Meet the Microcluster

The Microcluster kit is the easiest way to build a fitting home for your hard working 3D printers. It is both affordable and highly modular, guaranteeing that you’ll be able to build a 3D printer enclosure that meets your needs without breaking the bank.

The Microcluster kit system transforms a commonly available shelf into a purpose built, smart enclosure system for 2-6 desktop 3D printers. The modular upgrade system makes it easy to add lights, smart wireless control, or even a photo booth setup for professional product photography.

If your current “enclosure” includes cardboard or bubblewrap, it’s time for an upgrade…

The Microcluster kit might be right for you if:

• you actively use multiple 3D printers
• you are trying to print with higher temperature materials like ABS, Polycarbonate or PEEK
• you’d like some of your desk space back
• your 3D printing has been banished to the garage or basement or any other drafty, dusty place

While there are lots of printer enclosures currently on the market, you’re pretty much on your own if you want to build a multiple printer enclosure system. The Microcluster makes it easy to transform a standard shelving unit into the perfect enclosure system to suit your needs.

Halfstack!

Use Cases

Here are just a few of the instances where the Microcluster kit could be a life saver:

Home users

With the controlled environment of the Microcluster, you can be confident that your prints will turn out perfectly every time, even if you move your printing operation to the basement or garage. Add the OctoPi kit and tie it into your home network to easily monitor your prints from any web connected device.

3D printing professionals

As anyone with multiple 3D printers knows, most “desktop” printers aren’t really desktop sized anymore once you need to run more than one at once. Even just two or three printers can fill up all available deskspace and can cause unnecessary distractions. Instead of constantly swapping out printers or crowding your work area, give your hard working printers a space of their own.

Commercial Production

Started 3D printing prototypes or production parts in-house? Focus your efforts and produce stronger, more efficient parts with the Microcluster. The different Microcluster kits allow you to easily specify and build the perfect Microcluster for your specific needs so you can focus on developing your own products.

Features & Specifications

What’s in the Microcluster Panel kit?

• Lightweight corrugated polyurethane panels provide excellent thermal insulation and give a professional look to your printer cluster.
• Magnetic panel attachment makes the microcluster fast and easy to assemble.
• PETG front doors allow you to monitor your print while keeping the enclosure well insulated.
• Sliding door setup maximizes space and minimizes drafts when the doors are opened.
• Enclosed Volume:
  • Half stack version encloses 24ft^3 (0.68m^3) of printer space, enough for one TAZ and one mini or up to four LulzBot minis.
  • Full stack version encloses 48ft^3 (1.3m^3) of printer space, enough for three TAZ and three minis or up to six LulzBot minis.
• Smoke alarm lets you print worry free, and will give you early notice should things go terribly, terribly wrong.

Note: Shelving Not Included: The panel kit is designed to make it easy to enclose a common, commercially available steel shelving unit. The kits were designed around the Edasl(R) UR-245WGB 48”W x 24”L x 72”H shelf which can be found in most hardware stores or on Amazon. Other shelves of the same size should work but may need modifications to the printed parts.

Modular upgrades:

Printed Part kit

• If you’re using the recommended Edsal shelf as a base, this printed part kit will save you upwards of 100hrs of print time for the sliding mechanism.
• Parts proudly printed out of high quality PLA at our factory in Sheridan, Colorado, USA. Our printed part kit is printed using 1.2mm nozzles for maximum strength and durability.
• One printed part kit contains ten parts, enough to install sliding doors on a half stack. Two printed part kits contain enough printed parts for the full stack version of the Microcluster.

Printed parts.

Photo Booth kit

• Fast and easy to set up, the photo booth kit makes it easy to take professional photographs of your 3D printed products. In fact, all the photos used in this campaign were taken with the photo booth kit!
• Includes:
  • 48" x 100 ft of heavy-duty white kraft paper so you will always have a flawless white backdrop for your product photos.
  • 2x adjustable photo light stands that extend up to 84" for perfect lighting from any angle or direction.
  • 2X 50 W studio lights with 24" reflector hoods and removable softbox covers for ideal diffuse light.
  • All parts required to mount photo booth setup to the top of the shelf.

Mmmmmmmm... Photo Booth Kit.

Light Kit

• Easily installs in five minutes, kit contains all parts required to hang light.
• Bright 3000 lumen LED light bar guarantees better visibility of prints, low energy consumption and long lifetime.
• Allows for clear webcam monitoring even in a dark room.
• One kit needed per shelf you want lit up.

Octoprint Kit

• Easy to install and set up, the Octopanel allows you to set up wireless control of your printers in minutes.
• Designed to work with any desktop printer.
• A portion of every Octopanel purchase will go towards funding Octoprint, the open source project making this technology affordable and accessible.
• The included Logitech webcam allows constant monitoring of printing as well as the ability to take timelapses of individual prints.
• The Octoprint system allows authorized users to access the printers, upload print jobs, and monitor them remotely from any web connected device.

Comparisons

Full Stack with Lights

Manufacturing Plan

The Microcluster will be manufactured at our micro-factory in Sheridan, Colorado. All custom plastic parts will be produced in house using our own Microcluster based print farm, mainly utilizing 0.8 and 1.2mm nozzles for maximum strength, durability and throughput. We’ll do our best to share time-lapses and live streams of the process, it’s really pretty awesome! The wiring pass-throughs and mounting holes on the side panels will be die cut in house using printed jigs, and all other components are mostly commodity parts that will be purchased in bulk.

Shipping & Fulfillment

Similar to the Twoolhead campaign, the Microcluster rewards will ship from our warehouse in Sheridan, Colorado. Shipping within the US is included in the purchase price, with a premium added for international orders added to reflect the difference in cost to ship.

For this campaign, the bundles will ship via FedEx Freight; the bundles are only available for backers in the continental US.

Risks & Challenges

Like our Twoolhead campaign, the Microcluster campaign is intentionally very safe. All custom parts will be produced in house using our own Microcluster based print farm, and all other parts are commonly available off the shelf from multiple vendors. There are also no minimum quantities for any of the components of the microcluster kits, so we’ll be able to ship even if the pool of early adopters is small.

That being said, there are always unexpected hurdles to get past when manufacturing a new, innovative product. We will communicate any production issues with backers and do everything we can to deliver to all backers on time.

What is the Colorado Printing Project?

The Colorado Printing Project is an independent design group focusing on leveraging the strengths of 3D printing for small batch production.

Prior to starting the Colorado Printing Project, I (BAM) spent four and a half years in Loveland, CO as an engineer at Aleph Objects, Inc. There, I completely fell in love with the freedom of design and low iteration cost that production printing offered.

I started the Colorado Printing Project with the mission of speeding up the development of open source production printing technology. At the end of 2017, I successfully funded and fulfilled all campaign pledges for the Twoolhead, a parallel printing accessory for the LulzBot TAZ printers.

For the production of the Twoolhead, I built up a small enclosure for my cluster of 3D printers which turned out really nicely, so I’ve decided to turn it into a kit to make it easy for others to get the benefits of an enclosed printing space. For this project I was lucky enough to have help and insight from another former LulzBotier, Patrick. Patrick has been a long-time friend and collaborator and was a beta tester for the Twoolhead, helping out with the firmware development and initial refining.