Working with Electronics: Building a Carbon Fiber Enclosure for the X1 Carbon

As an electronics enthusiast and maker, I recently had the opportunity to build a custom carbon fiber enclosure for my laptop, specifically designed to house the new X1 Carbon. This project required careful planning, precise measurements, and a bit of creativity. In this article, we'll take a closer look at the process of building this enclosure and the challenges that came with it.

Designing the Enclosure

The first step in designing the enclosure was to create a prototype using cardboard and foam board. I wanted to get a sense of how the final product would look and feel, so I spent several hours prototyping and refining my design. Once I was satisfied with the shape and size of the enclosure, I began creating a detailed blueprint for 3D printing.

Printing the Enclosure

Using a high-resolution 3D printer, I printed out the enclosure's components, including the top, bottom, and sides. The process was slow but precise, and I was careful to ensure that each component fit together seamlessly. Once the print was complete, I removed the supports and began sanding down the edges to smooth them out.

Adding Mechanical Components

To add a bit of mechanical flair to the enclosure, I designed and 3D printed several custom components, including a hinge system for the door and a locking mechanism for securing the lid. The hinge system consisted of two pivoting arms that connected to the top and bottom plates, allowing me to create a smooth and reliable opening/closing action.

Installing the Locking Mechanism

The locking mechanism was designed to provide an additional layer of security and prevent accidental openings. I used a combination of magnets and springs to create a robust and reliable lock that would keep my laptop safe from prying hands or curious pets.

Assembling the Enclosure

With all the mechanical components in place, it was time to assemble the enclosure. I carefully aligned each component and secured them together using a combination of adhesives and fasteners. The process was meticulous, but the end result was well worth the effort.

Testing the Enclosure

Once the enclosure was complete, I installed my laptop inside and tested its functionality. I was thrilled to find that it fit perfectly, with plenty of room for airflow and easy access to all the ports and connectors. The locking mechanism worked seamlessly, keeping my laptop safe from prying hands or curious pets.

Installing a Humidity Sensor

One of the key features of this enclosure is its ability to maintain a consistent level of humidity within the compartment. To achieve this, I installed a small humidity sensor that would monitor the environment and trigger an alarm if it detected any significant changes in temperature or humidity.

Unboxing the X1 Carbon

After completing the enclosure, I received my new X1 Carbon laptop, and it was time to unbox it and show off my handiwork. The device arrived in a standard Dell box, but the real excitement came when I opened the lid and revealed the beautifully designed carbon fiber casing.

The Carbon Fiber Case

One of the most impressive features of this enclosure is its use of high-quality carbon fiber. The material provides excellent durability and resistance to scratches and dents, making it perfect for protecting my laptop from everyday wear and tear. The case also features a sleek and modern design that complements the X1 Carbon's aesthetic.

Adding a Poop Shoot

As an added touch, I designed and 3D printed a small "poop shoot" for the back of the carbon fiber casing. This clever feature allows me to easily clean out any debris or residue from the 3D printer, keeping my machine in top working order.

The Final Product

After weeks of work, the enclosure was finally complete, and I couldn't be happier with the result. The X1 Carbon fits perfectly inside, and the locking mechanism works seamlessly, providing an additional layer of security and protection for my laptop. Whether you're a seasoned maker or just starting out, this project demonstrates that with patience, creativity, and a bit of expertise, even the most complex electronics projects can be brought to life.

Carbon Fiber Enclosure Design and 3D Printing

As I continued working on this project, I realized the importance of designing and 3D printing with high-quality materials. The carbon fiber used for the enclosure provided excellent durability and resistance to scratches and dents, making it perfect for protecting my laptop from everyday wear and tear.

Designing a Carbon Fiber Enclosure Requires Precision

Designing a carbon fiber enclosure requires precision and attention to detail. I spent several hours prototyping and refining my design, ensuring that each component fit together seamlessly and provided the desired functionality.

3D Printing with High-Resolution 3D Printers

Using high-resolution 3D printers allowed me to create complex components with intricate details. The printer's capabilities enabled me to produce smooth and precise surfaces, making it essential for a project like this.

Mechanical Components Add a Touch of Flair

Adding mechanical components like hinges and locks not only provided functionality but also added a touch of flair to the enclosure. The pivoting arms and springs created a smooth opening/closing action, while the magnets and springs ensured a secure lock that would keep my laptop safe.

Humidity Sensor Installation

To maintain a consistent level of humidity within the compartment, I installed a small humidity sensor that monitored the environment and triggered an alarm if it detected any significant changes in temperature or humidity. This feature provided an additional layer of protection for my laptop and helped ensure optimal performance.

A Humble Beginning: From Carbon Fiber to Electronics

As an electronics enthusiast, I've always been fascinated by the intersection of technology and design. This project marked a turning point in my journey, where I discovered that designing and building with high-quality materials was essential for creating functional and durable electronics projects. The carbon fiber enclosure project taught me valuable lessons about precision, attention to detail, and the importance of using high-quality components.

Conclusion

Building a carbon fiber enclosure for my X1 Carbon laptop was a challenging but rewarding experience. Through careful planning, precise design, and expert 3D printing, I created a durable and functional enclosure that provides excellent protection for my device. Whether you're an electronics enthusiast or just starting out, this project demonstrates the importance of attention to detail and using high-quality materials in your projects.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthank you hey everybody I didn't mean to make you wait hi um I am 3D printing obsessed I'm not 3D printing obsessed I'm just excited because I'm Wheeling 3D printing finally into the process of this shop and I've got a new uh copper Max uh any cubic Cobra Max for large volume printing it's slow but it's big it's Giant and that's what Albee's printing space helmets out of and I've got a couple of uh uh carbon bamboo carbon X ones which are just phenomenal Speed Demon workhorses extraordinaire the any cubic Cobra actually let's go talk about it why talk about it in the abstract when it's right here printing for us this is my first print on it uh technically it's the second print this is a neck ring the first print was the owl that came with the SD card so this is an 18 hour print it's about four hours in uh come back tomorrow morning and see how it did but as you see the difference between this printer and the carbon X1 is also printing oh um the big difference between them is that the Cobra Max does not have an enclosure and it does fine without the enclosure but it'll do better with the enclosure so I have bought enough a quarter inch acrylic from TAP plastics to house this thing that's tomorrow but right now as you see the filaments out here hanging out in the open it's going commando and I'd like to put it into a box with some desiccant in it um so I'm going to build a little dry box for it and the way I'm going to do that is I'm actually going to install that dry box down here the goal is the dry box lives here and that the filament runs out to a PTFE into here and that I'm able to encase this whole thing and then also I lower its side to side footprint and get rid of this thing but I'll make the enclosure tomorrow once it's done printing um isn't this great look at this um all of this 3D printing area that was today's one day build uh that was yesterday's I didn't even film that sorry about that um and so now we're going to make this dry box out of some acrylic that I have lying around not entirely true that I had it lying around I actually picked it up expressly for this purpose I want to make this accommodate a three kilogram spool which are just over four inches in thickness and on 11 plus in diameter now the question is out of this this is 24 I'm guessing yep all right so I'm not going to get more of them oh suppose I could so is this water 24 it is that'll be easier I'll make it a slide out door a side opening door that slides out it'll have a bit of acrylic here for the spool you want to slide out I need four inches in an eighth for the width of the spool plus a half an inch for the thickness of this so that's basically five and then room so let's say six inches and you go 12 and a half a 12 and a half an inch of leeway around the whole perimeter of this thing okay so 2 12 and a half inches thank you we're almost done here and please know that I'm not following any really specific hard best practices with the acrylic I'm using Weldon 16 which gives me uh some wiggle room this thing won't reach full strength for a couple of days actually it's not a couple days maybe a few hours right um and so now I'm working out the door and instead of hinges I've gone with just um same both ways it is great look at that so then I can put a little bit of a noodle nutmeg there actually soften that uh if I was making uh like a you know a vivarium for a lizard I'd be following much different practices if I was making something water tight but I don't need it watertight I just need it somewhat uh somewhat confining of air is truly what I mean so it will sit like this and it will sit like that oh whoops duh good God I have My Own Worst Enemy let that sit and I'll stop mucking around with it for a minute all right uh the box is most of the way there 's what I want to do I want the the filament to come back out of here so I've come in the center here it'll probably come sort of high right around there is my guess and if I get this wrong I just plug it but it doesn't strike me that the pull of the PTFE is very exact uh the location it pulls from so we're gonna foreign just a little bit of pressure there we go and then this will feed out of here see then all right she blows and now that's not so bad yeah that's pretty good right now I want to make a little bit of shelf for this thing oh my God it did the same exact thing here we go this is me thinking about dinner thinking about going home all of these so here's how the Shelf is going to go it's all going to be very quick hold on I'm just going to text my wife uh right foreign I have a soft place the Shelf back here where it's going to go and it's going to feed up that way so uh I'm really happy with how it looks just going to uh I'm just gonna pop it in with a little bit of oh actually technically it should only take one screw on each side there we go yeah that's not good where we're back on the lips here when one wants access to it one opens it up swaps it out pops it back in this comes up and around here yeah tomorrow morning I'll get this thing printing so you get to see it all in action I myself holding if I don't want to put a light up under there but I don't want to put a light up under there I don't know but all the printers are going all the things are in place the systems are burning in it's very exciting thanks for joining me for this uh oh I wonder if I couldn't just is there any reason I couldn't run a vacuum hose from here into there like on this here like on the side of this box here a vacuum hose that goes from here into this box which is already being right I mean this box is it's a little warm it's got air circulation I don't know I'm gonna have to research and maybe I find a smaller uh smaller dehumidifier or something like that like a um lizard heater or something like that we'll see oh I love it I love all the infrastructure I love infrastructure for creation and it's fun stuff all right I decided I could add a light let's add a light let's add a light yep there we go lovely lights on everything thanks for joining me for this Monday build I'll see you guys next time this printer is great has great reviews I printed up a neck ring last night for a space helmet and it's lovely it will print better if it is enclosed now I went online and I looked at enclosures for this and they're expensive like eleven hundred dollars expensive and I was like what that's crazy money I will order the plastic and I will build my own and here's what I want to tell you that's 600 worth of plastic um look I bought this from TAP plastics not the cheapest purveyor of acrylic uh and I paid per cut I had I I drew out the cabinet I want for my Cobra and I uh I gave the part size breakdowns the sheet size breakdowns uh two TAP plastics and so they did this as a custom cut out of custom sheets so you can get out cheaper you can buy four by eights if you have a big shop you can buy four by eights of quarter inch acrylic for probably a lot less and cut it to your own size I don't have a shop big enough I really can't cut four by eights in here I cannot uh so I gotta farm that out anyway it's an expensive proposition no matter what and there are cloth Solutions there are like um you know as long as you are apparently like limiting airflow and allowing the environment around the print to be stable there are all sorts of mitigations that work including like uh uh like a cloth type enclosure but I wanted to be able to see the thing I want to of course you know I'm gonna put lights in it uh also I gotta remind I've got to be able to monitor it remotely I want to put a camera on it all of these things uh so we're gonna build uh an enclosure for this today now I've already started and the way this enclosure will work is there will be a base that is like a long tray and then the the the five-sided box that sits over the Cobra will sit in that tray so it's very easy to remove the enclosure to have access to the machine uh but it will sit on there and that'll be a nice that'll be good and then I'm actually going to cut a door in the front of this I am what I'm printing here are some 3D hinges 3D printed hinges to go with the door here I think that's everything to cover right now oh right right the tray I already built the tray this morning uh made out of um quarter inch acrylic glued together with weld on 16 that is um oh whoops I left the cap off that's terrible well done 16. this stuff um it's absolutely fabulous for gluing acrylic it is not going to give you the acrylic gluing is you're never going to quite do it as good as they do it at tap but that's because it's a whole shop dedicated to do one thing and it does really really well I am willing to tolerate lower quality constructions for my stuff but this is the main tray you see how big the build volume is on this thing it's it's absolutely gigantic so it's not this big but it the platform needs the case needs to be this big to accommodate that whole build volume I did this first because uh I wanted it to be more solid when I put it it's the more delicate of the uh of the pieces that I'm working today because it's flippy fluffy yeah but uh she's fine boom static I am going to uh install the platform on the underside here pull this let's put it down yep there we go uh let's get this back foreign so I've got it on its platform here it's big big thing but it's prepped I'm not sure I'm sending I'm going to send a print once Norm sends it to me and then I'm going to build the cabinet that goes on top of that meanwhile uh the bamboo is steadily printing some some hinges for me so uh first up is the front door this is up and I want to um I want to cut this out is what I want to do with the jigsaw um I want to cut out a door here and and it is like and into a radius on those I want to cut this door out before I assemble the boxes I don't want to cut it out after the box is assembled that's going to be a pain in the butt I'm just going to take a look at this in here 31 that's 15 and a half at any rate I can drill a hole here and use that for my uh starch foreign foreign I'm kind of happy with that that's the door and that's the door frame yeah nice this Edge once I get two of these glued down then I'm pretty in pretty good shape that is the top yeah extra foreign that seems pretty freaking good foreign foreign okay come on can't fix the camera sorry about that the camera fell all right box is glued up I'm going to cut out another part of the door actually I can't do anything until I remove this box I can't cut out the other part of the door until this move so we're just going to pause for a minute it is universally accepted truth of the YouTubes that when you go to set up something elaborate to film you'll forget to press record as I just did uh Council Bachelor here Sean Charlesworth just helped me put the case on here and then we peeled off all the blue like it was like Christmas morning and I didn't cover any of it but the printer is still printing uh and now once I get this door on it'll be a nice enclosure and we'll get the hygrometer in there I'm sorry that you missed the exciting part I know it's kind of hard to see it's like Wonder Woman's jet okay I'm really sorry about uh not recording that last part so I thought I'd show you how I'm gonna light this thing I simply have here a piece of hardware store c channel uh that is uh 5 8 by half inch um with some VHB stick them on the back and some LEDs in the front I'm going to stick that to the roof inside here and Route it out to the same power supply that's lighting everything else here so you should be able to get to see it all light up right you gotta peel off here we go throughout this feel this place here oh yeah that's good foreign there it is sorry come on in there you go all lit up so uh I got some work done on the door uh here is the door this is the cutout and then I cut out a second piece to be a surround and that'll allow me an airtight fitting I was 3D printing some hinges and I printed up these which are lovely print in place hinges but I didn't feel like they were sturdy enough to hold up this big door it's heavy I'm not going to trust it to hold up this door I'm going to use this uh piano hinge coffin hinge um but I'm about to uh Rive it in my keeper this will be the piece that glues to the stand itself and holds it up so I'm just about to rivet that in right I'm using rivets on this acrylic because it's just nice and fast you know me I love a mechanical connection all right now my method for attaching this to the thing is actually yeah I'm gonna go there I'm gonna it's bold it's a bold method I'm going to run some glue up here and I'm going to Sock this on and tape it to the door so that the next time I undo that tape it'll be to open this door and it'll hang off this thing like the print in there is going to last for days oh right I may want to do one thing hold on all right so um how do you I got this inner piece out of the frame I'm installing it back into which means I've got a saw kerf the thickness of my saw blade top and bottom if I just pop this in it's going to sit on the bottom and I don't want it to so I cut this piece of styrene which is pretty close to the curve of the blade about 40 thousands actually is that that's actually about sixty thousand still we're right in the zone uh and I will put this at the bottom of the door frame sit this on top of it then tape it in and then I'm gonna put some glue on here sock it in and the next time I open the door it should hold itself up oh one last thing I'm actually going to install two long rivets uh yeah I am also going to install two long ribbons so I'm going to drill those just to help with the mechanical holding of this thing so there's one aspect of the design that I hadn't thought all the way through which is how much weight this door causes on this whole thing out here and it's a lot it's a lot of weight and it's all sitting on this tray so I am going to add in a pair of triangular gussets here that are going to sit here and support this yeah uh I'm gonna do it like that and then pivot it into there and yeah this should give me the extra support that I'm hoping for for this uh because this is on the inside of both ends of the door this is bearing all the weight I need I don't need to bear I don't need to run a Stringer in between them I don't think so let's get these guys going great nice and flat across the other one oh wow I don't have the oh I guess anymore okay because it's hard to drill with your left hand all right hopefully that doesn't impart any just instead of our print now I'm going to install this piece of styrene as a spacer on the underside of the door to better allow the insert door to find its way that's great all right so that is being properly held in here let's uh extra help good it's um I want you're doing something mechanically like this I want it touching mechanically all the way around the edge if you if you don't set something up exactly how you want it and then you drill holes to secure it you can secure it in its cattywampus sort of orientation and that well that's no good for anyone uh right so here we are this is our hinge and what I'm going to now and I've got mechanical contact all the way around the perimeter here I'm going to uh I'm gonna glue I'm going to put some glue over here all the way down and then I'm going to close it and then once it's closed I'm going to come in with the rivet gun and pop those two rivets and that should hold this all quite nicely plus yeah this is this is great this is really really okay here we go closing it up yeah great rivets foreign that's wonderful okay let's do one more hold here we go in the middle here good all right this one's done uh soon we'll be putting on the uh the lock yes foreign opening up and closing again dude swings shut the Hershey blows a new container super pleased with the closure itself printed I'm really happy um I don't know how many videos this is going to be but however many builds were encompassed in this video thank you for joining me on them um look at that 39 humidity the inside of this is exactly where it should be humidity wise all right my other carbon arrives later literally it's going to arrive in minutes you know like less than an hour hackers local distributor for uh the X1 Carbon X1 has sent me one of these though I've finally got my second carbon and it's time to install it here onto the rack built for a pair of carbons last night I even printed up a poop shoot for the back of the carbon when the carbon is cleaning its nozzle uh there's a Little Chute at the back of the machine where it just like gets rid of literally it's like a shoot it's called The Poop Shoot uh and I've got a uh a basket there my hot box is working beautifully uh it's keeping it at 40 humidity uh this morning I built the enclosure for the any cubic and everything is great everything is super great so I thought I would just film The unboxing of this business I thought we would film The unboxing of this business and then we would um yeah send some prints yeah is this upside down it is well it does inside us here's hoping that it's arrived unless foreign so they actually do this really lovely thing about pulling it out is the bag itself the side pull up on the flaps and you are meant to pull this whole thing out how cool is that sample your leg I know I unwrapped one of these a couple weeks ago but I also I'm always I always pop that one's not broken the interface stream here hot ends use algae we'll remove the screws There She Goes the AMS uh-huh all right now this is literally only we're holding the AMS in for shipping oh right yeah everybody's on it there are two uh desiccant holders in the AMS uh which are meant to keep the stuff dry go that's in here we go exciting adding a printer uh thank you guys for joining me I will see you next time cheers\n"