drawer handle

Updates

Redid the design to make it shorter, also fixed the front top piece so that it interlocks properly. I also burned the espresso logo in the front darker and rounded off the fillets.