Kobra 3 cooling upgrade - External Heat Exchanger
External heat exchanger/cooler for printers that are not meant to be put in ovens but ended up in one anyway
Until now I couldn't really go above 60c with my Kobra 3 because the filament kept doing wild things to my extruder when I turned part cooling down to 0-10%.
You can either build just the core unit and mount it wherever you want, or you can build the case and have sit somewhere.
(I've just stretched and mangled my mini-itx case until the unit fit... That's why it looks a bit "gamery" -_- )
The dimensions are roughly 270 x 130 x 50 mm and it should be good to remove about 60W of heat. I don't have cfm meter so I had to guess a few values.
60 watt doesn't sound much but the goal isn't cooling a 300w CPU down to 20c,
All this thing needs to do is keeping the heat break below the point at which the filament starts softening and the printers electronics below 45c.
The 4 x 5015 blower fans are there, simply because they were/are all I had. They work fine, just don't get the annoying fans with ball bearings.
The ACE Pro is way, way louder than the 4 tiny blowers.
I've designed the core unit so that it should be possible to print different parts, use an external fan or extend it, but I haven't needed or tested it.
WARNING! Before you do anything to your poor printer you need to make sure the mainboard, power supply and touch screen get enough cooling!
I haven't seen my steppers go above 90c so I'm not really worried about them yet, the touch panel is a different story.
Anycubic rated the Kobra 3 at only 45c, my guess is that's mainly because of the power supply, panel and mainboard/drivers.
What you'll need:
- 1 x time²
- 1x 12V 80x12mm fan (search for 80x10)
- 4x 12V 5015 fan (with hydro or sleeve bearings)
- 4x 1000x10mm aluminum tube (24x 160mm when using the case)
- M3 tap
- 2.5mm drill bit
- Super glue
- A Tube of silicone
- A Can of matte clearcoat (opt)
- M3 screws (read the assembly guide)
Please download and read the build guide first before going wild with your printer.
And let me know if I've made a mistake!
