Multi-day prints (aka fire safety)

So I’ve gotten to the point where I want to start printing some larger things that will require printing overnight unsupervised. What have people done to increase their confidence that it won’t be a huge fire hazard? I eventually intend to build a fire resistant enclosure but at the moment the printer (CR10s Pro V2) is just on my desk in the basement…

#1 right off the bat is a smoke detector outside the room.

Its the only thing that gives me the most confidence, Spent years in restoration and yes a couple of fires caused by 3d printers. usually ones that were home made or put together from something else. but that being said, smoke detector is always first and foremost .

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Luckily I do actually have a smoke detector right outside the room which is wired into the house and to all the other detectors so if it’s triggered in the basement the one upstairs will go off and wake me up. I’ll probably set up a heat sensor that will kill the power if it trips as well just for a extra bit of security.

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Smoke detector for sure if you can hear it and a fire proof enclosure is great piece of mind.

I like to monitor my prints visually through Octoprint when I’m out and I have a smoke detector setup above my printer that has the red light in view of the webcam. I keep a fire extinguisher beside my printers, but that’s about my whole fire prevention setup.

I’ve heard there are ways to hookup the signal wire from some smoke detectors to a raspberry pi/smart plug setup. But I’ve never learned how to do it.

I’ve heard of people using a 'fire extinguisher ball’s above their printer, but I’ve never tried one. They seemed a bit overkill to me.

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I wanted to build an enclosure anyway so I can do other materials so I figured I’d just make sure that it was made from non-easily-combustible materials for piece of mind. The extinguisher ball is a great idea for last resort but I don’t really want it exploding all over the room if there are better mitigations available.

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The double duty for an enclosure is the best option in my opinion. You get the fire protection and gain the ability to print in some new material.

That’s exactly why I don’t use a fire extinguisher ball, just seems so messy if it’s triggered…

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Yeah… that’s my plan. I wonder if you could use a mylar fire blanket as a tent as a short term solution?

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I don’t think it would be the greatest for any sort of fire protection, I’ve always thought the loose fitting blanket would get caught in some of the moving parts.

I’ve used one of those survival blankets to keep the heat in to print ABS in a makeshift enclosure a couple times. I really don’t recommend it though.

I put a Nest Protect smoke detector almost directly above the printer. The Nest Protect is incredibly sensitive.

Also, someone else asked that question on Facebook last week to which someone else asked: “How often does it catch on fire when you’re watching it? Why do you think it would be any different when you aren’t looking?”

That having been said, if you have animals around and they can get access to the printer, there might be more cause for concern.

Also, keep in mind that there isn’t a lot on the printer that can actually burn other than the model, so if you keep combustible materials away from the printer (preferably out of the room), even if it does somehow catch fire, the model will melt but it shouldn’t be able to spread if there’s nothing around for it to spread to.

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My printer is in my home office space. I keep the work area very CLEAN/CLEAR of things that would add to a fire. I hung a Fire Blanket behind the printer. I have two smoke detectors… one in the room, one right outside. They include strobe lights. I keep an extinguisher just outside the room. Keeping an extinguisher too close to the printer WILL not help when there is a fire.

The Fire Blanket was the one thing that keeps me sleeping at night. I also use Octoprint to monitor everything. I also have two Blink cameras in the room to check things at different angles.

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That’s a really good point… I just went and moved mine.

Thanks for bringing that up.

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Good point. I’ve got my Pro v2 sitting on a cement paving stone so there’s no way anything in the electronics box could burn downward (even if it could). I think I’ll eventually put a fire blanket on the wall beside the printer just for peace of mind. I grabbed a smart plug power bar that should be here today so I’ll get that set up with Octoprint and my pi cam fried so I’m getting another one so I can monitor things as well. Should be good.

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Above my printer, I have a normally closed contact fixed-temperature 135F heat detector wired to a relay box I built. In the event the heat detector goes, it cuts power to the printer. Additionally, there is a 2.5 lb bottle of Halotron with a sprinkler head on it. That’ll trip around 150F and, hopefully, extinguish any burning stuff.

I hope I never have to see if it works.

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