Completely understand what you mean by the instructions explaining more than they should. I will say though that part of my real world job is to create instruction sets for technical products. More often than not, these products go to non-technical people. It took me a long time to realize that non-technical people need those details. Meanwhile, the analytical people get frustrated due to the overly detailed instructions.
Yeah, I don't think they should change a single thing with the instructions, they're very good. They just confuse and slow me down sometimes with all the details. But that's not a bad thing.
Rather have overly detailed instructions then poorly written instructions with not a whole lot of information Even though it can be frustrating with how much it slows me down I always skip a step somewhere when I don’t circle and X my steps 😂
Great video. I’m really inspired by your ability to tell it like it is respectfully but firmly, and not worry if manufacturers will punish you by not working with you again in the future. I admit that I have a hard time being as critical as I maybe should sometimes, and I need to learn from you.
@@RobertCowanDIY He was referring to @TheNextLayer and how he ignored bambu labs NDA and leaked the A1 mini a full day early to his paid subscribers. Subsequently causing bambu lab to cut all ties with him. Hes not to be trusted which is why nobody will give him free products for review anymore.
Believe me, we can tell when you are not being realistically critical and just doing it for the views. Honesty is the best policy, even if its just being honest with yourself.
The XL does monitor the enclosure temperature, it displays this temp within Prusa connect and the menu screen. You need to be running a print for it to log and show the temperature. I believe it is using one of the toolheads temperature sensors to do the work, rather than adding another sensor. Makes sense. I agree the fan is in an annoying place to remove the filter but otherwise I am happy with the enclosure. Well thought out and it works as intended.
Good to know. It's strange that it only shows in the Prusa Connect, NOT on the actual printer? I'll have to do more digging. Temp sensors are easily under $1, more like $0.25 in quantity though. It seems odd to not have a dedicated one placed at the right spot in the enclosure. It's an odd workaround when a workaround isn't needed.
Hi Robert. Yes, you can display the enclosure temperature in the footer. As per the 6.0.2. FW release notes: "You can display the temperature inside the enclosure in the footer by going to Settings -> User Interface -> Footer. The temperature value is derived from the current or first tool board temperature. The temperature will be displayed 5 minutes after the start of printing. This delay is due to the need for temperature stabilization inside the XL Enclosure. The temperature will reset to “-” after the print is complete."
I have a sumo enclosure and I have not reprinted any of the components inside inside my enclosure and regularly print at 45°C chamber temp. I personally appreciate the super detailed instructions. When you sell something that the user is going to assemble you really open a can of worms. Unfortunately not everyone is skilled and if it can be messed up people will mess it up. Then they'll expect Prusa to warranty it even though it's user error. So just keep that in mind if you think the instructions are overboard.
Last year I designed/printed/laser cut my own XL enclosure. I took strong inspiration from the SUMO enclosure prototypes - I used the same basic shape - but I designed from scratch and included a ton of weather sealing type features to strongly restrict where and how air flowed through the enclosure. Air enters the bottom front, and exits through four quiet 80mm Noctua fans on the sides (next to and above the steppers & tool heads, to draw cooling air over them). The fans are connected to a couple 3" air ducts that I have routed out a nearby window - no filters or noise to worry about. I can control fan speed to tailor the enclosure for different materials, i.e. less exhaust airflow for nylon, and I can maintain temps below 30C when printing PLA. I used 6mm acrylic, and the printed components are about 12mm thick, so I get a lot of noise reduction, so with the latest firmware I have a basically silent XL. I designed my own lift-off hinges for the front doors, so if/when they get in the way, I can quickly remove/install them. Overall, it cost me about $400 to construct it, including PETG, acrylic, and fans. One of the unexpected benefits of the flat-topped SUMO style enclosure is that I can easily store my filaments on top. I primarily do this for PETG/hygroscopic filaments, as I keep them in plastic cereal box DIY dry-boxes with desiccant, and run PTFE tubes down to the XL's filament intakes, so I have a fully sealed filament solution. Even better, I've found that certain filaments will not reliably feed through the XL's tubes, soft TPU for example. To solve this, I drilled a small hole in the top center of my enclosure, and I have a cereal dry-box they keys into it, so I can basically feed TPU straight from the dry-box into the enclosure without any tubes, and I disconnect the PTFE tube from the hot-end and run the filament straight into the Nextruder. This completely solves the filament feeding issue. Instead of disabling the side filament sensors, I'll just stick a short section of filament into it to trick the printer into thinking filament is running through its tubes. While Prusa's angular enclosure design looks neat, I don't think my tubeless direct filament feeding solution could be used at all. My main 3 requirements for my enclosure design were noise reduction, elevated enclosure temps for special needs filaments like nylon, and complete elimination of all harmful gasses. I get headaches even from printing PLA, and everyone in this hobby deserves to read up on the research that shows pretty much all filaments short of PETG produce harmful fumes while printing. I love that I can print even PLA with the enclosure fully closed up, or print stinky ABS and not smell anything at all. Prusa's solution to open the bellows for temp control denies realizing this benefit. I've long wondered if I would regret not waiting for Prusa's in-house solution. I went through several months and iterations to refine the design, and ultimately it still has that home-made quality, and of course has no tie-in to the printer's electronics for fully integrated temperature control. But apparently Prusa hasn't solved these issue either. Shame. Thanks to Robert's excellent review, I no longer have any regrets. I wouldn't trade my enclosure for one of Prusa's at any price. One thing I didn't know about were the PETG part replacements on the hot ends. I'll have to look into that. So far I've not had any issues with my setup, perhaps my fans are doing a better job at temp control. PETG has a glass transition point over 80C, far higher than the sub 40C enclosure temps I've measured. I have no desire to get that hot.
Soooo how about those designs and a BOM list? Your solutions sounds amazing. I’m in the same boat with feeling sick and nauseous followed by headaches with just PLA printing. I’m seriously interested in this.
I've strongly been considering releasing it, once I finish tweaking it. I originally used just a couple 80mm fans on dual 2" hoses, then upgraded to quad fans on the same 2 hoses, but there was too much back pressure and temps would climb a bit too high. Just this past week I upgraded to 3" hoses, doubling the airflow, and I think that's finally solved the temp issue. That was my last major design issue. I do have a few minor tweaks to the parts to improve printability. This is by far my most complicated project, with tons of heat set inserts, screws/bolts, t-slot insert nuts, metal shafts, magnets, hex shaft reinforcements, adhesive felt, fans, ducting, a nice hygrometer, laser cut acrylic panels, plus multi-material printing in PETG, PLA, and TPU. Putting together the BOM will be a huge task. The instructions even more so. I guess I'm saying it won't happen overnight. While some of the parts could be printed on a regular printer, most of it is designed for printing on at least a 2-tool XL, and some parts require as least 4-tools (assuming you want colors, I did galaxy black with orange & silver accents). There's easily several weeks of printing involved. The acrylic panels can be laser cut or CNC'd, and this will be your largest expense. I bought the panels for around $200, and had free access to an industrial laser, so that's why I was able to keep costs in check. My biggest challenge was actually successfully printing without an enclosure, many parts were too warped to use and had to be reprinted. For this reason, I found that printing a few parts for the top cover support frame, enough to rest the acrylic top in place as a draft shield, allowed me to successfully print the rest of the parts. Having lived with it for over half a year, I think my biggest complaint is limited access to the tool heads in the parked position. You can easily pop them off the docks and bring them towards the front for working on them, but doing any maintenance on the back half can be a pain. The top does lift off, and I've even included handles, but it's a big boy and those 6mm thick acrylic panels can be heavy. Somehow I've avoided removing the top so far. Even taller doors would have been nice, but that's a major design change I'm unlikely to make. If I post it, it will likely be on Printables. If you want to see what it looks like, you can check out my Prusa Buddy print video. I'll probably post more videos on the enclosure, so that might be the best way to get notified if I release it.
@@Roobotics That's a fine idea, but it's definitely not less assembly steps. There's a ton of labor involved in printing 70+ parts (some are pretty big) and plus inserting heat set inserts. Assembly is much more involved than Prusa's solution, mainly because you're still limited in print size even on the XL, so you end up bolting together smaller parts to form the enclosure's shell. There's over 100 screws/bolts required for assembly. I got lucky and had one-time free access to an industrial laser cutter, so I got my acrylic panels cut at material cost. If I was doing this as a retail product, I don't think I could undercut Prusa, it would likely be closer to $1k if I factored in labor and production expense. Even that might be a bit optimistic. For comparison, the SUMO kit retails for $300, which is primarily the acrylic panels, plus some fairly low-cost hardware, and you're responsible for printing all the plastic parts. The SUMO's acrylic panels are 3mm thick, half the thickness that I used. Since the acrylic is the biggest cost item, a similar kit with 6mm thick panels would likely be $450, and that doesn't even include the printed parts. Another factor is that 6mm acrylic is heavy, which affects both shipping expense and makes assembly quite a bit harder to manage. I do believe the end result is much better than Prusa's solution, but not cheaper or easier. I basically spared no expense in my design, with no concern for what a retail product would cost, I simply wanted the enclosure of my dreams.
@@PaulStevensonPinball I just did a few hours ago haha. Looks great from the stills I paused at. I think for simplicity I’m going to pull the trigger on the sumo and just modify it to be more airtight and setup the 120mm noctua fan and exit the window or maybe pipe it up into the attic so it exits the soffit outside. I just need to look into how to go about setting up a controller for maintaining fan speed by chamber temp and have a manual fan speed control as well. Did you tie any of that back into some sort of control board or are you just doing it manually?
While I have no direct evidence to support my suspicion, some of these strange choices could be carefully calculated to side-step the pernicious minefield of patents held by Stratasys. Especially those regarding heated build chambers. It could be argued that the defining threshold for "heat-control" is the feedback loop of a temperature sensor and the permanent affixation of a door with gaskets. The wink-wink culture around after-market upgrades will ideally close the gap. Literally, in this case. I appreciate the time you spent on this video as I will have my Prusa XL with Enclosure on Tuesday. You gave great insight on how I will be adjusting my assembly process to integrate the enclosure right from the get-go. Thank you!
Great review ! Two things I want to say : About the manufacturing and parts used : I don't think printed parts are a problem ; they can use strong materials, and it's a testament to the quality of their machines, and it means we can customise and repair them. However, they could definitely use more custom metal parts such as sheet metal and such to get more rigidity out of their machines. You want an enclosure to get as hot as possible, because printing anything above PETG in ideal conditions mean much, much higher chamber temperatures than what I could read on the small screen of the enclosure. The fact that such an expensive product isn't even sealed and airtight is nothing less than disrespectful. Heating a chamber takes time and power, so having holes and leaks everywhere, as well as a filtration system that vents that hot air outside is astoundingly counter-productive.
I got my Prusa XL Enclosure about 2 weeks ago, everything you said is very accurate. One of my magnets comes out every time I pull down the bellows. By default, the fan is off during the print (turns on after the print for 10mins), I guess it's so the heat warms up the enclosure but with all the holes and spaces around the enclosure, I'm not sure that it's does anything to filter fumes and air particles. I'm considering sealing most of the space (may just leave the holes at the bottom of the frame as air intake) to trap the dirty air, maybe add a filter inside the enclosure to filter the trapped air without loosing the heat.
Excited to get down to building mine in a few weeks. I really appreciate you timing the sections and outlining the improvement points. As a former technical writer, I also appreciate Prusa's meticulous documentation.
Thanks Robert, great review. I put my XL enclosure together a couple weeks ago. I agree with your assessment. It took me many more hours than you did, but I’m not that handy at doing things like that, but I did get it done. I must have missed the belt tightening part, never saw that. I just tightened them up based on how I felt the belts should be and all seems to work fine. I’ll probably go back and find that and adjust them properly. The fact that you had to take the belt apart and replace the “coupler” wasn’t in your video. I wasn’t thrilled when I saw I had to do that. All in all I love my XL. It’s finally complete now that I have the enclosure.
The coupler section WAS in my video, but I cut it out for time. The instructions are quite thorough, so I was hoping people would just refer to those for the full information.
@@MikeKobb Yes it was. However, there's a note in there that XL's that were shipped out after June 2024 don't need it, as they already come with the PCCF parts installed.
This is just more of the Prusa methodology. I mean, its not super slick, but it works and the prints are the proof. They don't do things just for image, some of the instructions and things are rather strange sounding, but they've always got a multi-year plan for any printer, the MK4 has a part on the board for an accelerometer for example and its clearly marked so this isn't speculation, so at some point, they're going to use that for something, we don't know what yet. To keep something as basic as possible helps with repairability too. The accordion screen thing could be keyed, yes, but that might do things like restrict movement taking it in and out if your printer is in a tight place and you can't pull something 10 inches forward to remove it. In its current state, its easy to replicate and works perfectly well. I built an MK4 from a kit, as my very first 3D printer, a lot of pain but it was worth it.
I think the issue prusa has now is that Bambu brought a next level of refinement in their industrial design to their machines , if wasn’t by bambu this would be considered a perfectly fine design , for an industrial design, the problem is that is being evaluated by a consumer with expectations much higher now because of the refined Bambu design
Exactly, I understand that people get drunk with a aluminum printer, but Bambu is not Apple it's just a nice painted 🍎 Cheap Chinese components in a nice coat. I appreciate Prusa for preferring functionality. BTW @Robert himself says he likes it, so it is necessary to say that even the design is nice imo, just utilitarian design.👍
@@vmiguel1988 I think that customers put mainly on functionality (?), I don't understand how people can be swayed by the outer appearance and then not care about how it works inside.
@@vmiguel1988 Of course, Bambu has made a very impressive printer. However it is not serviceable in any way and for a tool like this, I want to be able to fix it part by part as and when needed. Simplicity in machines like this is brilliant, I don't want a complex printer. One also has to be aware of the politics here. Bambu is likely heavily subsidised by the CCP. The M.O. is simple: Release a product that's got way more functionality than everyone else, regardless of manufacturing cost. Coax people away from everything else which now in comparison looks like terrible value, keep doing this until all competition die off, then jack your prices up. I suspect the Bambu X1 Carbon likely has a 'natural' unsupported cost of over $2,500. Said losses are as I stated, likely being absorbed by the CCP. Prusa are manufacturing in Europe. I do however agree, that $650 for some bent metal is about $300 too much, even for European manufacturing.
I’m so glad you made this video! No way I’m paying $650 for an enclosure that was half-hearted in “cost vs benefit” sense. Seems like it was more of an exercise in “how over-complicated can we make it before people won’t purchase”. I still haven’t received my XL, but I do look forward to some proper multi-MATERIAL printing
Got this in my youtube recommendations a couple of weeks after buying the X1C. I love the X1C so far, but the multi-toolhead capabilites of the prusa XL also look reeeeally nice! 😊 Took a few minutes before i realized why you looked so familiar… ah, the good old sparkfun days! 🥳 Glad to see you have your own channel, Robert. Subscribed immediately, and look forward to more like this! 💯
Thanks for the video Rob. I have the sumo enclosure on my prusa XL. I’ve been having a lot of problems with my printer mostly due to the heat from the enclosure, causing electrical errors, but I am getting them worked out. I feel a lot better about my enclosure now that I see this video. I really appreciate your detailed approach. I’m working on my drawers that you designed for my printer once that’s done. I’ll put out a review of the XL and my enclosure. See what people think about it.
Could you try printing larger ABS prints. I have this setup and get random tile overheating errors. Open door do not get error but print is equally not successful. Seems like the chamber gets too hot for the bed electronics.
Hey, i just wanted to say I'm a new viewer to your channel and for me you're the perfect mix of opinion, facts, and pace. Was hoping to see somebody talk about this and was excited to see your video pop up!
I’m guessing the fan cable is so long because they are using the exact same part as the MK4 enclosure which has to route the cable from the front to the back. Anyways i’ve been waiting for someone to make a comprehensive review of this for a while now so thanks.
I was waiting to see the official XL enclosure before thinking about whether to design and build my own... Might just build my own. lol. It's very weird that they didn't include a temp probe as part of the enclosure kit. I might try doing that myself to see how useful it would be. It looks like Prusa is using Molex 1.5mm Clik-Mate connectors (connector housing: Molex 502578-0201, pin: Molex 502579).
Thanks for the thorough vid. So much feels like a complete afterthought. As you're spinning the printer around and moving the enclosures, I couldn't help but notice how many areas you could see light shining through all the unsealed openings.
I have a 5 tool head Prusa XL, and it makes *great* prints, and I'm overall happy with it, but there's parts that make it feel half baked (examples: no camera or even camera support, the trash that is the PusaLink interface, apparently not being able to set the *hostname*). For the price of these things, there's really no excuse for that. Especially, when there's nothing stopping them from just including a Pi-like board and running something like Octoprint... which would solve a bunch of issues (Which is what I've ended up doing myself).
Listened to the whole thing. Turned into a masterclass on how to give constructive criticism… my reality is I bought 10 mk3’s in the past, but now I have 20 bambu’s in my basement from doing client work. They’re just so affordable and easy to use… Excited to see what the future holds for innovation and competition.
Great video again Robert. I'm very glad to see long-form content that is also positive and negative. I'm somewhat lucky to have my XL chilling on the floor next to my desk with the desk on the left, the walls of the apartment behind and right, and the ceiling of the building starting to cover the printer from about 0.6m off the ground. All I needed to enclose mine were two sheets of 25mm thick honeycomb cardboard that I ordered cut to size from a hardware store here in Switzerland, cost me about 30.-
I don't own any Prusa printers and have heard such great things about their design and reliability. The XL as a whole just seems like such an afterthought though, and this enclosure just further compounds that. For $650 I would expect this to be a comprehensive option, especially since it is from Prusa directly. One led strip, no keying or alignment on the bellows, and a cheap $5 hygrometer seem much more like the cut down "lite" version of what the enclosure should be. Which really does seem like the case since they have the software and hardware ready to go to support a chamber heater and ambient temp probe. This realistically should be a $250 option with a $500 fully featured alternative. I would bet money that those fancy bellows on the front ate up the majority of the design budget and contributes the most to production cost and for what? Designing a bifold door at the bottom using the same stamped steel and acrylic would have been just as effective and most likely cost substantially less. Just seems like some really odd design decisions that ballooned the final price far beyond what it is worth.
Hmm, I really liked their last enclosure but for 5 or 6 hundred you can just go to a cabinet shop and have a cabinet made and maybe have enough to buy a double pane window in the door. I like how they used the printer itself for the structure of the enclosure though, that was a good idea. I think they're re-thinking the enclosure after the first impression videos because it isn't on the site right now. As for as the gaps, the last one had it also. I plugged a ton of mounting holes. I don't think printer companies are worried about air quality. That is another reason I'd just go with a cabinet, cut a hole for air intake and air exhaust, put a filter on both and hook the the fans to a temperature sensor so you can have it close to the temp you need.
So the answer is, this machine with this bizarre enclosure option is not for anyone who wants to print high temp. I'm finishing a doom expanded insulated trident, has an expanded y so I can make it a tool changer, to have to compromise so much for this half baked prusa amalgamation, nope.
Thank you for your honest review. I bought a month ago. I ordered my XL five head with enclosure. Look forward to putting it together. I would like to see you fix all the problems that you appointed out in this video. Especially around the fan enclosure. Look forward to your next video as always.
FWIW, I built my enclosure late last week. The enclosure build itself was pretty enjoyable. I didn't particularly enjoy upgrading the various PETG parts on the motion system and tool heads to PCCF, although I got pretty quick at the tool head work by the fifth time! 🤣 I was worried that the whole process of having to re-tension the belts would take what was a flawless printer and leave me with issues, but so far so good. I gather that printers built starting in June have the PCCF parts already so that won't suck so much. I totally agree that Prusa really needs to re-think how they do wire routing. They seem to be fixated on routing wires through the smallest channels possible, and that makes it a total PITA to assemble and modify. Having to do a bunch of disassembly on the back of the printer to connect up the fan and lighting for the enclosure was annoying. Now that it's all done, the one issue I have with the finished product is that every time I pull the bellows down, the magnets come with. That needs a re-think.
I have an XL enclosure. Most of your observations and criticisms are spot on. The lack of any wiggle room with wire routing is ridiculous. I ended up cutting a stepper motor wires. I did not install the Nextruder upgrades. The documentation said it is unnecessary for systems received after June. It appears Prusa changed the parts from PC carbon (?) to nylon. I received my XL in May and I am sure my printer already had the newer parts. I did not do the belt tension upgrade either. I don't have unusual play on my belts, why fix what isn't broken? I do not like control of the fan and LED in software. The button approach used in the Mk4 enclosure is, I find, preferable. The LED placed above and on the right creates glare and uneven lighting. It should have been placed above and horizontally. I experienced a bunch of weird problems post enclosure assembly. Straight away I had a power supply (don't recall the specifics) OSOD (orange screen of death) error and subsequently 2 thermal runaway OSOD's. I didn't experience those types of errors pre-enclosure. I saw a well engineered hydraulic lift for the Mk4 enclosure lid on Printables. I suspect someone will produce something similar for the XL. For some filaments an enclosure is essential so I have no regrets buying it.
Interesting, I've got the enclosure too. I do not like the location of the filter but love the "harmonica". Will see how long does it last. As far as it comes to build quality I am OK with it. The print quality and functionality is the #1 to me. I appreciate using standard components instead of custom ones, it make me simpler to do modifications.
@@PaulHuckaby It's expensive, doesn't REALLY do what it should do (no actual temperature sensor), you need to spend several hours building it AND I need to modify it? I'm just pointing out pros and cons.
Robert, I like the approach you take to this review. Honest criticism and Kudo's where it's appropriate. I hope manufacturers are paying attention to your reviews. From a commonsense point of view and not purely financial. Keep up the good work.
The rant below isn't me disagreeing/rejecting with your review as a whole, I agree that there's problems with this product. This is an excellent video, and as with most mixed reviews, there's an order of magnitude more words to be written on something that is nearly great then if it was terrible. So there's only one point that I'd like to contest, and that is the line about expecting prusa to use more industrial grade processes to make their products. IMO, that's not at all the point of Prusa devices. Until recently, all of their products could be self sourced and built without any involvement from Prusa whatsoever, and that's rare to see. Having hardware this open lets you do whatever you want to keep your device going, and pushes the field as a whole. They're a company that grew out of the reprap movement, and that reprap philosophy is (from an outside perspective) what drives their product decision making. It's why they use their print farm, to prove to the customers that they trust their printers enough to make the printers themselves (and they net a ton of QA time on their products because of it). If Prusa followed the advice you laid out, they wouldn't be Prusa anymore, they'd be Sovol (not saying that Sovol is a bad company, just that they have different goals). The problem is that this philosophy and Prusa's specific application of it is that it cuts both ways. Products that don't go through their normal print farm process always seem to launch in a way worse state then the mainline i3 series of printers. The MMUs, the original enclosure, and most recently the XL and XL enclosure don't seem like they were really battle tested, and it demonstrates that Prusa has a problem with QAing products they don't fully utilize themselves. They don't use ABS/ASA to make their printers, so they don't put in the same level of effort to make printing with it the same level of experience as PETG and PLA. IDK man, it would suck for new Prusa machines to include large portions of non-fdm-able custom parts. It sucks now to have a part in my MK4 MMU3 that if it breaks it's unreproducable for hobbyists. Sorry for the rant, just something that's been eating at me as 3d printing continues to get pulled down the commodification pipeline.
@PrivateButts My dude, that's just marketing. They purposefully design their stuff to be hard to replicate and have said so while complaining that people made clones, they haven't released the hardware source for the XL, and it's obviously possible to have well printing printers without a massive farm of poorly printing printers (look at the print quality that comes out of there). It's all marketing. I think Robs point is completely valid as a result. This isn't a product marketed to casual makers but to small businesses, bigger businesses and prosumers. They have more than enough volume to be using mass manufacturing techniques. This could be a much more refined product.
Partially agree, but things like the electronics box on my mk4, I like it to be metal (not going to brake anytime soon), so a good and logical mix makes more sense to me.
"They have more than enough volume to be using mass manufacturing techniques." THIS. And be leveraging those processes, this could be better AND cheaper. But it's a kit, which is actually harder to produce. All those bags of screws, the documentation, inventory, etc, etc all add to the cost.
@PrivateButts I'm sorry, but this doesn't fly in 2024. Voron machines have upgrade parts made on industrial cnc machines and custom electronics. Now the standard toolhead uses a voron canbus board. When I built the annex k3 kit, the toolhead has the preferred option for a custom board specific to the k3. The kit includes many laser cut and cnc machined options which are a made on industrial machines. The trident frame kit I am working with now has custom extrusions for the fridge style door. This is a lame marketing excuse. The xl bed is far from the reprap movement. You act like you can make the prusa xl hotend on a lathe at home...
Is there sufficient clearance behind tool 1 for your unit? Mine is rubbing against the curved end of the sheet metal and is detaching from the gantry about 50% of the time when it goes to retrieve it. When I try to pull it manually, I can tell that the back end is rubbing against the metal. All the other tools are fine since that
great overview. I am looking to get the enclosure. But I might wait an see if they adjust based on your feedback. ;) I have not read the instructions yet. But I wonder if it is a must to change from PETG to ABS/ASA on the printheads. Curious what the chamber temp has been, heat rise and all that.
Note that if your Prusa XL was made recently (since June, I think), most parts don't have to be reprinted; they are already in PC-CF, ready for the enclosure.
Great video Robert. I appreciate the level of detail and honest assessment of the enclosure. I bought mine prior to seeing your video because I wanted to get the discount before 7/31. I probably wouldn't have ordered it if I saw your video first. I just received my enclosure yesterday and I'm not sure if I want to take it out of the box based on your assessment. I don't really want to have to disassemble my printer and the space I have dedicated to the printer is only 26" deep and would be really difficult to make it 30-32" deep. Most likely I would have to modify the Prusa enclosure significantly in order to make it work and so I'm starting to think I might be better off just building a custom enclosure that fits my space. If I were to build my own enclosure, am I right to assume I would need to replace all the PETG parts anyway if it's going to get hot in there? Do you think there are enough benefits to the Prusa enclosure (over say a Sumo enclosure or other printables option) that I should just build the Prusa enclosure and modify it to suit my space or return the prusa enclosure and build something myself?
Well, your timing is impeccable. Mine is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I appreciate the heads up for what's in store putting it all together. I believe your printer is a pretty early one, so I could sort of *barely* understand why they might have extruder parts that needed to be replaced on the earliest machines. But my printer is a few months old. It's pretty hard to fathom how they wouldn't have known about those parts by the time mine was built. To coin a phrase: weird. I'm also really disappointed to hear about the lack of a temperature sensor. Frankly, I assumed this was part of the design. I'm glad to hear that ASA worked well for you anyway, since that's my primary reason for buying the enclosure.
Yes, mine was ordered like 15 minutes after the pre-order was announced. Apparently it's using the temp sensor from the toolheads. I was unaware of that.
Hi, if I may ask you a question about that enclosure? I got mine and saw that after a print (used only one tool and printed PC) all 5 toolhead heatbreak fans were working... Is it for cooling down the enclosure or FW controlling heatbreak temps?
I just built mine and the cables exiting the enclosure are even length (about 10cm), no extra cable to bundle above splitter board. I have an added 3030 profile as extra brace on the front of the printer, it acts as a nice stop for the upper door (needed to the off some on the nut covers though).
Hi Robert Your XL enclosure review came up on my you tube feed this morning just before I assembled mine. Thanks! I have the same concern as you about changing the Hepa filter when it needs it. My XL is in a tight space. I happen to be at that point right now. Looking at it. it seals both front and back, so I just didn't install the filtration cover box. Thanks again, Doug
Fantastic review! I haven't bought an XL because I felt it wasn't done yet. Part of the problem with it being the only commercial toolchanger (that isn't an industrial one) means they get to set whatever bar of quality and effort in. I would really like to see Bambu come in with a toolchanger and again, show the whole world what a polished machine should look like and function like.
@@RobertCowanDIY I am sure the larger format is coming, but I don't actually think they are going to go go to a toolchanger. They've done well with the AMS systems. I am trying to design my own large format printer the would rival Bambu, but getting sheet metal and custom extrusions/castings are so costly.
@@RobertCowanDIYwell Bambu Lab in an interview not long ago said that larger printer was coming BUT just "larger wasn't enough". Those were their words so Priss must get ready, they are getting competition on the XL category. Bambu Lab also mentioned 2024 so I guess their plan is to release it by the end of the year.
I know it might sound odd, but if I watched this same video, I would probably end up buying one too. Seeing as there aren't really any actual attachment points on the printer, making something from scratch would require quite a bit of engineering AND cost in prototyping. I just want to use the printer, so I would have bought it too. You'll probably end up liking it, it DOES work well in many aspects.
Veeery good review. Bravo. I would add that at that price I would expect for the spools to be inside of the chamber so they can remain dry. Also if I am not mistaken the x1c can reach a chamber temperature of about 50 degrees Celsius so this is what I would also expect for this one. But of course it is impossible because of the gaps and the thing panels.
The enclosure definitely seems like an afterthought. It's like they made the whole XL and were staring at their work and someone went, "shit, there's no enclosure". That being said, I kind of love it. I love how big it is and how repairable and accessible it is. This thing was made to be tinkered, modified and repaired by the user. I also love kits and building stuff so a long build like the XL and enclosure is a plus not a negative to me. If I had 5 - 6K to spare I would definitely get a fully kitted out XL. I'm just not rich like that.
this seems to mirror my take on the official prusa enclosure for the i3 series. the i3 style printers have an excessively large footprint due to their design, so the enclosure for the i3 series from prusa is massive, especially in X and Y. the quality was fine, albeit the acrylic was super super thin to where I worried about cracking it as I fastened the million screws it took. they added a ton of extra mounting holes and such for modding and I think that's pretty cool. that said, even that printer and enclosure felt like a massive afterthought. I went in thinking I would build it, put my printer in it, then off I go. but no, it's unsurprisingly similar to your experience with the XL. for the power connector, you have to buy this optional male-male pass through connector and wire that into the PSU, which on the i3 requires disassembly because otherwise the psu would overheat from being inside the enclosure. if you don't get the male-male extra connector (you have to pay for it), your printer is literally hard-wired to the enclosure on the inside. they had some spots on the bottom where the printer was supposed to sit, but nothing actually keyed it, so centering it wasn't as straightforward as I'd like it to be. but that's not all. the lcd unit gets relocated to outside the enclosure, which requires more disassembly and you basically run a cable to the outside. the printer is now hard-wired to the enclosure in two places. I think you see where this is going aaaaand you have to do a bit more for the new Bowden tube that runs to the top and over to the side where the spool mounts inside the enclosure. while I have many printers, I stupidly chose to put my oldest printer in this enclosure, the original preorder mk3, and after thousands of hours, the mean well psu finally gave up the ghost. I went to troubleshoot the printer and I then came to the realization of the massive amount of work I have ahead of me just to do some troubleshooting. unlike the XL, that enclosure had doors in the front, but the rest is solid. those weren't cheaper either. I remember it being roughly the cost of another printer in kit form. that's about the time my first carbon x1 cc Bambu arrived, and well, that prusa basically sat there out of service until I ended up selling it to a friend. I like prusa. I like what they stand for, and I like all they did for the 3d printing industry for consumers. I get that being in the EU makes things more difficult, and I get the shipping across the pond can't make service related things easy. but at those prices, it's reaaaaally hard for me to recommend their stuff anymore. it really pains me to say it too, because I really like Josef and I like that company in general. I hope they find their way and stay in the game and nice review as usual
Thanks! I'm in the same boat. I have the enclosure for the MK4 and I was just downright mad when putting it together. It too a LOT longer than this and just felt cheap, and it was MASSIVE.
what a brilliant review! As for my MK 4 I'm gonna build my own enclosure for the XL if I finally decide to get it. As for the MK4 I designed & printed cooling adapters for the buddy board as well as the PSU (adapted only with strong magnets and no modifications whatsoever) so I didn't have to modify the printer at all for working in the enclosed environment! Also I don't understand why Prusa is not offering its printers with the higher temperature resistant parts (maybe as an option) in first place ... that actually still keeps me from placing an order for the 5 head XL. Once again 'chapeau!' for this honest review.
This reminds me a lot of my experience with the mk4 and its enclosure. Spend a crazy amount of money then spend hours disassembling and rebuilding to get a very average product. I ended up getting a P1S and was printing within 5mins! I’m selling my mk4 and I’ll never get anything from Prusa again, I want a tool not a hobby.
They gave me a MK4 and enclosure recently. I basically told them "I'm not doing a video on that because it won't be kind". This is definitely nicer, but the MK4 enclosure is just sad for what it is, IMO.
@@Ro3Deee Right? I love me negative reviews, about damn near anything. Maybe it's cathartic in this world filled with barely hidden infomercials trying to pass as reviews. Maybe it's because I just dont think people are negative enough. Of course only negative when fair, but there are so many products that deserve a good crapping on, if not just to save the fellow consumer from wasting their limited time on frustration.
The bellows design is actually just basic standard industrial machine solution. We use those magnetically attached bellows in so many machines it is absurd. My workplace has a 3kW laser and it has bellows like that which span upto 4 metres. I actually prefer them over the solid sheetmetal stacked models which add unnecessary complexity and many compications. If they get dented then you are potentially absolutely screwed as they intefer with each other, get stuck or rip something. Our water jet cutting system is also made with bellows. I suspect Prusa hired designers with past experience in industrial machinery design, because that is the kind of solution I'd come up with if I was told that: 1. It has to be modular and additional kit. 2. You must leave space for future upgrades of the unit. I'm 100% sure that most designers from industrial machinery side would have ended up with the same exact solution. 3. It must be easy and affordbale to post safely without getting destroyed even by the most incompetent courier or postal serviec). Also if you don't have a sheetmetal fabrication capacity or experience with that kind of design, then this solution is even better. And those full sheet metal enclosure usually are done for two specific reasons: 1. They must contain something that is dirty, wet, or high temperature (We speak of "Immidiate injuries from burns or risk of fire" level contaiment). 2. They must contain something which has a risk of becoming a high velocity projectile. 3. They must contain something that is extremely dangerous (Jets of material or lasers, or high angular velocity tool ends).
Thank you for your time spent on your review. I will say I appreciate design that uses a minimum of complexity and materials while ensuring it is suitably effective. The bellows appear to define the enclosure while also allowing very ready access to a region that frequently needs easy access. Seems elegant. The ambient (air) environment (now air in enclosure) temperatures are already accessible from existing XL thermometer sensors when controlling prints, so I am not sure what your new concern is? The extra thermometer on lid is, I assume, just so user is not surprised by heat when opening it, not as an additional printer input? You didn’t mention how you attach a vent duct to the new enclosure? (To get fumes out of room.) Is that well designed/integrated? When assessing the pricing of machines I work with a lot I try to factor in reliability, predictability, (manufacturer)optimization since these really impact my time. Our time is a large additional cost component in builds, so the less of our time the machine ends up needing to achieve the final good print is a significant factor. This should always be considered when discussing the upfront purchase costs. I appreciate companies that are continually putting a lot of their own software and hardware engineering labor into their products. Prusa does this. They do need to recover this in the upfront cost they charge.
Super interesting!! Thanks for recording. Now watching. Annoying they didn’t include the full LED lighting strip on 3 sides! It is not be for me as I don’t print materials requiring enclosure, but interesting to see. I am ok with the bellows, it’s a good solution. But it doesn’t feel like a 600 piece of kit for what it has. As you said, it’s the price of a full printer.
two would have been fine, IMO. 3 might have been an issue. but I just can't fathom why you wouldn't do equal lighting, when the badging is clearly so social media posts can showcase the printer...
@@RobertCowanDIYmight it be the control board can’t supply the amps required for another light strip? With the splitter in place we’re already driving two strips where there was one originally. Regarding the additional holes in the vertical styles, I found them very useful to mount a camera.
XL Enclosure you have to completely assemble yourself = $650. P1S out of the box and ready to print = $600. That was a pretty significant statement you just made sir. I hope the folks at Prusa are paying attention.
I have been saying that for a year after canceling a MK4 kit, went with Bambu, never looking back. Wonder if they are around in 5yrs? not sure at this point.
@tombo7719 Oh prusa isn't going anywhere. On top of having infinite wells of good will from fans who still see them as a lovable open source company (somehow) they have massive government backing being in the EU, as it's in the EU's interests not to be reliant on China. I just hope they get it together rather than turning into a sort of lulzbot affair.
@@BeefIngot right, using their fan base instead of being the innovator they were once. If they can't get on top of it, it is curtains for them. Their offerings are Meh, the XL being a cool printer, but very limited on what it can realistically do.
I think prusa has a lot of fans who appreciate their good work. It's not all about the packaging. Their printers, unlike the P1P, have quality components in them that make them print great. As my dad used to say, I'm too poor to buy cheap and non-functional stuff.
@@JohnWilson94-n2z their designs are dated and not exactly functioning as advertised, and as far as a loyal fan base, in Prusa's case, they are exploiting their fanbase. I have 1200 hours so far on my P1S.. the most of any of my printers going back 8 yrs and still very much reliable.
I think that this design is really good. It's light and can be scurely send in small package. Every part can be easily swaped and modified. You want something to key the bellows - that's 10min print, but you can use them as you like thanks to they are not keyed. Tempered glass is nice, but it would make whole, already heavy printer, heavier, it's harder to ship and easier to break, but harder to swap. Those cheap panels you definately can order localy or made themself and you don't need to relly on Prusa to send you replacement. It's expensive but it's a very good product. Price is high probably becouse low volume. The good part is it's simple design, so you can replicate it possibly much cheaper. I agree with fan and temperature probe issues.
Would someone post a link to the build plate storage add on mentioned around 40:00 minutes into the video. Mr. Cowan states it on Printables, but I am having a heck of a time finding it.
Hi, did you add the two magnets on the top right and the two magnets on the top left? It was kind of hard to see in the instructions that there are two magnets on each side of the top assembly. I had almost missed that since the picture of parts only showed 2 magnets for both sides but it was saying 4 in the text. I think that might be what was causing the magnet to come out, since this so far did not happen to me.
I had to replace the idler and catch in my MK4 that was in an enclosure. The PETG parts started to deform partway through prints, causing them to fail… but once cool they whee fine again. Took ages to work out what was happening… but I guess I and everyone else who had these issues and reported their pain to Prusa aided all of you XL users. 😉
Robert, Prusa will be making a camera add-on for all their printers. Most likely it will be mounted on the opposite side of the led strip or for a fire suppression system (my guess). This enclosure is not active heating but they are talking about it in their podcast for an add-on. Ideally, I would like to see the hot air from the top enclosure be recirculated to the bottom thru a heating element or exhausted out on top. Also, I share the same issue with the Ballow system. It should have been attached to the bottom air intake and the magnates should have been incorporated int the top of the ballow, not the upper arms. And the lid needed to be sealed against the ballow. One other thing I did not see you mention is why you need to redo the belt tension. There is another PETG part that needs to be replaced on the tool selector that holds the belts together.
So far, for what I print, I don't need an enclosure. I print ABS on the XL without one and the parts are flawless. Maybe if I printed ASA or larger ABS prints one might come in handy.
@Arcadenut1 I was going to ask if this printer can print PEEK, because I don't know at the top of my head. I'm sure it can handle polycarbonate and Nylon ok.
For the most part, my thoughts mirror yours. Just finished assembly, have the same sentiment about the bellows and am just flabbergasted that it has absolutely no alignment features. As for the exhaust fan, I understand where Prusa is coming from. It's the same way with the Original enclosure for the MK's - it's meant as filtration, not as a means to control temperature. Reasoning has always been that the expected chamber temperature is never supposed to exceed 40c anyway, so there's not really all that much to affect. Whether that's a valid hand-waving will depend person to person... I'm thankfully in the camp that doesn't care except to not smell ABS ever again. The one thing I will mention that frustrated me to no end was the entire wire management Undo button. Everything that we went through during the original assembly -- rip it all out. Do it again, now with another ground wire and a different LED plug. And don't mess up the antenna, kthxbye. It's all done now, so w/e. Time to get back to actually printing.
They do, but they all seem to be drinking the kool-aid of "but we're Prusa, and we're the best". They're potentially tone-deaf to what the market is actually saying.
@@RobertCowanDIY I don't think so. Maybe a bit, they clearly were surprised by the Bambu (which is a good thing for competition, even though the design philosophy is different), but they can't react that fast to what the market is saying. The XL and MK4 were kinda fixed designs at this point and the reaction will be for the next models. Which I assume to be ramped up. So, let's judge for those.
@@VincentGroenewold yeah but if they don’t change, Prusa will be out of business in 10 years. I’m reading more and more often that print farms order P1 or P1S printers instead of Prusa. They are faster with same print quality. Replacement parts are cheap. Build quality/parts aren’t that much better on a Prusa either.
First off, thanks for doing this review. I found it very thorough and informative. While watching this, everything you were surprised by, didn't surprise me at all. This is very much in character with the Prusa designs (excepting the SL1, which came from. A different team). They aren't very skilled at industrial design, at least not yet. The engineers at Bambu come from a background of mass manufacturing (DJI), and they clearly think about things like planned future features and maintenance. What's frustrating to me is not that Prusa is slow, or takes many iterations to get it right; it's that they have a huge price premium for this half-assery. Hopefully Bambu or someone else comes out with a solid multi-toolhead CoreXY soon. The Black box CE looks like a good design, but I'm really wanting to move away from the DIY printer, and just get something that's more like an appliance. Sadly, the XL isn't it.
Man I love prusa printers but at this price point all prusas should come with things fully assembled. Just got a Bambu p1s combo last week and blew my mind how I was able to start printing within 15min of unboxing
Yep. The MK4S came assembled and it was the same as the Bambu. I got another X1C at about the same time as the MK4S and they had the same "unbox to print" time. BUT, you pay a premium for the assembled version of course.
Thank you again for the really awesome video as always. You're going to easy on Prusa. At the price point of the enclosure, it's really sad to see this the dev team just fall down left and right a multiple decision points. I'm in a very warm climate area where having an enclosure really magnifies Prusa's really poor design decisions. For example, MCU over temp errors is normal. You may start to encounter MCU over temp errors on long prints because heatbed MCU is mounted directly under essentially a hot plate, and this printer was originally announced to be enclosed. So putting the MCU inside a heated chamber, the the xBuddy board having absolutely no cooling fan is a indication, imho, major failure top down from executive level all the way down to the design and program team. I do have a programmable heatbed MCU cooler on printeables, but that's not my point of bring that up. My point, and you are putting it way too nicely, is there are so many design decision failures for this $5,000 investment. At that price point all the "strange / weird" items you've pointed out are nearly nonexistent in professional grade printers in similar price point. Personally, XL has been the Xtra Large problematic printer and the worse investment for me. My MK3s+ have 10 times more successful print over this XL problem printer.
A very thoughtful review and pointed comment on the state of Prusa. I think a lot of this community wants to champion the open source oddball that is Prusa, but it hasn't really made what is the next obvious big step into being a manufacturing leader. You get a lot with Prusa but no longer is the bulk of it good, or enough to accept as a tax for appreciation of what the company represents. Its going to SAAB/Volvo its way out of its niche if it doesn't change soon IMO.
I was wondering how you would feel about that magnetic attachment on the bellows. It’s all very rigged and I was certain I missed a step to keep the magnets in the pockets. I thought for sure they can’t mean to keep the magnets only attached with other magnets. On occasion I’ve had one not let go when I pull the bellows down. But that’s how you do the Prusa polka I guess 🪗
Very fair review. The XL itself has a few design flaws of it's own (I'm looking at your Docks)... Maybe they'll fix them in the XL2 version of the printer.
I actually think the docks are fine. The design flaw was letting customers assemble them. If assembled properly, they're pretty bulletproof. But there are many places where incorrect assembly could result in errors.
I honestly think you are looking past the point and the constraints they probably had. I think you are looking to deep into it. Like the extra holes is probably due to cost. It costs more to make two different types than just one. And the bellows I think not having it fully mounted is nice. It makes it easy to remove if needed and it is super easy to push it back a inch. it is also a unicorn so I think it shouldn't be compared to a bamboo or anything else. Just my thoughts.
For the price of the XL, the lack of refinement is concerning. If form is to follow function, the enclosure should have a better fit. ...also appreciate you not making excuses for the company.
I built my first enclosure about 10 years ago, still using it. I added back then a DHT22 and a small arduino, talking over serial to the Marlin board for exactly what you are missing - temperature and humidity control / feedback. Later I 'hacked' it into Octoprint so I have full feedback and control over the UI.
The fan outlet hat to be on the top, where hot air accumulates. Also one might want to connect this to a duct to exhaust it outdoors - good luck with that in the current state !
@@RobertCowanDIY A printer of this caliber deserves to be hooked up just like your other machines. I know you are having one of this larger Hepa units on your laser, could have tied into that too..
I'm still waiting to collect my enclosure at my "neighbors" house two streets further up (darn DPD courier),... Does it come with the printed parts for the tool head? Or do you need to print them? I hope the first as I dont have PCCF on stock and would cause more delay ...
was only a matter of time till the community fixed some of these issues - there is a replacement filter box for the back that enables sliding out the filter without needing to remove the box - really should have just came that way, but we have 3D printers... we can fix these things. Also there are some bellow alignment prints (but I'm waiting for some other options).
Thank you for a very detailed and interesting video! I appreciate your attention to details and the calm and unrushed presentation style. Also I think the enclosure is very cool-looking and the bellows totally not what I was expecting :D The whole printer now looks like a droid from Star Wars Personally I'm not sure Prusa should start going into the direction of most large manufacturers with injection molding and other conventional or more streamlined manufacturing techniques - their whole thing has been and still is to stand out of the crowd by being a sort of like a "maker collective", doing things more the homebrew DIY way, if you get my point. The print farm is not just a manufacturing method but also a major advertising and PR asset I think - and as far as I know, Prusa as a company is doing well despite their products having more "premium" prices and slightly different approaches to certain things compared to others amongst the industry (like supposedly the best product support). Having said that, I personally don't own a Prusa printer - even though I'd really like to - simply because of the price =I
I think the issue with the mirrored Side Panel having *_all_* the Mounting Solutions and Features for a second Light but not having the Light is because it actually is the same part when they cut it to size with all the Holes but only up to the point until they start bending it into shape where it then becomes one side or the other - It simplifies Production. But yea... Should have added a second Light.
Prusa’s reliance on 3D printed parts is frankly, to a fault. As you said, they have the funds, space, and ability to make things we cannot make at home very easily. That goes for the enclosure, but also the printers themselves - the XL 5 head costing what it does without an enclosure is already absurd, and I can only assume their failure to utilize their manufacturing at scale is the problem. The speed they can print parts cannot possibly rival injection molding or extrusion parts. This enclosure general business decisions Prusa make now almost feel like weird cope to double down on prior poor decisions.
Buenos dias, como veo que hace tiempo que tienes una Prusa XL con cinco cabezales, te quiero hacer una pregunta cuando un cabezal no admite el filamento, y repetidamente hace ruido, (TCAK TACK TACK)como se puede solucionar , ya que hace un mes que tengo esta maquina y tengo este problema, e intentado mirar en prusa y no lo encuentro.
BTW, If you want, you can actually use the rigid doors from my enXLosure design, with the top of the original enclosure! Also, I offer a adapter kit so you can have the full connectivity and features of the original, on the cheaper enXLosure!
Especially given the fact that Prusa has shown parts of this long time ago, it is indeed strange that they did not take any mounting holes or the PETG levers on the nextruders into account on the newer models delivered. I don't like these little push thingies they use to mount the plexi/lexan panels. On the Mk3 enclosure they use the same ones and if you even need to take them out (and believe me - you do ...) you are bound to break one or two. I also don't like the bellows, I prefer lexan doors so I can look at the printing progress when I am sitting behing my desk - but that's more a personal preference. Overall a good overview of the whole thing. Looks like Prusa missed out on quite a few features that should have been implemented. Looks like "the XL selling scheme:" is becoming the new industry standard: deliver a half baked product while promising to deliver fancy features later by upgrades ...
There are two things that really need to be looked at. 1. If using TPU the long bordon tubes cannot be used because it will not pull through them. I currently disconnect the boden tube and place the TPU spool over the top. The NEXTruder is more than capable to print TPU's, one of the benefits of the new Prusa printers. Once I put this enclosure on, how am I going to print TPU? 2 For this enclosure to be functional in my opinion, I want constant temperature control. I want repeatability in my parts. The enclosure temperature is critical for consistent part repeatable quality control. The fact that they didn't make this a constant temperature enclosure is a mistake in my opinion. I do like the bellows and I think my Prusa XL is amazing.
Their guide to printing TPU using the reverse bowden tube is so... misleading, because such prints inevitably fail. It's a nightmare to load and consistently gets jammed which ruins the print. I had to mount the spool above too, which is such an unacceptable workaround since it's not practical for a lot of people.
That certainly seems like a lot of work. And I definitely agree that they should provide a second LED panel and sort out the bellows attachment issue. That said, I would definitely not buy this enclosure for 650 dollars. It simply looks too flimsy and poorly thought out overall. Unfortunately, from their pricing strategy it is very clear that Prusa are NOT listening to their customers. Don't get me wrong - I love my MK3S+. But I think they are no longer on top of their game.
I really wanted to buy a Prusa, but I ended up with Bambu. I'm someone who doesn't have time to build a printer, and I need to start printing right away with no fuss. When it costs less to buy a fully assembled printer that works out of the box than a Prusa that you have to spend a day building, their model falls apart. Sure if you like to tinker and it's your first printer, by all means build your first printer. But if you are on your second printer, or are someone who just needs to start printing out of the box, having a printing kit cost more than an assembled printer makes no sense. And I'm talking about the MK4. The XL is a really awesome printer. But the enclosure does seem like an afterthought. And it is expensive. To the point where wasting filament on an X1 is an order of magnitude cheaper than buying an XL, especially if you are conservative and minimize your filament changes. I still want a tool-changer, and Prusa is the only game in town (right now). And I do want to get into multi-material. But there are new challengers appearing, such as the beltless Magneto X from Peopoly, which I'm following with great interest. They are talking about developing a tool changer for their system. Which having that be beltless is amazing. Core XY belts and keeping proper tension is so annoying. I think Peopoly is still in early days, but they could end up taking things far. And who knows what Bambu is cooking up for their second round.
I love the massive amounts of sarcasm in this review. This really seems like a printer where like, its aimed at very prosumers, small business, etc but then the enclosure is built as if just sorta a few hobbyists got together and tried to bang out an enclosure in a few days, which is really strange because I could have sworn they said they were almost finished designing it long before the XL came out and before one of the many delays. I think they're taking the marketing of "and we print our own parts and make kits for hobbyists" a bit too far. It has some really weird prusa-isms like the bellows too which, I get that its unique and cool, but like... why not some bifold doors? That would give the same access, be more rigid, and give you a clear straight view into the printer. You could also use some lift-off hinges so you could just pull the doors off whenever you wanted. The electronics to me is the most odd to me, because this is supposed to be serious business, and they already have a temperature probe port so it feels pretty inexcusable that they didnt use it on the official version, especially after having warned the user about the various printed parts in there that are temperature sensitive (even if the really sensitive parts were removed). It just seems like a recipe for clogs if you don't unload every other type of filament that isn't the exact same type when you want to print something requiring a chamber that's even a little bit warm. Oh also, why no camera mount point? I mean, have people not been clamouring for that for remote monitoring? The other thing that kinda bothers me, is they put so much effort into these proprietary pcbs to stop other people from copying them ... which is against their whole big marketing on open source thing, so, if you're gonna do all that, how did you not use that effort to put in all those nice features everyone wants in the boards you're already having designed??? like, why in the heck is there a battery powered cheapo thermometer? I think they are leaning really _really_ hard on the fact that this thing doesn't have any competition, though the Proforge 4 tool changer does exist now so... that advantage might be dwindling. I think even with the frustration, probably a lot of people who have these will ultimately be pretty pleased whenever they do whatever project using multiple different filament types. Maybe not that amount of time and effort pleased, but "I have the tool I wanted I guess" pleased.
MAYBE, but then they probably should have done aluminum for the metal panels? I'm not really sure I can speculate too much about their decisions though.
I agree putting it together wasn’t hard but it did take me about 4 hrs to complete. Yes it’s not a beauty queen but I’m very happy with it. I had a similar concern with the bellows being able to move but I haven’t had any issues at all. As far as the chamber temp it does pull a reading from some where I assume the print heads. All the xtra holes workout great I made a mount for the ESP32 cam that fits perfect in the front corner. The esp32 with a wide angle lens is awesome option with Prusa connect. The odd thing I ran into was I went to plug in the camera to the usb c port on the back and it had no power. Not sure if it’s just a usb pass through or not there is a usb port inline with it just below. Wish there was more documentation on that part. I can’t remember the overall weight after the install but the printer is super heavy now. I put it on a temporary table for the install of enclosure and it started to bow it. It took two people to move it back to its regular home. But overall I love the machine and the enclosure. yes I agree some things are odd but it works great.
I might have to make an update to the video saying the temp comes from the toolheads. Others have pointed that out. That's my bad. I would just expect a more 'global' temp sensor, especially when I saw the header.
I cancelled my enclosure order even with the discount code - it's a lot of money for a disappointing product. I like the bellows but the rest of the design is just... so awkward and disappointing. You pointed out so many simple improvements they could have made if the XL was better designed to receive this enclosure in the first place. The fact that it costs around the same as a P1P is the real kicker for me. I also realised I don't print many big ASA pieces so I can get by with my older upgraded Ender 3 with a tent enclosure for the times I do need to print ASA, and PCCF doesn't really need an enclosure. I like a lot of Prusa's work and want to support an EU company, but the XL has been such a love hate relationship. It's also a lot better with the 6.0 firmware and I look forward to further improvements, but man they make it hard to be an early adopter now it ships with .4 nozzles and some PCCF parts, not to mention the horrendous stringing for a while. But then nothing can touch it for multi-material and minimal-waste multi-colour.
The lack of a temperature sensor is actually an absurd decision. The amount of quality it would add to the printer and the control to the user from a temp sensor is a night-and-day difference. How much could it possibly have cost for that probe to forego its inclusion??? If it would make the build too complex or something, give it as a recommended option for people to add, but include the part. If it costs too much, add it as a add-on with the kid for additional cost. (not very compelling considering those cheapo temperature readouts measure temps just fine).
Agreed! Stop sending gummy bears, don't include the little snap in one, and just give me a sensor (which the controller board and interface clearly supports!)
@@RobertCowanDIY loved your video btw. That was super insightful. I don't even have an XL. 😅 Hopefully Joseph and the Prusa team actually take some of your pointers. They definitely need to start playing catch-up or they will be buried by the competition.
Also, I just thought of this now seeing your comment, but how cool would it have been for them to use their multi zone heated bed to act as a chamber heater with the parts that arent actively being printed on, like I can imagine many caveats of such a system, like needing a buffer zone, but I think many prints dont use the whole bed anyways so its an idea just sitting there.
The enclosure was an afterthought. The XL wasn't designed for an enclosure. That's the biggest mistake Prusa made. Shocking they didnt make this an enclosed printer in the first place. Im sure ull see an XL2 sometime in the future.
Dear Robert, about your regards about the temp sensor. If you use Prusa Connect you will see the (enclosure) temp in the telemetry section. Also the sliding of the bellows is perfect for temp regulation. I had also a loose magnet.. drop of glue will do the trick... (-;
Regarding the temp sensor, I learned about this after the video was released. It does seem strange to have the control loop in the cloud, rather than on the machine (the menu doesn't show the temp, but the cloud service does?). As I said, I DO like the sliding bellows, it just seems poorly implemented. Yes, you could glue in the magnets, but that's not really the point is it?
Thinking of going enXLosure for my work 5t and adding my own chamber heating/cooling. was trying to print asa with the box as an enclosure in +30 C and was having all kinds of overtemp errors. Added a pair of 40x40x10 24v noctuas for the buddy board chamber and bed splitter board along with heating the whole bed has it running. probably reprint all the petg parts in PC+ on my x1c, not sure it really needs pccf.
I am waiting for my XL enclosure. I think it looks pretty cool. But, I need another printer like it. But I wonder if i should wait for something like a Prusa XL mk2 with some of these things sorted.
Nah, I don't think there's anything WRONG with the printer. I still use it and it works great. You'll see many other UA-camrs using it as a 'reference', but not really talking about it. It's still a great printer, if you ignore the price tag and some other little quirks.
Completely understand what you mean by the instructions explaining more than they should. I will say though that part of my real world job is to create instruction sets for technical products. More often than not, these products go to non-technical people. It took me a long time to realize that non-technical people need those details. Meanwhile, the analytical people get frustrated due to the overly detailed instructions.
Yeah, I don't think they should change a single thing with the instructions, they're very good. They just confuse and slow me down sometimes with all the details. But that's not a bad thing.
Rather have overly detailed instructions then poorly written instructions with not a whole lot of information
Even though it can be frustrating with how much it slows me down I always skip a step somewhere when I don’t circle and X my steps 😂
Great video. I’m really inspired by your ability to tell it like it is respectfully but firmly, and not worry if manufacturers will punish you by not working with you again in the future. I admit that I have a hard time being as critical as I maybe should sometimes, and I need to learn from you.
Awww, thanks. I have a hard time NOT just saying what I want, so I envy the opposite side of it equally ;-)
Or maybe it's because you see NDA's as suggested guidelines.
@@mikedhaen6878 I do not have any active NDAs with any company right now (personally).
@@RobertCowanDIY He was referring to @TheNextLayer and how he ignored bambu labs NDA and leaked the A1 mini a full day early to his paid subscribers. Subsequently causing bambu lab to cut all ties with him. Hes not to be trusted which is why nobody will give him free products for review anymore.
Believe me, we can tell when you are not being realistically critical and just doing it for the views. Honesty is the best policy, even if its just being honest with yourself.
I love that you're doing more 3d printing videos, thanks for the honest review - hard to find these days!
you're welcome!
The XL does monitor the enclosure temperature, it displays this temp within Prusa connect and the menu screen.
You need to be running a print for it to log and show the temperature.
I believe it is using one of the toolheads temperature sensors to do the work, rather than adding another sensor. Makes sense.
I agree the fan is in an annoying place to remove the filter but otherwise I am happy with the enclosure. Well thought out and it works as intended.
I wonder how that could work if you're doing a 5-color print where it has to keep all five tools warm.
@@MikeKobb Thats a good question. Maybe there is an ambient sensor on there somewhere? Unsure, but I do know it is measured somewhere.
Good to know. It's strange that it only shows in the Prusa Connect, NOT on the actual printer? I'll have to do more digging. Temp sensors are easily under $1, more like $0.25 in quantity though. It seems odd to not have a dedicated one placed at the right spot in the enclosure. It's an odd workaround when a workaround isn't needed.
Seems to be another temp sensor if you look on Prusa connect there’s temp for all the tools, bed, and enclosure and none are the same
Hi Robert. Yes, you can display the enclosure temperature in the footer. As per the 6.0.2. FW release notes:
"You can display the temperature inside the enclosure in the footer by going to Settings -> User Interface -> Footer. The temperature value is derived from the current or first tool board temperature. The temperature will be displayed 5 minutes after the start of printing. This delay is due to the need for temperature stabilization inside the XL Enclosure. The temperature will reset to “-” after the print is complete."
I have a sumo enclosure and I have not reprinted any of the components inside inside my enclosure and regularly print at 45°C chamber temp.
I personally appreciate the super detailed instructions. When you sell something that the user is going to assemble you really open a can of worms. Unfortunately not everyone is skilled and if it can be messed up people will mess it up. Then they'll expect Prusa to warranty it even though it's user error. So just keep that in mind if you think the instructions are overboard.
The fact that a maker would be capable of building the enclosure themselves is actually an added value - it's repairable!
Last year I designed/printed/laser cut my own XL enclosure. I took strong inspiration from the SUMO enclosure prototypes - I used the same basic shape - but I designed from scratch and included a ton of weather sealing type features to strongly restrict where and how air flowed through the enclosure. Air enters the bottom front, and exits through four quiet 80mm Noctua fans on the sides (next to and above the steppers & tool heads, to draw cooling air over them). The fans are connected to a couple 3" air ducts that I have routed out a nearby window - no filters or noise to worry about. I can control fan speed to tailor the enclosure for different materials, i.e. less exhaust airflow for nylon, and I can maintain temps below 30C when printing PLA. I used 6mm acrylic, and the printed components are about 12mm thick, so I get a lot of noise reduction, so with the latest firmware I have a basically silent XL. I designed my own lift-off hinges for the front doors, so if/when they get in the way, I can quickly remove/install them. Overall, it cost me about $400 to construct it, including PETG, acrylic, and fans.
One of the unexpected benefits of the flat-topped SUMO style enclosure is that I can easily store my filaments on top. I primarily do this for PETG/hygroscopic filaments, as I keep them in plastic cereal box DIY dry-boxes with desiccant, and run PTFE tubes down to the XL's filament intakes, so I have a fully sealed filament solution. Even better, I've found that certain filaments will not reliably feed through the XL's tubes, soft TPU for example. To solve this, I drilled a small hole in the top center of my enclosure, and I have a cereal dry-box they keys into it, so I can basically feed TPU straight from the dry-box into the enclosure without any tubes, and I disconnect the PTFE tube from the hot-end and run the filament straight into the Nextruder. This completely solves the filament feeding issue. Instead of disabling the side filament sensors, I'll just stick a short section of filament into it to trick the printer into thinking filament is running through its tubes. While Prusa's angular enclosure design looks neat, I don't think my tubeless direct filament feeding solution could be used at all.
My main 3 requirements for my enclosure design were noise reduction, elevated enclosure temps for special needs filaments like nylon, and complete elimination of all harmful gasses. I get headaches even from printing PLA, and everyone in this hobby deserves to read up on the research that shows pretty much all filaments short of PETG produce harmful fumes while printing. I love that I can print even PLA with the enclosure fully closed up, or print stinky ABS and not smell anything at all. Prusa's solution to open the bellows for temp control denies realizing this benefit.
I've long wondered if I would regret not waiting for Prusa's in-house solution. I went through several months and iterations to refine the design, and ultimately it still has that home-made quality, and of course has no tie-in to the printer's electronics for fully integrated temperature control. But apparently Prusa hasn't solved these issue either. Shame.
Thanks to Robert's excellent review, I no longer have any regrets. I wouldn't trade my enclosure for one of Prusa's at any price.
One thing I didn't know about were the PETG part replacements on the hot ends. I'll have to look into that. So far I've not had any issues with my setup, perhaps my fans are doing a better job at temp control. PETG has a glass transition point over 80C, far higher than the sub 40C enclosure temps I've measured. I have no desire to get that hot.
Soooo how about those designs and a BOM list? Your solutions sounds amazing. I’m in the same boat with feeling sick and nauseous followed by headaches with just PLA printing. I’m seriously interested in this.
You should go to market at 600, undercut them and deliver a better serviceable product, probably with less assembly steps at that!
I've strongly been considering releasing it, once I finish tweaking it. I originally used just a couple 80mm fans on dual 2" hoses, then upgraded to quad fans on the same 2 hoses, but there was too much back pressure and temps would climb a bit too high. Just this past week I upgraded to 3" hoses, doubling the airflow, and I think that's finally solved the temp issue. That was my last major design issue. I do have a few minor tweaks to the parts to improve printability. This is by far my most complicated project, with tons of heat set inserts, screws/bolts, t-slot insert nuts, metal shafts, magnets, hex shaft reinforcements, adhesive felt, fans, ducting, a nice hygrometer, laser cut acrylic panels, plus multi-material printing in PETG, PLA, and TPU. Putting together the BOM will be a huge task. The instructions even more so. I guess I'm saying it won't happen overnight.
While some of the parts could be printed on a regular printer, most of it is designed for printing on at least a 2-tool XL, and some parts require as least 4-tools (assuming you want colors, I did galaxy black with orange & silver accents). There's easily several weeks of printing involved. The acrylic panels can be laser cut or CNC'd, and this will be your largest expense. I bought the panels for around $200, and had free access to an industrial laser, so that's why I was able to keep costs in check. My biggest challenge was actually successfully printing without an enclosure, many parts were too warped to use and had to be reprinted. For this reason, I found that printing a few parts for the top cover support frame, enough to rest the acrylic top in place as a draft shield, allowed me to successfully print the rest of the parts.
Having lived with it for over half a year, I think my biggest complaint is limited access to the tool heads in the parked position. You can easily pop them off the docks and bring them towards the front for working on them, but doing any maintenance on the back half can be a pain. The top does lift off, and I've even included handles, but it's a big boy and those 6mm thick acrylic panels can be heavy. Somehow I've avoided removing the top so far. Even taller doors would have been nice, but that's a major design change I'm unlikely to make.
If I post it, it will likely be on Printables. If you want to see what it looks like, you can check out my Prusa Buddy print video. I'll probably post more videos on the enclosure, so that might be the best way to get notified if I release it.
@@Roobotics That's a fine idea, but it's definitely not less assembly steps. There's a ton of labor involved in printing 70+ parts (some are pretty big) and plus inserting heat set inserts. Assembly is much more involved than Prusa's solution, mainly because you're still limited in print size even on the XL, so you end up bolting together smaller parts to form the enclosure's shell. There's over 100 screws/bolts required for assembly. I got lucky and had one-time free access to an industrial laser cutter, so I got my acrylic panels cut at material cost. If I was doing this as a retail product, I don't think I could undercut Prusa, it would likely be closer to $1k if I factored in labor and production expense.
Even that might be a bit optimistic. For comparison, the SUMO kit retails for $300, which is primarily the acrylic panels, plus some fairly low-cost hardware, and you're responsible for printing all the plastic parts. The SUMO's acrylic panels are 3mm thick, half the thickness that I used. Since the acrylic is the biggest cost item, a similar kit with 6mm thick panels would likely be $450, and that doesn't even include the printed parts. Another factor is that 6mm acrylic is heavy, which affects both shipping expense and makes assembly quite a bit harder to manage.
I do believe the end result is much better than Prusa's solution, but not cheaper or easier. I basically spared no expense in my design, with no concern for what a retail product would cost, I simply wanted the enclosure of my dreams.
@@PaulStevensonPinball I just did a few hours ago haha. Looks great from the stills I paused at. I think for simplicity I’m going to pull the trigger on the sumo and just modify it to be more airtight and setup the 120mm noctua fan and exit the window or maybe pipe it up into the attic so it exits the soffit outside. I just need to look into how to go about setting up a controller for maintaining fan speed by chamber temp and have a manual fan speed control as well. Did you tie any of that back into some sort of control board or are you just doing it manually?
Your Knife has now been named "Fred"
Thank you.
hahaha.
Fred Cowan!!
For this channel, it really should be "Slice" IMO
While I have no direct evidence to support my suspicion, some of these strange choices could be carefully calculated to side-step the pernicious minefield of patents held by Stratasys. Especially those regarding heated build chambers. It could be argued that the defining threshold for "heat-control" is the feedback loop of a temperature sensor and the permanent affixation of a door with gaskets. The wink-wink culture around after-market upgrades will ideally close the gap. Literally, in this case.
I appreciate the time you spent on this video as I will have my Prusa XL with Enclosure on Tuesday. You gave great insight on how I will be adjusting my assembly process to integrate the enclosure right from the get-go. Thank you!
My suspicion too
Great review ! Two things I want to say :
About the manufacturing and parts used : I don't think printed parts are a problem ; they can use strong materials, and it's a testament to the quality of their machines, and it means we can customise and repair them. However, they could definitely use more custom metal parts such as sheet metal and such to get more rigidity out of their machines.
You want an enclosure to get as hot as possible, because printing anything above PETG in ideal conditions mean much, much higher chamber temperatures than what I could read on the small screen of the enclosure. The fact that such an expensive product isn't even sealed and airtight is nothing less than disrespectful. Heating a chamber takes time and power, so having holes and leaks everywhere, as well as a filtration system that vents that hot air outside is astoundingly counter-productive.
I'd agree with both of these!
I got my Prusa XL Enclosure about 2 weeks ago, everything you said is very accurate. One of my magnets comes out every time I pull down the bellows. By default, the fan is off during the print (turns on after the print for 10mins), I guess it's so the heat warms up the enclosure but with all the holes and spaces around the enclosure, I'm not sure that it's does anything to filter fumes and air particles. I'm considering sealing most of the space (may just leave the holes at the bottom of the frame as air intake) to trap the dirty air, maybe add a filter inside the enclosure to filter the trapped air without loosing the heat.
For the price, id be expecting a lot more then this...
same.
What are you waiting with this "more"? What else you wait from working encloser, +1 LED string? or maybe i dont know what else ...
Excited to get down to building mine in a few weeks. I really appreciate you timing the sections and outlining the improvement points. As a former technical writer, I also appreciate Prusa's meticulous documentation.
Thanks Robert, great review. I put my XL enclosure together a couple weeks ago. I agree with your assessment. It took me many more hours than you did, but I’m not that handy at doing things like that, but I did get it done. I must have missed the belt tightening part, never saw that. I just tightened them up based on how I felt the belts should be and all seems to work fine. I’ll probably go back and find that and adjust them properly. The fact that you had to take the belt apart and replace the “coupler” wasn’t in your video. I wasn’t thrilled when I saw I had to do that. All in all I love my XL. It’s finally complete now that I have the enclosure.
The coupler section WAS in my video, but I cut it out for time. The instructions are quite thorough, so I was hoping people would just refer to those for the full information.
@@RobertCowanDIY Was the coupler one of the parts that needed to be replaced for temp?
@@MikeKobb Yes it was. However, there's a note in there that XL's that were shipped out after June 2024 don't need it, as they already come with the PCCF parts installed.
This is just more of the Prusa methodology. I mean, its not super slick, but it works and the prints are the proof. They don't do things just for image, some of the instructions and things are rather strange sounding, but they've always got a multi-year plan for any printer, the MK4 has a part on the board for an accelerometer for example and its clearly marked so this isn't speculation, so at some point, they're going to use that for something, we don't know what yet. To keep something as basic as possible helps with repairability too. The accordion screen thing could be keyed, yes, but that might do things like restrict movement taking it in and out if your printer is in a tight place and you can't pull something 10 inches forward to remove it. In its current state, its easy to replicate and works perfectly well. I built an MK4 from a kit, as my very first 3D printer, a lot of pain but it was worth it.
I think the issue prusa has now is that Bambu brought a next level of refinement in their industrial design to their machines , if wasn’t by bambu this would be considered a perfectly fine design , for an industrial design, the problem is that is being evaluated by a consumer with expectations much higher now because of the refined Bambu design
Exactly, I understand that people get drunk with a aluminum printer, but Bambu is not Apple it's just a nice painted 🍎 Cheap Chinese components in a nice coat.
I appreciate Prusa for preferring functionality. BTW @Robert himself says he likes it, so it is necessary to say that even the design is nice imo, just utilitarian design.👍
@vmiguel1988 I don't know, man. Folded sheet steel for 650 I feel would be rough even if they did not exist.
@@vmiguel1988 I think that customers put mainly on functionality (?), I don't understand how people can be swayed by the outer appearance and then not care about how it works inside.
@@vmiguel1988 Of course, Bambu has made a very impressive printer. However it is not serviceable in any way and for a tool like this, I want to be able to fix it part by part as and when needed. Simplicity in machines like this is brilliant, I don't want a complex printer. One also has to be aware of the politics here. Bambu is likely heavily subsidised by the CCP. The M.O. is simple: Release a product that's got way more functionality than everyone else, regardless of manufacturing cost. Coax people away from everything else which now in comparison looks like terrible value, keep doing this until all competition die off, then jack your prices up.
I suspect the Bambu X1 Carbon likely has a 'natural' unsupported cost of over $2,500. Said losses are as I stated, likely being absorbed by the CCP. Prusa are manufacturing in Europe. I do however agree, that $650 for some bent metal is about $300 too much, even for European manufacturing.
I’m so glad you made this video! No way I’m paying $650 for an enclosure that was half-hearted in “cost vs benefit” sense. Seems like it was more of an exercise in “how over-complicated can we make it before people won’t purchase”. I still haven’t received my XL, but I do look forward to some proper multi-MATERIAL printing
Got this in my youtube recommendations a couple of weeks after buying the X1C. I love the X1C so far, but the multi-toolhead capabilites of the prusa XL also look reeeeally nice! 😊
Took a few minutes before i realized why you looked so familiar… ah, the good old sparkfun days! 🥳
Glad to see you have your own channel, Robert. Subscribed immediately, and look forward to more like this! 💯
I never stopped making videos!
Thanks for the video Rob. I have the sumo enclosure on my prusa XL. I’ve been having a lot of problems with my printer mostly due to the heat from the enclosure, causing electrical errors, but I am getting them worked out. I feel a lot better about my enclosure now that I see this video. I really appreciate your detailed approach. I’m working on my drawers that you designed for my printer once that’s done. I’ll put out a review of the XL and my enclosure. See what people think about it.
Could you try printing larger ABS prints. I have this setup and get random tile overheating errors. Open door do not get error but print is equally not successful. Seems like the chamber gets too hot for the bed electronics.
Hey, i just wanted to say I'm a new viewer to your channel and for me you're the perfect mix of opinion, facts, and pace. Was hoping to see somebody talk about this and was excited to see your video pop up!
Welcome aboard!
I’m guessing the fan cable is so long because they are using the exact same part as the MK4 enclosure which has to route the cable from the front to the back. Anyways i’ve been waiting for someone to make a comprehensive review of this for a while now so thanks.
ah, maybe!
I was waiting to see the official XL enclosure before thinking about whether to design and build my own... Might just build my own. lol. It's very weird that they didn't include a temp probe as part of the enclosure kit. I might try doing that myself to see how useful it would be. It looks like Prusa is using Molex 1.5mm Clik-Mate connectors (connector housing: Molex 502578-0201, pin: Molex 502579).
that's on my list. It literally has a reading for it in the menu system, I wonder what would happen if I just hooked something up...
Thanks for the thorough vid. So much feels like a complete afterthought. As you're spinning the printer around and moving the enclosures, I couldn't help but notice how many areas you could see light shining through all the unsealed openings.
I have a 5 tool head Prusa XL, and it makes *great* prints, and I'm overall happy with it, but there's parts that make it feel half baked (examples: no camera or even camera support, the trash that is the PusaLink interface, apparently not being able to set the *hostname*). For the price of these things, there's really no excuse for that. Especially, when there's nothing stopping them from just including a Pi-like board and running something like Octoprint... which would solve a bunch of issues (Which is what I've ended up doing myself).
Definitely agree with you about the quality of the XL's prints. I've found them to be outstanding.
Every time you said weird, I heard disappointment. At least that is how I felt when building mine.
Listened to the whole thing. Turned into a masterclass on how to give constructive criticism… my reality is I bought 10 mk3’s in the past, but now I have 20 bambu’s in my basement from doing client work. They’re just so affordable and easy to use… Excited to see what the future holds for innovation and competition.
Great video again Robert. I'm very glad to see long-form content that is also positive and negative.
I'm somewhat lucky to have my XL chilling on the floor next to my desk with the desk on the left, the walls of the apartment behind and right, and the ceiling of the building starting to cover the printer from about 0.6m off the ground. All I needed to enclose mine were two sheets of 25mm thick honeycomb cardboard that I ordered cut to size from a hardware store here in Switzerland, cost me about 30.-
I don't own any Prusa printers and have heard such great things about their design and reliability. The XL as a whole just seems like such an afterthought though, and this enclosure just further compounds that. For $650 I would expect this to be a comprehensive option, especially since it is from Prusa directly. One led strip, no keying or alignment on the bellows, and a cheap $5 hygrometer seem much more like the cut down "lite" version of what the enclosure should be. Which really does seem like the case since they have the software and hardware ready to go to support a chamber heater and ambient temp probe. This realistically should be a $250 option with a $500 fully featured alternative. I would bet money that those fancy bellows on the front ate up the majority of the design budget and contributes the most to production cost and for what? Designing a bifold door at the bottom using the same stamped steel and acrylic would have been just as effective and most likely cost substantially less. Just seems like some really odd design decisions that ballooned the final price far beyond what it is worth.
Hmm, I really liked their last enclosure but for 5 or 6 hundred you can just go to a cabinet shop and have a cabinet made and maybe have enough to buy a double pane window in the door. I like how they used the printer itself for the structure of the enclosure though, that was a good idea. I think they're re-thinking the enclosure after the first impression videos because it isn't on the site right now.
As for as the gaps, the last one had it also. I plugged a ton of mounting holes. I don't think printer companies are worried about air quality. That is another reason I'd just go with a cabinet, cut a hole for air intake and air exhaust, put a filter on both and hook the the fans to a temperature sensor so you can have it close to the temp you need.
Prusa if you're seeing this, try again. This is a flop of a release. Im not purchasing this even though I have a prusa XL that needs an enclosure.
Unfortunately it's the best option out there. A few DIY efforts exist, but they seem far clunkier even.
yeh, also its little bit ugly and feels like unfinished product :/
@@RobertCowanDIY , I really like your first solution with the plastic curtain, with the printer in a corner. You can even put a thermometer on it :)
So the answer is, this machine with this bizarre enclosure option is not for anyone who wants to print high temp. I'm finishing a doom expanded insulated trident, has an expanded y so I can make it a tool changer, to have to compromise so much for this half baked prusa amalgamation, nope.
@@RobertCowanDIYI’d take chunkier if it’s clear.
Thank you for your honest review. I bought a month ago. I ordered my XL five head with enclosure. Look forward to putting it together. I would like to see you fix all the problems that you appointed out in this video. Especially around the fan enclosure. Look forward to your next video as always.
FWIW, I built my enclosure late last week. The enclosure build itself was pretty enjoyable. I didn't particularly enjoy upgrading the various PETG parts on the motion system and tool heads to PCCF, although I got pretty quick at the tool head work by the fifth time! 🤣 I was worried that the whole process of having to re-tension the belts would take what was a flawless printer and leave me with issues, but so far so good. I gather that printers built starting in June have the PCCF parts already so that won't suck so much.
I totally agree that Prusa really needs to re-think how they do wire routing. They seem to be fixated on routing wires through the smallest channels possible, and that makes it a total PITA to assemble and modify. Having to do a bunch of disassembly on the back of the printer to connect up the fan and lighting for the enclosure was annoying.
Now that it's all done, the one issue I have with the finished product is that every time I pull the bellows down, the magnets come with. That needs a re-think.
I have an XL enclosure. Most of your observations and criticisms are spot on. The lack of any wiggle room with wire routing is ridiculous. I ended up cutting a stepper motor wires. I did not install the Nextruder upgrades. The documentation said it is unnecessary for systems received after June. It appears Prusa changed the parts from PC carbon (?) to nylon. I received my XL in May and I am sure my printer already had the newer parts. I did not do the belt tension upgrade either. I don't have unusual play on my belts, why fix what isn't broken? I do not like control of the fan and LED in software. The button approach used in the Mk4 enclosure is, I find, preferable. The LED placed above and on the right creates glare and uneven lighting. It should have been placed above and horizontally. I experienced a bunch of weird problems post enclosure assembly. Straight away I had a power supply (don't recall the specifics) OSOD (orange screen of death) error and subsequently 2 thermal runaway OSOD's. I didn't experience those types of errors pre-enclosure. I saw a well engineered hydraulic lift for the Mk4 enclosure lid on Printables. I suspect someone will produce something similar for the XL. For some filaments an enclosure is essential so I have no regrets buying it.
Interesting, I've got the enclosure too. I do not like the location of the filter but love the "harmonica". Will see how long does it last. As far as it comes to build quality I am OK with it. The print quality and functionality is the #1 to me. I appreciate using standard components instead of custom ones, it make me simpler to do modifications.
Understood. I do like the accordion too, but I don't like how the magnets don't always stay in place.
@@RobertCowanDIY I mean we are talking a drop of super glue - is it really that much of an issue?
@@PaulHuckaby It's expensive, doesn't REALLY do what it should do (no actual temperature sensor), you need to spend several hours building it AND I need to modify it? I'm just pointing out pros and cons.
Robert, I like the approach you take to this review. Honest criticism and Kudo's where it's appropriate. I hope manufacturers are paying attention to your reviews. From a commonsense point of view and not purely financial. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for watching!
The rant below isn't me disagreeing/rejecting with your review as a whole, I agree that there's problems with this product. This is an excellent video, and as with most mixed reviews, there's an order of magnitude more words to be written on something that is nearly great then if it was terrible.
So there's only one point that I'd like to contest, and that is the line about expecting prusa to use more industrial grade processes to make their products. IMO, that's not at all the point of Prusa devices. Until recently, all of their products could be self sourced and built without any involvement from Prusa whatsoever, and that's rare to see. Having hardware this open lets you do whatever you want to keep your device going, and pushes the field as a whole. They're a company that grew out of the reprap movement, and that reprap philosophy is (from an outside perspective) what drives their product decision making. It's why they use their print farm, to prove to the customers that they trust their printers enough to make the printers themselves (and they net a ton of QA time on their products because of it). If Prusa followed the advice you laid out, they wouldn't be Prusa anymore, they'd be Sovol (not saying that Sovol is a bad company, just that they have different goals).
The problem is that this philosophy and Prusa's specific application of it is that it cuts both ways. Products that don't go through their normal print farm process always seem to launch in a way worse state then the mainline i3 series of printers. The MMUs, the original enclosure, and most recently the XL and XL enclosure don't seem like they were really battle tested, and it demonstrates that Prusa has a problem with QAing products they don't fully utilize themselves. They don't use ABS/ASA to make their printers, so they don't put in the same level of effort to make printing with it the same level of experience as PETG and PLA.
IDK man, it would suck for new Prusa machines to include large portions of non-fdm-able custom parts. It sucks now to have a part in my MK4 MMU3 that if it breaks it's unreproducable for hobbyists.
Sorry for the rant, just something that's been eating at me as 3d printing continues to get pulled down the commodification pipeline.
@PrivateButts My dude, that's just marketing.
They purposefully design their stuff to be hard to replicate and have said so while complaining that people made clones, they haven't released the hardware source for the XL, and it's obviously possible to have well printing printers without a massive farm of poorly printing printers (look at the print quality that comes out of there).
It's all marketing.
I think Robs point is completely valid as a result.
This isn't a product marketed to casual makers but to small businesses, bigger businesses and prosumers.
They have more than enough volume to be using mass manufacturing techniques.
This could be a much more refined product.
Partially agree, but things like the electronics box on my mk4, I like it to be metal (not going to brake anytime soon), so a good and logical mix makes more sense to me.
"They have more than enough volume to be using mass manufacturing techniques." THIS. And be leveraging those processes, this could be better AND cheaper. But it's a kit, which is actually harder to produce. All those bags of screws, the documentation, inventory, etc, etc all add to the cost.
@PrivateButts I'm sorry, but this doesn't fly in 2024. Voron machines have upgrade parts made on industrial cnc machines and custom electronics. Now the standard toolhead uses a voron canbus board. When I built the annex k3 kit, the toolhead has the preferred option for a custom board specific to the k3. The kit includes many laser cut and cnc machined options which are a made on industrial machines. The trident frame kit I am working with now has custom extrusions for the fridge style door. This is a lame marketing excuse. The xl bed is far from the reprap movement. You act like you can make the prusa xl hotend on a lathe at home...
The XL is the first printer Prusa designed not based on an existing open source design and it shows.
Is there sufficient clearance behind tool 1 for your unit? Mine is rubbing against the curved end of the sheet metal and is detaching from the gantry about 50% of the time when it goes to retrieve it. When I try to pull it manually, I can tell that the back end is rubbing against the metal. All the other tools are fine since that
Huh, mine looks fine and I can't really see that happening?
great overview. I am looking to get the enclosure. But I might wait an see if they adjust based on your feedback. ;) I have not read the instructions yet. But I wonder if it is a must to change from PETG to ABS/ASA on the printheads. Curious what the chamber temp has been, heat rise and all that.
Note that if your Prusa XL was made recently (since June, I think), most parts don't have to be reprinted; they are already in PC-CF, ready for the enclosure.
Great video Robert. I appreciate the level of detail and honest assessment of the enclosure. I bought mine prior to seeing your video because I wanted to get the discount before 7/31. I probably wouldn't have ordered it if I saw your video first. I just received my enclosure yesterday and I'm not sure if I want to take it out of the box based on your assessment. I don't really want to have to disassemble my printer and the space I have dedicated to the printer is only 26" deep and would be really difficult to make it 30-32" deep. Most likely I would have to modify the Prusa enclosure significantly in order to make it work and so I'm starting to think I might be better off just building a custom enclosure that fits my space. If I were to build my own enclosure, am I right to assume I would need to replace all the PETG parts anyway if it's going to get hot in there? Do you think there are enough benefits to the Prusa enclosure (over say a Sumo enclosure or other printables option) that I should just build the Prusa enclosure and modify it to suit my space or return the prusa enclosure and build something myself?
Well, your timing is impeccable. Mine is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I appreciate the heads up for what's in store putting it all together. I believe your printer is a pretty early one, so I could sort of *barely* understand why they might have extruder parts that needed to be replaced on the earliest machines. But my printer is a few months old. It's pretty hard to fathom how they wouldn't have known about those parts by the time mine was built. To coin a phrase: weird. I'm also really disappointed to hear about the lack of a temperature sensor. Frankly, I assumed this was part of the design. I'm glad to hear that ASA worked well for you anyway, since that's my primary reason for buying the enclosure.
Yes, mine was ordered like 15 minutes after the pre-order was announced. Apparently it's using the temp sensor from the toolheads. I was unaware of that.
Hi, if I may ask you a question about that enclosure?
I got mine and saw that after a print (used only one tool and printed PC) all 5 toolhead heatbreak fans were working...
Is it for cooling down the enclosure or FW controlling heatbreak temps?
I'm not at all sure. I think during prints, all toolheads will cool themselves.
@@RobertCowanDIY I was wondering that... thanks
I just built mine and the cables exiting the enclosure are even length (about 10cm), no extra cable to bundle above splitter board.
I have an added 3030 profile as extra brace on the front of the printer, it acts as a nice stop for the upper door (needed to the off some on the nut covers though).
Ah nice. The pictures for the assembly showed the extra cable length, so they must be changing things still.
Hi Robert
Your XL enclosure review came up on my you tube feed this morning just before I assembled mine. Thanks!
I have the same concern as you about changing the Hepa filter when it needs it. My XL is in a tight space. I happen to be at that point right now.
Looking at it. it seals both front and back, so I just didn't install the filtration cover box.
Thanks again,
Doug
Fantastic review! I haven't bought an XL because I felt it wasn't done yet. Part of the problem with it being the only commercial toolchanger (that isn't an industrial one) means they get to set whatever bar of quality and effort in. I would really like to see Bambu come in with a toolchanger and again, show the whole world what a polished machine should look like and function like.
If bambu came out with a toolchanger and/or large format printer, things would get REALLY interesting!
@@RobertCowanDIY I am sure the larger format is coming, but I don't actually think they are going to go go to a toolchanger. They've done well with the AMS systems. I am trying to design my own large format printer the would rival Bambu, but getting sheet metal and custom extrusions/castings are so costly.
@@RobertCowanDIYwell Bambu Lab in an interview not long ago said that larger printer was coming BUT just "larger wasn't enough". Those were their words so Priss must get ready, they are getting competition on the XL category. Bambu Lab also mentioned 2024 so I guess their plan is to release it by the end of the year.
Very good deep dive on the enclosure. Regardless of the quirks and the price, I've decided to order one.
I know it might sound odd, but if I watched this same video, I would probably end up buying one too. Seeing as there aren't really any actual attachment points on the printer, making something from scratch would require quite a bit of engineering AND cost in prototyping. I just want to use the printer, so I would have bought it too. You'll probably end up liking it, it DOES work well in many aspects.
Veeery good review.
Bravo.
I would add that at that price I would expect for the spools to be inside of the chamber so they can remain dry. Also if I am not mistaken the x1c can reach a chamber temperature of about 50 degrees Celsius so this is what I would also expect for this one. But of course it is impossible because of the gaps and the thing panels.
The enclosure definitely seems like an afterthought. It's like they made the whole XL and were staring at their work and someone went, "shit, there's no enclosure".
That being said, I kind of love it. I love how big it is and how repairable and accessible it is. This thing was made to be tinkered, modified and repaired by the user. I also love kits and building stuff so a long build like the XL and enclosure is a plus not a negative to me.
If I had 5 - 6K to spare I would definitely get a fully kitted out XL. I'm just not rich like that.
this seems to mirror my take on the official prusa enclosure for the i3 series. the i3 style printers have an excessively large footprint due to their design, so the enclosure for the i3 series from prusa is massive, especially in X and Y. the quality was fine, albeit the acrylic was super super thin to where I worried about cracking it as I fastened the million screws it took. they added a ton of extra mounting holes and such for modding and I think that's pretty cool.
that said, even that printer and enclosure felt like a massive afterthought. I went in thinking I would build it, put my printer in it, then off I go. but no, it's unsurprisingly similar to your experience with the XL. for the power connector, you have to buy this optional male-male pass through connector and wire that into the PSU, which on the i3 requires disassembly because otherwise the psu would overheat from being inside the enclosure. if you don't get the male-male extra connector (you have to pay for it), your printer is literally hard-wired to the enclosure on the inside.
they had some spots on the bottom where the printer was supposed to sit, but nothing actually keyed it, so centering it wasn't as straightforward as I'd like it to be. but that's not all.
the lcd unit gets relocated to outside the enclosure, which requires more disassembly and you basically run a cable to the outside. the printer is now hard-wired to the enclosure in two places. I think you see where this is going
aaaaand you have to do a bit more for the new Bowden tube that runs to the top and over to the side where the spool mounts inside the enclosure.
while I have many printers, I stupidly chose to put my oldest printer in this enclosure, the original preorder mk3, and after thousands of hours, the mean well psu finally gave up the ghost. I went to troubleshoot the printer and I then came to the realization of the massive amount of work I have ahead of me just to do some troubleshooting. unlike the XL, that enclosure had doors in the front, but the rest is solid. those weren't cheaper either. I remember it being roughly the cost of another printer in kit form. that's about the time my first carbon x1 cc Bambu arrived, and well, that prusa basically sat there out of service until I ended up selling it to a friend.
I like prusa. I like what they stand for, and I like all they did for the 3d printing industry for consumers. I get that being in the EU makes things more difficult, and I get the shipping across the pond can't make service related things easy. but at those prices, it's reaaaaally hard for me to recommend their stuff anymore. it really pains me to say it too, because I really like Josef and I like that company in general. I hope they find their way and stay in the game
and nice review as usual
Thanks! I'm in the same boat. I have the enclosure for the MK4 and I was just downright mad when putting it together. It too a LOT longer than this and just felt cheap, and it was MASSIVE.
what a brilliant review! As for my MK 4 I'm gonna build my own enclosure for the XL if I finally decide to get it.
As for the MK4 I designed & printed cooling adapters for the buddy board as well as the PSU (adapted only with strong magnets and no modifications whatsoever) so I didn't have to modify the printer at all for working in the enclosed environment!
Also I don't understand why Prusa is not offering its printers with the higher temperature resistant parts (maybe as an option) in first place ... that actually still keeps me from placing an order for the 5 head XL. Once again 'chapeau!' for this honest review.
I think they feel that the vast majority of people just print PETG and PLA, which is probably true.
yes maybe@@RobertCowanDIY
This reminds me a lot of my experience with the mk4 and its enclosure. Spend a crazy amount of money then spend hours disassembling and rebuilding to get a very average product. I ended up getting a P1S and was printing within 5mins! I’m selling my mk4 and I’ll never get anything from Prusa again, I want a tool not a hobby.
They gave me a MK4 and enclosure recently. I basically told them "I'm not doing a video on that because it won't be kind". This is definitely nicer, but the MK4 enclosure is just sad for what it is, IMO.
@@RobertCowanDIY , please make a Prusa Mk4 enclosure review.
@@Ro3Deee Right? I love me negative reviews, about damn near anything.
Maybe it's cathartic in this world filled with barely hidden infomercials trying to pass as reviews. Maybe it's because I just dont think people are negative enough. Of course only negative when fair, but there are so many products that deserve a good crapping on, if not just to save the fellow consumer from wasting their limited time on frustration.
I have the other enclosures and they work great. Not sure what all the negativity is. What's so bad about them?
Considering that for the price of this enclosure, that one still needs to assemble by themselve, is almost the price for the P1S 😄
The bellows design is actually just basic standard industrial machine solution. We use those magnetically attached bellows in so many machines it is absurd. My workplace has a 3kW laser and it has bellows like that which span upto 4 metres. I actually prefer them over the solid sheetmetal stacked models which add unnecessary complexity and many compications. If they get dented then you are potentially absolutely screwed as they intefer with each other, get stuck or rip something. Our water jet cutting system is also made with bellows.
I suspect Prusa hired designers with past experience in industrial machinery design, because that is the kind of solution I'd come up with if I was told that: 1. It has to be modular and additional kit. 2. You must leave space for future upgrades of the unit. I'm 100% sure that most designers from industrial machinery side would have ended up with the same exact solution. 3. It must be easy and affordbale to post safely without getting destroyed even by the most incompetent courier or postal serviec).
Also if you don't have a sheetmetal fabrication capacity or experience with that kind of design, then this solution is even better.
And those full sheet metal enclosure usually are done for two specific reasons: 1. They must contain something that is dirty, wet, or high temperature (We speak of "Immidiate injuries from burns or risk of fire" level contaiment). 2. They must contain something which has a risk of becoming a high velocity projectile. 3. They must contain something that is extremely dangerous (Jets of material or lasers, or high angular velocity tool ends).
Thank you for your time spent on your review.
I will say I appreciate design that uses a minimum of complexity and materials while ensuring it is suitably effective. The bellows appear to define the enclosure while also allowing very ready access to a region that frequently needs easy access. Seems elegant.
The ambient (air) environment (now air in enclosure) temperatures are already accessible from existing XL thermometer sensors when controlling prints, so I am not sure what your new concern is? The extra thermometer on lid is, I assume, just so user is not surprised by heat when opening it, not as an additional printer input?
You didn’t mention how you attach a vent duct to the new enclosure? (To get fumes out of room.) Is that well designed/integrated?
When assessing the pricing of machines I work with a lot I try to factor in reliability, predictability, (manufacturer)optimization since these really impact my time. Our time is a large additional cost component in builds, so the less of our time the machine ends up needing to achieve the final good print is a significant factor. This should always be considered when discussing the upfront purchase costs.
I appreciate companies that are continually putting a lot of their own software and hardware engineering labor into their products. Prusa does this. They do need to recover this in the upfront cost they charge.
Super interesting!! Thanks for recording.
Now watching. Annoying they didn’t include the full LED lighting strip on 3 sides!
It is not be for me as I don’t print materials requiring enclosure, but interesting to see.
I am ok with the bellows, it’s a good solution. But it doesn’t feel like a 600 piece of kit for what it has. As you said, it’s the price of a full printer.
two would have been fine, IMO. 3 might have been an issue. but I just can't fathom why you wouldn't do equal lighting, when the badging is clearly so social media posts can showcase the printer...
Prusa's pricing these days is very aspirational, considering the quality of the end product. $1200 for an assembled MK4? Yikes.
@@RobertCowanDIYmight it be the control board can’t supply the amps required for another light strip? With the splitter in place we’re already driving two strips where there was one originally. Regarding the additional holes in the vertical styles, I found them very useful to mount a camera.
XL Enclosure you have to completely assemble yourself = $650. P1S out of the box and ready to print = $600. That was a pretty significant statement you just made sir. I hope the folks at Prusa are paying attention.
I have been saying that for a year after canceling a MK4 kit, went with Bambu, never looking back. Wonder if they are around in 5yrs? not sure at this point.
@tombo7719 Oh prusa isn't going anywhere. On top of having infinite wells of good will from fans who still see them as a lovable open source company (somehow) they have massive government backing being in the EU, as it's in the EU's interests not to be reliant on China.
I just hope they get it together rather than turning into a sort of lulzbot affair.
@@BeefIngot right, using their fan base instead of being the innovator they were once. If they can't get on top of it, it is curtains for them. Their offerings are Meh, the XL being a cool printer, but very limited on what it can realistically do.
I think prusa has a lot of fans who appreciate their good work. It's not all about the packaging. Their printers, unlike the P1P, have quality components in them that make them print great. As my dad used to say, I'm too poor to buy cheap and non-functional stuff.
@@JohnWilson94-n2z their designs are dated and not exactly functioning as advertised, and as far as a loyal fan base, in Prusa's case, they are exploiting their fanbase.
I have 1200 hours so far on my P1S.. the most of any of my printers going back 8 yrs and still very much reliable.
I think that this design is really good. It's light and can be scurely send in small package. Every part can be easily swaped and modified. You want something to key the bellows - that's 10min print, but you can use them as you like thanks to they are not keyed. Tempered glass is nice, but it would make whole, already heavy printer, heavier, it's harder to ship and easier to break, but harder to swap. Those cheap panels you definately can order localy or made themself and you don't need to relly on Prusa to send you replacement.
It's expensive but it's a very good product. Price is high probably becouse low volume. The good part is it's simple design, so you can replicate it possibly much cheaper. I agree with fan and temperature probe issues.
I thought I was listening to Terrence McKenna. One minute you are talking about the enclosure, the next is your managerial role.
OK, I have no idea who that is so I had to look it up. And now I'm even more confused.
Is your LED strip RGB? Mine says RGB in the firmware settings but I've only seen white.
Same. I think it's RGB, but they haven't introduced any functionality other than white. Maybe in an error state?
Would someone post a link to the build plate storage add on mentioned around 40:00 minutes into the video. Mr. Cowan states it on Printables, but I am having a heck of a time finding it.
Here you go! It's OK, I might make my own some day, but it works: www.printables.com/model/593481-prusa-xl-series-integrated-steel-sheetx2-holder
Hi, did you add the two magnets on the top right and the two magnets on the top left? It was kind of hard to see in the instructions that there are two magnets on each side of the top assembly. I had almost missed that since the picture of parts only showed 2 magnets for both sides but it was saying 4 in the text.
I think that might be what was causing the magnet to come out, since this so far did not happen to me.
Yes, I added both. Without both it wouldn't hold.
I had to replace the idler and catch in my MK4 that was in an enclosure. The PETG parts started to deform partway through prints, causing them to fail… but once cool they whee fine again. Took ages to work out what was happening… but I guess I and everyone else who had these issues and reported their pain to Prusa aided all of you XL users. 😉
Robert, Prusa will be making a camera add-on for all their printers. Most likely it will be mounted on the opposite side of the led strip or for a fire suppression system (my guess). This enclosure is not active heating but they are talking about it in their podcast for an add-on. Ideally, I would like to see the hot air from the top enclosure be recirculated to the bottom thru a heating element or exhausted out on top. Also, I share the same issue with the Ballow system. It should have been attached to the bottom air intake and the magnates should have been incorporated int the top of the ballow, not the upper arms. And the lid needed to be sealed against the ballow. One other thing I did not see you mention is why you need to redo the belt tension. There is another PETG part that needs to be replaced on the tool selector that holds the belts together.
How do you know this, because they certainly haven't told me that.
Cool but you having to rebuild parts because PETG won't last in there is pretty silly. Why wouldn't you want to enclose a toolchanger lol.
So far, for what I print, I don't need an enclosure. I print ABS on the XL without one and the parts are flawless. Maybe if I printed ASA or larger ABS prints one might come in handy.
@Arcadenut1 I was going to ask if this printer can print PEEK, because I don't know at the top of my head. I'm sure it can handle polycarbonate and Nylon ok.
@@krollmond7544 no peek.
I don't know if anyone dudv this already, but it's Benchmade Phaeton. I'm more a Microtech Halo guy, but Benchmade's OTF's are really impressive too!
That is one HELL of an opening sir. Bravo 👏🏻
ha, thanks.
The opening of the video, or the opening of the enclosure? Either way, I agree.
For the most part, my thoughts mirror yours. Just finished assembly, have the same sentiment about the bellows and am just flabbergasted that it has absolutely no alignment features.
As for the exhaust fan, I understand where Prusa is coming from. It's the same way with the Original enclosure for the MK's - it's meant as filtration, not as a means to control temperature. Reasoning has always been that the expected chamber temperature is never supposed to exceed 40c anyway, so there's not really all that much to affect. Whether that's a valid hand-waving will depend person to person... I'm thankfully in the camp that doesn't care except to not smell ABS ever again.
The one thing I will mention that frustrated me to no end was the entire wire management Undo button. Everything that we went through during the original assembly -- rip it all out. Do it again, now with another ground wire and a different LED plug. And don't mess up the antenna, kthxbye.
It's all done now, so w/e. Time to get back to actually printing.
Im glad you waited to send Prusa suggestions because i dont think they care.
They do, but they all seem to be drinking the kool-aid of "but we're Prusa, and we're the best". They're potentially tone-deaf to what the market is actually saying.
@@RobertCowanDIY and that is exactly what I mean.
@@RobertCowanDIY I don't think so. Maybe a bit, they clearly were surprised by the Bambu (which is a good thing for competition, even though the design philosophy is different), but they can't react that fast to what the market is saying. The XL and MK4 were kinda fixed designs at this point and the reaction will be for the next models. Which I assume to be ramped up. So, let's judge for those.
@@VincentGroenewold yeah but if they don’t change, Prusa will be out of business in 10 years. I’m reading more and more often that print farms order P1 or P1S printers instead of Prusa. They are faster with same print quality. Replacement parts are cheap. Build quality/parts aren’t that much better on a Prusa either.
@@VincentGroenewoldi think Prusa is changing their target to engineering consumers, if you saw their latest printer.
First off, thanks for doing this review. I found it very thorough and informative. While watching this, everything you were surprised by, didn't surprise me at all. This is very much in character with the Prusa designs (excepting the SL1, which came from. A different team). They aren't very skilled at industrial design, at least not yet. The engineers at Bambu come from a background of mass manufacturing (DJI), and they clearly think about things like planned future features and maintenance. What's frustrating to me is not that Prusa is slow, or takes many iterations to get it right; it's that they have a huge price premium for this half-assery. Hopefully Bambu or someone else comes out with a solid multi-toolhead CoreXY soon. The Black box CE looks like a good design, but I'm really wanting to move away from the DIY printer, and just get something that's more like an appliance. Sadly, the XL isn't it.
Man I love prusa printers but at this price point all prusas should come with things fully assembled. Just got a Bambu p1s combo last week and blew my mind how I was able to start printing within 15min of unboxing
Yep. The MK4S came assembled and it was the same as the Bambu. I got another X1C at about the same time as the MK4S and they had the same "unbox to print" time. BUT, you pay a premium for the assembled version of course.
Thank you again for the really awesome video as always.
You're going to easy on Prusa. At the price point of the enclosure, it's really sad to see this the dev team just fall down left and right a multiple decision points. I'm in a very warm climate area where having an enclosure really magnifies Prusa's really poor design decisions. For example, MCU over temp errors is normal. You may start to encounter MCU over temp errors on long prints because heatbed MCU is mounted directly under essentially a hot plate, and this printer was originally announced to be enclosed. So putting the MCU inside a heated chamber, the the xBuddy board having absolutely no cooling fan is a indication, imho, major failure top down from executive level all the way down to the design and program team. I do have a programmable heatbed MCU cooler on printeables, but that's not my point of bring that up. My point, and you are putting it way too nicely, is there are so many design decision failures for this $5,000 investment. At that price point all the "strange / weird" items you've pointed out are nearly nonexistent in professional grade printers in similar price point. Personally, XL has been the Xtra Large problematic printer and the worse investment for me. My MK3s+ have 10 times more successful print over this XL problem printer.
A very thoughtful review and pointed comment on the state of Prusa. I think a lot of this community wants to champion the open source oddball that is Prusa, but it hasn't really made what is the next obvious big step into being a manufacturing leader. You get a lot with Prusa but no longer is the bulk of it good, or enough to accept as a tax for appreciation of what the company represents. Its going to SAAB/Volvo its way out of its niche if it doesn't change soon IMO.
I was wondering how you would feel about that magnetic attachment on the bellows. It’s all very rigged and I was certain I missed a step to keep the magnets in the pockets. I thought for sure they can’t mean to keep the magnets only attached with other magnets. On occasion I’ve had one not let go when I pull the bellows down. But that’s how you do the Prusa polka I guess 🪗
Very fair review. The XL itself has a few design flaws of it's own (I'm looking at your Docks)... Maybe they'll fix them in the XL2 version of the printer.
I actually think the docks are fine. The design flaw was letting customers assemble them. If assembled properly, they're pretty bulletproof. But there are many places where incorrect assembly could result in errors.
I honestly think you are looking past the point and the constraints they probably had. I think you are looking to deep into it. Like the extra holes is probably due to cost. It costs more to make two different types than just one. And the bellows I think not having it fully mounted is nice. It makes it easy to remove if needed and it is super easy to push it back a inch. it is also a unicorn so I think it shouldn't be compared to a bamboo or anything else. Just my thoughts.
For the price of the XL, the lack of refinement is concerning. If form is to follow function, the enclosure should have a better fit. ...also appreciate you not making excuses for the company.
I built my first enclosure about 10 years ago, still using it. I added back then a DHT22 and a small arduino, talking over serial to the Marlin board for exactly what you are missing - temperature and humidity control / feedback. Later I 'hacked' it into Octoprint so I have full feedback and control over the UI.
The fan outlet hat to be on the top, where hot air accumulates. Also one might want to connect this to a duct to exhaust it outdoors - good luck with that in the current state !
Well, it's already through a HEPA filter, but outside wouldn't be a bad idea!
@@RobertCowanDIY A printer of this caliber deserves to be hooked up just like your other machines. I know you are having one of this larger Hepa units on your laser, could have tied into that too..
I'm still waiting to collect my enclosure at my "neighbors" house two streets further up (darn DPD courier),... Does it come with the printed parts for the tool head? Or do you need to print them? I hope the first as I dont have PCCF on stock and would cause more delay ...
It DOES come with the printed parts, you don't need to add anything on your own, everything is included and the quality of the parts is great.
was only a matter of time till the community fixed some of these issues - there is a replacement filter box for the back that enables sliding out the filter without needing to remove the box - really should have just came that way, but we have 3D printers... we can fix these things. Also there are some bellow alignment prints (but I'm waiting for some other options).
I'm sure others have done the engineering for Prusa, but why didn't Prusa do it themselves?
@@RobertCowanDIY oh I agree.. but easy fixes to an other wise pretty nice enclosure incase someone was on the fence after watching this video
@@MakerShed3D Yeah, I'd agree with that. I've been using it and it seems just fine, but in the future I'd like to fix a few things.
@@RobertCowanDIY Sounds like a follow up video topic - "How I Fixed the Prusa XL Enclosure"
@@MakerShed3D haha. Nah, I want to work on my own projects!
Thank you for a very detailed and interesting video! I appreciate your attention to details and the calm and unrushed presentation style. Also I think the enclosure is very cool-looking and the bellows totally not what I was expecting :D The whole printer now looks like a droid from Star Wars
Personally I'm not sure Prusa should start going into the direction of most large manufacturers with injection molding and other conventional or more streamlined manufacturing techniques - their whole thing has been and still is to stand out of the crowd by being a sort of like a "maker collective", doing things more the homebrew DIY way, if you get my point. The print farm is not just a manufacturing method but also a major advertising and PR asset I think - and as far as I know, Prusa as a company is doing well despite their products having more "premium" prices and slightly different approaches to certain things compared to others amongst the industry (like supposedly the best product support).
Having said that, I personally don't own a Prusa printer - even though I'd really like to - simply because of the price =I
the bellows don’t bother me , i like the idea . i would say the heads could have been manufactured with an enclosure in mind.
I think the issue with the mirrored Side Panel having *_all_* the Mounting Solutions and Features for a second Light but not having the Light is because it actually is the same part when they cut it to size with all the Holes but only up to the point until they start bending it into shape where it then becomes one side or the other - It simplifies Production. But yea... Should have added a second Light.
The key words of this review: strange, weird and bizarre 😂
exactly. not bad, but just strange.
I mean, in terms of standing out, can you tell me they dont? 😁
Prusa’s reliance on 3D printed parts is frankly, to a fault. As you said, they have the funds, space, and ability to make things we cannot make at home very easily. That goes for the enclosure, but also the printers themselves - the XL 5 head costing what it does without an enclosure is already absurd, and I can only assume their failure to utilize their manufacturing at scale is the problem. The speed they can print parts cannot possibly rival injection molding or extrusion parts. This enclosure general business decisions Prusa make now almost feel like weird cope to double down on prior poor decisions.
Buenos dias, como veo que hace tiempo que tienes una Prusa XL con cinco cabezales, te quiero hacer una pregunta cuando un cabezal no admite el filamento, y repetidamente hace ruido, (TCAK TACK TACK)como se puede solucionar , ya que hace un mes que tengo esta maquina y tengo este problema, e intentado mirar en prusa y no lo encuentro.
BTW, If you want, you can actually use the rigid doors from my enXLosure design, with the top of the original enclosure!
Also, I offer a adapter kit so you can have the full connectivity and features of the original, on the cheaper enXLosure!
Especially given the fact that Prusa has shown parts of this long time ago, it is indeed strange that they did not take any mounting holes or the PETG levers on the nextruders into account on the newer models delivered.
I don't like these little push thingies they use to mount the plexi/lexan panels. On the Mk3 enclosure they use the same ones and if you even need to take them out (and believe me - you do ...) you are bound to break one or two.
I also don't like the bellows, I prefer lexan doors so I can look at the printing progress when I am sitting behing my desk - but that's more a personal preference.
Overall a good overview of the whole thing. Looks like Prusa missed out on quite a few features that should have been implemented. Looks like "the XL selling scheme:" is becoming the new industry standard: deliver a half baked product while promising to deliver fancy features later by upgrades ...
There are two things that really need to be looked at. 1. If using TPU the long bordon tubes cannot be used because it will not pull through them. I currently disconnect the boden tube and place the TPU spool over the top. The NEXTruder is more than capable to print TPU's, one of the benefits of the new Prusa printers. Once I put this enclosure on, how am I going to print TPU? 2 For this enclosure to be functional in my opinion, I want constant temperature control. I want repeatability in my parts. The enclosure temperature is critical for consistent part repeatable quality control. The fact that they didn't make this a constant temperature enclosure is a mistake in my opinion. I do like the bellows and I think my Prusa XL is amazing.
Their guide to printing TPU using the reverse bowden tube is so... misleading, because such prints inevitably fail. It's a nightmare to load and consistently gets jammed which ruins the print. I had to mount the spool above too, which is such an unacceptable workaround since it's not practical for a lot of people.
That certainly seems like a lot of work. And I definitely agree that they should provide a second LED panel and sort out the bellows attachment issue.
That said, I would definitely not buy this enclosure for 650 dollars. It simply looks too flimsy and poorly thought out overall.
Unfortunately, from their pricing strategy it is very clear that Prusa are NOT listening to their customers.
Don't get me wrong - I love my MK3S+. But I think they are no longer on top of their game.
I really wanted to buy a Prusa, but I ended up with Bambu. I'm someone who doesn't have time to build a printer, and I need to start printing right away with no fuss. When it costs less to buy a fully assembled printer that works out of the box than a Prusa that you have to spend a day building, their model falls apart. Sure if you like to tinker and it's your first printer, by all means build your first printer. But if you are on your second printer, or are someone who just needs to start printing out of the box, having a printing kit cost more than an assembled printer makes no sense. And I'm talking about the MK4.
The XL is a really awesome printer. But the enclosure does seem like an afterthought. And it is expensive. To the point where wasting filament on an X1 is an order of magnitude cheaper than buying an XL, especially if you are conservative and minimize your filament changes.
I still want a tool-changer, and Prusa is the only game in town (right now). And I do want to get into multi-material. But there are new challengers appearing, such as the beltless Magneto X from Peopoly, which I'm following with great interest. They are talking about developing a tool changer for their system. Which having that be beltless is amazing. Core XY belts and keeping proper tension is so annoying. I think Peopoly is still in early days, but they could end up taking things far. And who knows what Bambu is cooking up for their second round.
I love the massive amounts of sarcasm in this review.
This really seems like a printer where like, its aimed at very prosumers, small business, etc but then the enclosure is built as if just sorta a few hobbyists got together and tried to bang out an enclosure in a few days, which is really strange because I could have sworn they said they were almost finished designing it long before the XL came out and before one of the many delays. I think they're taking the marketing of "and we print our own parts and make kits for hobbyists" a bit too far.
It has some really weird prusa-isms like the bellows too which, I get that its unique and cool, but like... why not some bifold doors? That would give the same access, be more rigid, and give you a clear straight view into the printer. You could also use some lift-off hinges so you could just pull the doors off whenever you wanted.
The electronics to me is the most odd to me, because this is supposed to be serious business, and they already have a temperature probe port so it feels pretty inexcusable that they didnt use it on the official version, especially after having warned the user about the various printed parts in there that are temperature sensitive (even if the really sensitive parts were removed). It just seems like a recipe for clogs if you don't unload every other type of filament that isn't the exact same type when you want to print something requiring a chamber that's even a little bit warm.
Oh also, why no camera mount point? I mean, have people not been clamouring for that for remote monitoring?
The other thing that kinda bothers me, is they put so much effort into these proprietary pcbs to stop other people from copying them ... which is against their whole big marketing on open source thing, so, if you're gonna do all that, how did you not use that effort to put in all those nice features everyone wants in the boards you're already having designed??? like, why in the heck is there a battery powered cheapo thermometer?
I think they are leaning really _really_ hard on the fact that this thing doesn't have any competition, though the Proforge 4 tool changer does exist now so... that advantage might be dwindling.
I think even with the frustration, probably a lot of people who have these will ultimately be pretty pleased whenever they do whatever project using multiple different filament types. Maybe not that amount of time and effort pleased, but "I have the tool I wanted I guess" pleased.
Do you think maybe they chose those thin clear panels to save the amount of weight pushing down on the top assembly?
MAYBE, but then they probably should have done aluminum for the metal panels? I'm not really sure I can speculate too much about their decisions though.
@@RobertCowanDIY Good point. Despite the goofy decisions this is by far the best looking enclosure solution I've seen for the XL.
I agree putting it together wasn’t hard but it did take me about 4 hrs to complete. Yes it’s not a beauty queen but I’m very happy with it. I had a similar concern with the bellows being able to move but I haven’t had any issues at all. As far as the chamber temp it does pull a reading from some where I assume the print heads. All the xtra holes workout great I made a mount for the ESP32 cam that fits perfect in the front corner. The esp32 with a wide angle lens is awesome option with Prusa connect. The odd thing I ran into was I went to plug in the camera to the usb c port on the back and it had no power. Not sure if it’s just a usb pass through or not there is a usb port inline with it just below. Wish there was more documentation on that part. I can’t remember the overall weight after the install but the printer is super heavy now. I put it on a temporary table for the install of enclosure and it started to bow it. It took two people to move it back to its regular home. But overall I love the machine and the enclosure. yes I agree some things are odd but it works great.
I might have to make an update to the video saying the temp comes from the toolheads. Others have pointed that out. That's my bad. I would just expect a more 'global' temp sensor, especially when I saw the header.
I think Robert said the word “weird” more than the Harris campaign!
I cancelled my enclosure order even with the discount code - it's a lot of money for a disappointing product. I like the bellows but the rest of the design is just... so awkward and disappointing. You pointed out so many simple improvements they could have made if the XL was better designed to receive this enclosure in the first place. The fact that it costs around the same as a P1P is the real kicker for me. I also realised I don't print many big ASA pieces so I can get by with my older upgraded Ender 3 with a tent enclosure for the times I do need to print ASA, and PCCF doesn't really need an enclosure.
I like a lot of Prusa's work and want to support an EU company, but the XL has been such a love hate relationship. It's also a lot better with the 6.0 firmware and I look forward to further improvements, but man they make it hard to be an early adopter now it ships with .4 nozzles and some PCCF parts, not to mention the horrendous stringing for a while. But then nothing can touch it for multi-material and minimal-waste multi-colour.
The lack of a temperature sensor is actually an absurd decision. The amount of quality it would add to the printer and the control to the user from a temp sensor is a night-and-day difference.
How much could it possibly have cost for that probe to forego its inclusion???
If it would make the build too complex or something, give it as a recommended option for people to add, but include the part.
If it costs too much, add it as a add-on with the kid for additional cost. (not very compelling considering those cheapo temperature readouts measure temps just fine).
Agreed! Stop sending gummy bears, don't include the little snap in one, and just give me a sensor (which the controller board and interface clearly supports!)
@@RobertCowanDIY loved your video btw. That was super insightful. I don't even have an XL. 😅
Hopefully Joseph and the Prusa team actually take some of your pointers. They definitely need to start playing catch-up or they will be buried by the competition.
Also, I just thought of this now seeing your comment, but how cool would it have been for them to use their multi zone heated bed to act as a chamber heater with the parts that arent actively being printed on, like I can imagine many caveats of such a system, like needing a buffer zone, but I think many prints dont use the whole bed anyways so its an idea just sitting there.
They are saving it for the $800 MK2 upgrade 🤣
@@jimmer411 🙃
Lol
I think the Prusa designer was a Doctor Who fan, it looks menacing👀
The enclosure was an afterthought.
The XL wasn't designed for an enclosure.
That's the biggest mistake Prusa made. Shocking they didnt make this an enclosed printer in the first place.
Im sure ull see an XL2 sometime in the future.
Dear Robert, about your regards about the temp sensor. If you use Prusa Connect you will see the (enclosure) temp in the telemetry section.
Also the sliding of the bellows is perfect for temp regulation. I had also a loose magnet.. drop of glue will do the trick... (-;
Regarding the temp sensor, I learned about this after the video was released. It does seem strange to have the control loop in the cloud, rather than on the machine (the menu doesn't show the temp, but the cloud service does?). As I said, I DO like the sliding bellows, it just seems poorly implemented. Yes, you could glue in the magnets, but that's not really the point is it?
Thinking of going enXLosure for my work 5t and adding my own chamber heating/cooling. was trying to print asa with the box as an enclosure in +30 C and was having all kinds of overtemp errors. Added a pair of 40x40x10 24v noctuas for the buddy board chamber and bed splitter board along with heating the whole bed has it running. probably reprint all the petg parts in PC+ on my x1c, not sure it really needs pccf.
I am waiting for my XL enclosure. I think it looks pretty cool. But, I need another printer like it. But I wonder if i should wait for something like a Prusa XL mk2 with some of these things sorted.
Nah, I don't think there's anything WRONG with the printer. I still use it and it works great. You'll see many other UA-camrs using it as a 'reference', but not really talking about it. It's still a great printer, if you ignore the price tag and some other little quirks.