I’ve seen a lot of posts about building fireproof enclosures using readily available firerock and other consumer products. PLEASE be aware that these materials are typically fire resistant for a given temperature for a given duration and in a fairly small enclosed space, it takes very little fire to elevate a temperature way above what most of these products are likely rated for. I am not saying I know for certain that the temperature will exceed what these are rated for, but I would not be surprised if it does and I know from testing that bad stuff happens when that happens.Now, I want to see if I can get some ideas for testing enclosures! I build fire resistant rooms that firefighters practice in (I could say it a lot better, but don’t want to trigger my marketing department’s Google keywords, I spend most my day hiding from them!).I have access to pyrometers, high temp thermocouples, a fireproof room to test in, and an assortment of materials to build test structures with. I actually think this is something we could come up with solutions to, but I need to design a test and won’t have the company’s R&D budget to play with, but rather my beer money budget!I think the first thing I need to decide is how big an enclosure would be average, then how much heat is going into it. I am not sure if I need to build an enclosure, throw a A8’s worth of electronics etc in it and burn it, or if there is a lot of interest, perhaps rig a printer to burn. Has anyone seen a video of a printer burning down somewhere?Also, what kind of printer should we consider? A printer like my Printrbots would probably not burn too horribly as they are almost all metal, but I imagine a reprap or a printer with lots of printed parts could probably burn pretty aggressively and for a good while…let alone the old laser-cut plywood printers like my old Makerfarm kit printers.A benchmark test burn would allow us to monitor the heat build up in the enclosured space then use metered amounts of fuel to simulate it in future tests by testing fuel loads until the heat signatures are comparable. I can build an enclosure from scrap refractory liner, so we could very likely trap and measure almost all the heat so we know we are playing with a BTU input at least in the same general ball park as a printer fire.My goal is to get some enclosure drawings that are tested and make them available. I just need to establish parameters for the testing and parameters for the design. Anyone who wants to chime in, let me know if you care to help…I’ve done lots of stuff like this before and the more input I’ve gotten the more successful I have been on past projects.First:What would most of you spend building such an enclosure? I have access to refactory-grade linings, but am guessing most people would want to go to Home Depot or Lowes? Would you want to spend $100? $20? I don’t want to figure out an enclosure that prices the people who likely need it most out of it.Are most people adverse to chemical treatments? I’ve seen some impressive test results with chemically treated plywood. It’s not something I have messed around with before, but it seems like if the coating is not too expensive, it could be an option. I deal with lots of chemicals and have gear for such things, but have seen enough people question the safety of hair spray and glue sticks that I have no idea what an average person’s threshold for messing with industrial chemicals would be.How important is appearance? Do you want a sexy apple-like enclosure or is ugly gray fine with you?What kind of collateral damage do we want to consider a fatal flaw? Anything in the enclosure is going to be toast, but what degree of smoke damage etc to the surroundings should we consider a success vs a failure?What skill level should the enclosure demand? This is typically the hardest for me. I have access to a metal fab shop, brakes, plasma tables, welders, etc… and have trouble sometimes determining what kinds of capabilities the average DIY/maker would have at their disposal. Is something requiring a circular saw and drill about what is needed, is a drill press or router table an unreasonable expectation? Light welding?Also, how important is being able to see the printer while its printing? I am thinking the profile of one of these fires would be a sudden burst of heat at ignition that begins to diminish once the electronics burn out, then a low smolder until the electronics extinguish or are completely consumed. It may be possible a three-sided enclosure would be sufficient to contain the actual fire if that is the case. A full enclosure would definitely be the best bet, but I understand most people want to access their printer without tearing down/lifting away an enclosure. I’ve done insulated doors/windows before but am thinking that doing that in a fireproof manner would be beyond most people’s basement-garage skill set…but what about a slip in door for when the printer is unattended?I think mainly I am just hunting a project right now, but fire safety is something I’ve learned to take very seriously and think if we could come up with a sketch, pictures, and BOM for a generic tested enclosure that somebody could put together in an afternoon, it could possibly stop at least one fire, and just stopping one fire would make a couple weekends testing and building worth it to me.If there’s interest, I’ll put together a testing procedure with any input I get and post it for people to tear apart. http://ift.tt/2qPJesk