Use Ikea Billy Bookcases As a 3D Printing Cabinet

After having purchased a 3D printer, the question arise, how to host it.

There are many ways to fit a 3D printer in your workshop. Some of them use special housings and some of them are really expensive. A housing has several advantages:

• a thermal enclosure - The processing of most filaments profits from a constant warm surrounding.
• noise reduction
• dust prevention
• keep order

All these advantages are realizable with relatively cheap Ikea Billy bookcases. The trick is to use two Billy cabinets one behind the other. Then you have a usable depth of 54,5 cm.

This instructable describes the realization with two widths: 40 cm (narrow) and 80 cm (wide). You can decide which one you like to realize. In the images, a wide one and a narrow one are combined side by side.

• narrow
• Ikea Billy
• 2x 502.638.38 Billy Cabinet
• 1x 502.755.58 Oxberg Door
• 1x door handle
• wooden strip 36.2 x 2 x 1.8 cm
• plastic-coated chipboard 16mm:
• 1x 35.8 x 50.5 cm
• 2x 33.6 x 48.0 cm
• a pair of drawer runners
• wide
• Ikea Billy
• 2x 002.638.50 Billy Cabinet
• 2x 502.755.58 Oxberg Door
• 2x door handles
• wooden strip 76.2 x 2 x 1.8 cm
• plastic-coated chipboard 16 mm:
• 1x 75.8 x 50.5 cm
• 2x 73.6 x 48.0 cm
• a pair of drawer runners
• drawer runners
• 110/55 cm length with 4.56 x 1.27 cm profile
• might be this one: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B08M5XH9L3, the vendors says: 35kg – but better not charge ist with more than 15kg - anyway this will suffice for most DIY printers.
• you can get stronger ones: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07X5WD1F5
• metal tabs for joining the cabinets
• bandings for the plastic-coated chipboard and the strips
• optional:
• silicone sealing cord
• a power socket with a separated switch

Build the frames of the cabinets in the usual Ikea way. But do not insert the rear panel in the anterior cabinet. This has to be inserted in the rear cabinet only.

Make cutouts in the rear panel for the drawer runners. They will be mounted on top of the intermediate Billy board.

If you like to have cables (power and network?) from the back, make appropriate cutouts in the rear panel additionally.

Mount the wooden strip on top of the back of anterior cabinet. Cover the strip with a banding before.

Place the cabinets one behind the other and join them with metal tabs.

Mount the drawer runners so that they flush with the front edge of the cabinet compound.

Bring the Billy compound in the final position and mount the rear top to the wall.

Optionally install a power socket for the printer with a separated switch, which you can stick on the side frame under the intermediate board.

A drawer consists out of three chipboards which are stacked. The upper board is a litte bit bigger, to overlap the drawer runners and to form a handle at the front side. It is nice to cover the edges of the top board with bandings and at least the front edges of the lower boards.

Mount the drawer to the drawer runner. Note, the top board should flush with the drawer runners top.

If you like to improve the thermal enclosure and noise reduction, you may stick a silicone sealing cord on the doors edges. We recommend this, it helps a lot.

The narrow cabinet fits perfectly for an Ultimaker 3. It is well stored for printing and if you like to change filament, you can easily reach the back of the device.

But of course, you can host another printer type with similar dimensions - and if you use the wide cabinet, a large amount of printer types will fit.

It was time for a new 3D printer and the Ultimaker S5 pro bundle got some competition from others - so, it was cheap enough. Unfortunately, the cabinet had to be redesigned because of the bundle’s height.

Hence everything has to be removed and the intermediate board has to be mounted at a lower position, which results in an almost complete disassembly of the cabinet. New cut outs for the full extension slides have to be made, electrics adjusted and door seals renewed.

The S5 has an air manger and one could ask: why the integration in the cabinet?

The answer is, the air manger does not regulate the temperature – it only controls the fans speed in dependence of the filaments database. For ABS-Filament this results in something about 30 degrees (depending on the room temperature). With the integration in the cabinet, the temperature is constantly between 46 and 47 degrees. For us, this is essential for dimensionally accurate ABS printing.

It turned out, that the temperature in the electronics housing of the Ultimaker S5 got very hot in the closed cabinet, therefore an additional cooling system had to be realized.

For this reason, the original Ultimaker ventilation grills have to be removed and 3D printed adapters have to be installed. Also the wholes to the printing compartment have to be filled with foam material.

Install two fans and hoses and you are done.

Fan: Sunon 80x80x38mm cooling fan SF23080A2083HBL 230V 2400 turns/min https://www.amazon.de/dp/B003J7NZCQ

Hose: Bosch vacuum cleaner hose (EasyVac12, UniversalVac 18, GAS 18V-1, flexible, Ø 35 mm, length: 80 cm) https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07H2CW9RK

On this occasion, we also changed the full extension slides to 60kg (the bundle has a weight more than 40kg).

The result is a constantly warm printing space. In the thermal image the UM3 seems to be hotter in the bed region. But this due to the fact, that the printer does not have a front glass.

And, one last tip - for printing ABS on glass plates, when you only want to use a skirt (and not a brim) around objects: use 3D printing spray (e.g. https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01HQ4KXZ4) and after printing, put the glass in a bath filled with isopropanol. The parts will become detached in seconds and you won't have a problem with tearing out glass particles. An airtight Gastronorm container is a great choice for that.