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by redhal 1393 days ago
Also works great as a 3D printer enclosure https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2864118
2 comments

Lack is made out of super cheap particle board. Is it stable enough to sit the 3D printer on? I would assume it would add some errors to the printing process.
It’s perfectly adequate for stability. People have suspended printers in midair with elastic cables, or printed upside down, and prints have come out fine. The printer frame is providing most of the rigidity in this case. Don’t get me wrong, people that place their printers on spring like things tend to get lower quality prints so there is a limit there.

The downside about the IKEA particleboard over hollow cardboard core is more about sound and resonance imo. It can act as a speaker for printer vibrations and amplify that sound in the same room or to the floor below it.

A popular “mod” is to place a concrete paver block on top of some isolation pad, typically made of rubber or sorbothane to increase the functional mass of the printer and lower the resonant frequencies created during printing.

I personally have two of those enclosures stacked, with a printer in each one.

Oh boy is this thread relevant to me.

I just bought a concrete paver and neoprene mat to put on top of my lack and I'm printing pieces for my lack enclosure on my ender 3 as I type this message.

One thing I'm not sure about is whether or not I should attach the printer directly to the concrete paver, and/or if I should take the rubber feet off of the printer as well.

If so how do I best attach it?

I have a 3-lack-stack for my printer, but no paver. It sways a bit when I print, but I haven't run into any major issues without it. I should get one. A foam mat was mandatory though; the hollow core lack turns the motor noise into a scream!

I'd just try the easy thing first and set the printer on the paver without attaching. See if that works before you go through the effort of attaching it

The motor noise can be totally eliminated with an upgrade main board from bigtreetech. https://biqu.equipment/search?filter.p.product_type=3D+Print...

They are drop in replacements for the existing board and are very affordable. I highly recommend them.

I stacked 3 of them with a 3D printer. It can handle all of them running at the same time.
Not at all in my experience but apparently it's fine for everyone else
Yea, I'm a bit surprised by the responses. In the case of using it for a Prusa, I'm not sure I understand the idea of buying a $1,000 3D printer and then putting it on a $15 particle board stand.
I'm not even sure I'd trust it to hold more than a single 1U server as depicted in the article, for that matter.
Adding more kit increases rigidity. A "full rack" would be a stack of servers on the floor, with the table keeping them stacked.

The least-stable arrangement would be a very heavy 1u device at the top.

I think you're severely underestimating the strength of particle board.
It works fine and lots of people do it, I have been using mine without issue for a few years now. It helps to put a concrete slab in it, but it's not necessary. The lack table does have a tendency to amplify the noise though.

Here is a guide by Prusa to build one for their printers: https://blog.prusa3d.com/mmu2s-printer-enclosure_30215/

Unsurprisingly, the same issues arise with precision scales/balances as do with printers. Having a big heavy base is useful!

I know of a few places that just procured literal blank marble gravestones as a "base" for their analytical scales at a cost far less than the usual mass-damper bases sold to labs.

My Biqu B1 is in a lack enclosure.