How to print the Y-BOX? Part 1

(parts BY01W45V02A, BY01W45V02A)

Printing the parts of the Y-BOX will make your 3d printer busy for a couple of days. But this is the only small price to pay for what you get: the worlds most color customizable,  extensible and lightweight enclosure for your printer.

The first things to start with are the joints.

It is possible to print all 8 joints at once. I suggest printing 4 joints – 2 pairs – 2 pieces of  A part and 2 pieces of B part.  Recommended material is ABS, but you will not be able to print it without an enclosure.  But don’t worry, PLA also works. PET also works well.

For the ideal strength, I recommend to print it with 25% infill density and with 3 perimeter shells. The necessary supports are integrated already in the model. Therefore no support material is needed. The integrated supports don’t need to be removed.  The supports will break consequently by tightening the bolts. The recommended layer high is 200µm. It is possible to print it with 300µm, to decrease the print time, but because of a lower precision, the tubes may not fit into the holes easily.

Vertical shells perimeters:  3 recommended
Infill density:  25%
Infill pattern: Grid or Cubic
Support material: no
Layer height: 200 µm
Skirt:  standard
Brim width: 0 (zero)
Material: ABS, PET or PLA

(regular edge covers part A BY03V01A and part B BY03V01B,  edge covers with holes BY06V01A, BY06V01B)

Cubes have 12 edges.  Due to limitations of the printer bed size one edge is split into 2 pieces. It means that we have 24 pieces to print.  This is also a chance to choose a color from three wide palettes of PLA filaments and make your own styled enclosure.  You can choose any color from the huge palette of PLA.  The edge covers will take the most of the printing time. Anyhow the fun is, that you can test maximal printing speed of your printer. The geometry and simple design of the edge cover allow using the max speed of the original PRUSA i3 MK3 which is 200 mm/s.  The printer fabricates the infill at the same speed as empty moves.

The edge covers must be printed with supports. The standard support settings in a slicer are OK. Printing one pair of edge covers is easy. Just rotate each cover 45° as shown on the screenshot. Slic3r generates supports automatically. They are drawn in green. More beneficial would be to print more covers at once. It is possible to position up to 7 covers on the bed.  Let’s decide to print 3 pairs which mean that in four runs,  we can have all covers printed. Because the Slic3r generates supports with a brim, it is necessary to turn off the skirt a position the edge covers very precisely. Look at the next screenshot how it looks like. With the Simplify3d,  positioning parts on the bed is easier because it makes supports without the brim.

Vertical shells perimeters:  2
Infill density:  20% 15% (successfully printed with this low infill)
Infill pattern: Grid
Support material: yes
Support on build plate only: checked (if unchecked, supports will be generated also in the 
Layer height: 200 µm
Skirt:  no skirt
Brim width: 0 (zero, no brim)
Material: PLA

Information published here is based on our experience and best practice. If you have another experience or my description didn’t meet your comprehension or you need some more information, I will be glad if you put your comments below.

Part 2. about printing the rest of the parts will follow soon.