The Creality Ender 5 Enclosure is Ready!

The Ender 5 is a major design departure from the Ender 3, improving upon the former's bed flinger design by utilizing a rigid open frame that delivers more detailed prints.  

Because the electronics are embedded in the middle of the printer, the enclosure required some creative engineering. If you just stick the printer in a standard enclosure it will overheat. Instead, we custom designed an air scoop that brings in cold air to the power supply and electronics.

The second challenge was the LCD control panel is in a weird place.  Normally you'd access the printer by opening the front door, but this is so far to the side the enclosure would have to be way bigger than needed.  Instead, we figured out how to move the display to the outside, while still using the stock cable.

The final puzzle was to figure out how to get easy access to the Bowden extruder.   We're not a big fan of the stock Creality Bowden; it seems like we're always spending 5 minutes getting the filament inserted as it keeps catching on something. But no matter how you like the extruder, you'll be able to get easy access through a side door on the right.  There's a filament-width gap on the right side so that you can close the door and the filament has unrestricted access.

We've been using this enclosure for the past month, and are happy with the way it turned out.