Brainstorming - How do you make a big box look good?
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My latest printer design switched to a cartesian format and is pretty big (~4ft x 6ft x 6ft). It’s ultimately intended for an industrial use case, no windows, fully enclosed. My delta version looked so good! (if not as functional as I wished it to be)
So how do you make a large box look good? Anyone have any good examples?
I’ve been looking at large displays (TV scale, 54” will fit on it), touch screens, painted sheet metal designs, bare stainless, even monolithic impersonation (2021 A Space Odyssey reference). Others I’ve seen via Google search will often use painted sheet metal and round corners or something with a touch screen to distract.
Anyone want to show off their big box printer?
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@tlas, don't forget the racing flames on the side of the box .... or at minimum a nice racing stripe.
I wish I had a big box to show off but alas, I am space challenged so no big box for me
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Dan Gelbart has a series on YouTube about prototyping, in which he described the concept that machine aesthetics can be driven by good design principles and function.
Essentially, if you design things with good principles, and build things with good craftmanship, a beauty emerges.
What purposes does your enclosure serve? Find the requirements for the enclosure. Then, find suitable materials and construction methods. In the end, you may be left with a beautiful machine.
*not actually a robot
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Mirrors. Put them on all four side of the box, with the mirrored side inside. Add some LED strips and you have a big infinite mirror box.
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@tlas , do you have a structural design that you can share here to inspire industrial design ideas?
For a great look, I would say, first rule do not have anything hanging outside (tethering cables, spools, etc).
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@bot
Design is an interesting topic - my previous design was mostly about expansion in prototyping as I tried a few different concepts and maintaining a nice 'looking' machine. I ultimately ran into a few constraints (largely due to the 'delta' type design) that I couldn't overcome to the degree I needed. Hence the switch to Cartesian.This is also a VERY technically challenging problem (can't get into that now, might flow an update here once I actually have a functional unit). This latest design is a very 'functionality' first design methodology. I pulled in a lot of the lessons learned that I couldn't incorporate into the delta. End result (before enclosure) was a really odd shape that naturally lent itself to something that looks like a refridgerator. It doesn't look bad... but lets face it, no one wants their 3D printer to look like a refridgerator.
Throw away all the external stuff on this image below, and it's not too far off of how mine looks right now.
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@mrehorstdmd
That's a great design idea! Not sure I could make that work here or not, but would be really cool in a large box design. -
@zapta said in Brainstorming - How do you make a big box look good?:
For a great look, I would say, first rule do not have anything hanging outside (tethering cables, spools, etc).
Do a quick look for CNC-Gantry. Great motion system (if not a bit overkill) and shows more of the industrial design space.
