I originally pre-ordered the Prusa XL 5 head semi-assembled and received it in the beginning of the year. Looking at the expected build time, I started building it and quickly lost energy to finish it. It sat on the table for six months until I got a not-so-gentle1 push to finish it from my wife.

The Realization

eyes twitching on how close I was to finishing it up

Turns out, I was a few hours away from finishing it. I merely had to mount the panels, install the filament sensors, and calibrate the Nextruders. In total, it took an additional four hours to finish building. I’m glad I finally finished it, I was able to clear off a litany of boxes and get space back. After the initial calibration, I was able to print a few test prints and they came out great.

Prusa XL completed

Enclosing the Prusa XL

I also purchased the Prusa XL Enclosure to print ABS/ASA and other materials that require a controlled environment. The enclosure utilizes a metal frame, acrylic panels, and a bellows mechanism to seal the chamber.

Coming from Voron, I was happy to see the enclosure was fairly easy to assemble. With minimal chance for error, I was relieved to not have to worry about re-leveling the frame. I was able to assemble the top hat in about an hour. The rest took another 5 hours 😳. Fiddling with Nextruder 3D printed parts to use the provided PC-CF versions was more time-intensive than expected.

The enclosure is huge. It’s so big, I had to rearrange the 3D print bench to accommodate it. The Prusa XL was already a large printer, with a print volume of 360mm x 360mm x360mm. The enclosure transforms it to look like a Cybertruck 😑. In the interim, I plan on using a simple Lack with reinforced leg brackets to increase the ridigity of the legs.

What’s Left

A 3D Printer is never finished, there’s always something to upgrade or tweak. I’m upgrading the nozzles to use ObXidian high flows to increase the print speeds. I also have to figure out how and where to mount a camera to monitor prints.

Eventually, I want to use 8020 extrusions to build a custom bench for the Prusa XL, Bambu Labs X1C, and a Voron Trident 3003.

Overall, I’m happy to have finished the printer and enclosure. I’m looking forward to putting the printer through it’s paces.

Footnotes

  1. She said, “You’re not going to let that sit there for another six months, are you?” ↩