@3dprinting This strip will run vertically up the left side of the cabinet. Another will run up the right side and will be just the same. I don't know what I'm going to do for the strip across the ceiling, because there's no room on either end for anything. I'd assumed I'd run the leads straight up somehow, didn't really start thinking about how to attach the leads until yesterday. I've got 1.5 or 2 mm of space on each end, I think.

@3dprinting The cable tie will be inside the hole in the table when this is in place. There's room, because this assembly is smaller than the connector on the cable end.

I printed tall jaws for the StickVise to hold the aluminum channel, of course.

@3dprinting The next challenge was attaching leads to the LED strips. I glued this 144/meter RGBW strip into this aluminum channel. I'd printed end caps with embedded magnets (the aquamarine parts). I'd drilled holes through the table to run the leads down to the power supply (previous post). But the solder tabs on the strip are tiny, and I'd made no provision for strain relief.

This is what I came up with. I've assembled one, and it seems to be okay.

@3dprinting Everything fits perfectly. The top half is printing now.

(Yes, that's a 3D printed stand-in for the controller board. Adafruit published an STL. It has 0402 components, and they came out more 0402-shaped than blob-shaped. But the connectors cracked when I removed the supports.)

I'm running out of ways to procrastinate crimping the cables. I do not enjoy crimping.

@3dprinting I printed three iterations of the bottom half yesterday and one of the top half. Today I spent a solid 16 hours in Fusion360 tweaking the design -- why is F360 so tedious and manual? Every time I changed anything at all, I had to redo the flanges where the case halves meet.

This should be pretty close to finished, so I'm using the good filament.

@3dprinting I put in a partition to isolate the 120V power from the low voltage stuff. It's not a perfect seal, but it'll probably keep my fingers safe.

@3dprinting Here's what I came up with. First picture shows the bottom half with components attached. Second pic is the top half.

I just started printing it; I'll see what doesn't fit.

I'm grateful that Adafruit publishes CAD models of their boards.

@3dprinting Yeah, so, the Feather SCORPIO. It's based on a RP2040, and it has eight 5V outputs for driving addressable LEDs. I only have 195 LEDs, but it makes the wiring easier to have three short strips instead of one daisy chained strip.

I'm putting in four JST connectors in case I want MOAR LEDS!!!! later.

@3dprinting I'm working on the LED strip power supply for my printer enclosure.

I've been pondering the layout of these parts for a while. Last night I got the power entry units, and I spent the whole day today coming up with this. It's nowhere near done, but it shows the general layout. I'll split the blue part into two halves suitable for printing somehow.

I should have bought a power supply with a power plug integrated.

@3dprinting I put the eyes on long, thin stalks and added a machine screw for weight. Hopefully, when the printer starts the cabinet vibrating, they eyes will jiggle. We'll see.

@3dprinting I amuse myself.

The precut acrylic pieces came with holes for door handles, but I didn't like the handles they suggested. So I made these.

Note that there's still no printer in this alleged printer enclosure.

@3dprinting One more layer. I test fit one door and one window. Each door is held on by 4 magnets and has another four keeping it closed. Each window is held on by 8. The windows have just the right amount of magnetic glomp (technical term). The door is kind of wobbly but it stays closed.

I have errands for the rest of the day, so the lid will have to wait.

@3dprinting One more layer. The cord at the back left is for the addressible LED strip in the lid. It was a pain to fish through. It is a power cord with the ends snipped off; I'll crimp on some JST SL connectors later.

I've been looking at the CAD drawing for so long that it doesn't even look like a new thing.

@3dprinting The bad news is that the two parts that broke are the two longest-printing parts in the whole enclosure. Reprinting all three parts is about 15 hours. Fortunately, I started last night...

@3dprinting I spent yesterday designing a new joint. I ended up using a bigger mortise/tenon plus three dowel pins. (I really love dowel pins.) The pins are 5x50mm and 3x30mm. The screw is M3x10.

I printed these two test pieces to verify fit. They are plenty rigid, and I have to pry them apart with a screwdriver. This is definitely overengineered. (I really love overengineering things.)

@3dprinting After all the progress I've made on the Black Lack Stack Hack recently, I was due for a setback. I carelessly picked this assembly up by one end to show it to someone, and it cracked under its own weight. When it hit the floor, the opposite joint cracked too.

They were wobbly anyway, so I should design something better.

Edit: two more photos.

@3dprinting One more layer. This is the surface the printer will sit upon.

This is by far the most rigid IKEA furniture I've ever handled. So that validates the steel rod idea.

But the back right rod is not parallel to the others now. I must have torqued it somehow. The rest of the assembly seems square. Not worrying yet.

@3dprinting Stupid Fastener Tricks, Episode 88.

To hide the screws on the power distribution unit, I printed some plastic covers that are held in place with magnets.

This brings the total magnet count in this enclosure to 120, I think. If I put a shelf of Gridfinity slots in front, that'll be another 48 magnets.

@3dprinting Here's the next layer. At this point, I should stop and do some more design. I want to attach several things to the underside of the next table, and I'm not sure they'll all fit. Nor how to attach them.

- a rackmount power distribution unit in back
- steel sheet storage in front
- a Gridfinity shelf in front
- LED power supply and cabling
- Raspberry Pi or mini PC for Octoprint

@3dprinting I have finally started assembling the Black LACK Stack Hack (printer enclosure). I am nothing if not slow^Wdeliberate.

I found out that the "plugs" that go between the hex nuts and the table corners (the red parts) are too tight to slide over the threaded rods. I tried forcing one on with the flywheel wrench, but that got old. So I'm printing new plugs now.

(The flywheel wrench works very well.)