After my new K1C stopped extruding during a print job due to the filament becoming too soft, I found the best advice is to remove the top to let heat escape. I did this, and sure enough, the chamber temperature remains below 30C.
But what the heck? Why don’t the side and back fans do the job? Did Creality under-design the fans? I think it’s ridiculous to have to take off the top, which makes the already-noisy printer even noisier.
Question: Has anyone bored a bunch of 1-inch holes in the top and 3D-printed ducts to glue over them to direct the sound toward the rear of the printer? I might try that myself. If the chamber temperature is still too high, I can always remove the cover.
I have a couple of Qidi printers, both enclosed like the K1C and on the printer and the lid it warns that for PLA and TPU the lid should be removed and the door open, clogging because it gets too hot. I just leave the lid off. Like the K1C bristling with exhaust fans, even for PETG I will leave the lid off. For ABS/ASA everything closed up tight. Pretty noisy fans on these enclosed printers.
I think it’s a shame Creality didn’t put more thought into cooling the chamber. Heck, the big blower on the right side just blows air from the middle up to the top. What good is that? Why didn’t they turn the intake around, cut a hole in the side, and suck in cool air? And that piddlin’ rear fan! Even at 100%, there’s so little air flow, it’s hard to believe it does any good at all.
I an so tempted to cut a 4" hole in the top and install a 4" Whisper fan blowing upward. That’ll suck the hot air out of the chamber!
I think that is the auxiliary fan and used to help cool the filament in addition to the printhead cooling fan. Printing PLA all 3 fans could be on 100%. With a heated chamber printer you don’t want to be exhausting chamber heat so much, you are trying to control the temperature for materials like ABS. For these type printers you are more concerned with cooling the mainboard and PSU. Best thing for PLA/TPU is either take the lid off or print some vented risers to put the lid on.
[quote=“Bonfireman, post:4, topic:34086”]
Best thing for PLA/TPU is either take the lid off or print some vented risers to put the lid on.[/quote]
Thanks for the suggestion. I printed four 0.35"-tall corner posts, and after an hour of continuous printing, the chamber temp is 36C – lower than with the cover on.
I still don’t like the idea of raising/removing the lid, so I designed a duct for the side fan intake to daw air from low in the chamber, near the door opening behind the LCD. Design drawing attached; i’ll post photos once it stops printing and I install it.
I printed and installed my side-fan duct today, but it only slightly lowered the chamber temperature by drawing in cooler air behind the LCD on the K1c. I’ve attached a photo showing it installed.
The best solution was to use a Forstner bit to bore three 1-1/2" holes in the top cover to allow warm air to escape. With these, the chamber maintained 35C during a one-hour print job. Photo attached.
I plan to do more testing, including lowering the hot-end temperature slightly, as well as the bed temp.
I was pondering suggesting something like an 80x80mm cutout on the top cover and making an appropriate sliding piece to seal it up when needed. If you catch my drift.
You can remove the “betweeners” when you want a cooler chamber so the heat can escape. I keep them in place for ABS, and remove them for other materials.
