Has anyone else considered drag chains?

With any luck, this prototype upper drag chain bracket will work. Designed to mount between the Y rail block and gantry block, held captive by the lower rail screws in the gantry block.

Hey Kevin, what an awesome set up. I bought a 3d printer just to print this as per your suggestion. I printed all the parts. I am wandering where does the “support plate” go? It’s the long thin piece.

Nice! Welcome to 3D printing. I’m excited you got started!
The part “rail_spacer_plate” sits on top of- and between the aluminum angle rails. It has three functions: 1) fill the gap between rails and keep them pushed tightly against the end supports. 2) a place to tap an m4 thread to attach the drag chain to the rails. And 3) it can be tapped to work with “rail_clampbase” and “rail_clamptop” as a way to secure cabling in the rails. It works with both y and x sets of rails.

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Awesome. Thank you for the guidance! This was an excruciating 70+ hour print between all parts. I selected the best quality print. Kudos to you for such awesome design.

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Hi, great set up this, could you tell me how long the cables are to carry out this project.
I see there are now extension cables available to buy on the 1f site so just need to know how many I will need to copy this setup.
i.e 2foot or 4foot long maybe both??
Thanks in advance

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I added 18x25mm dragchain for x and z wires. I also added a coiled power cord to the router. The larger size drag chain allows room for the the wire extension connectors so they don’t bind up. I also installed the Onefinity controller to the underside of my table to help reduce the amount of dust being sucked in by the controller fan.

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Looks Great Mitz! Where did you find the Coil cord? I have been looking for them to do that exact thing for 2+ months and while I found the raw coil cord, it is like $80 for piece long enough for the job.

-Alex

Hey Alex. Thanks for reaching out. I got the coiled power cord on Amazon. It’s a 3 wire but the router is only 2 wire so no green ground connection. I cut the router cord a few inches behind the clamp (save it - you’ll need it in next step) and cut off female plug off the coiled power cord and spliced them together.
I tied off the male end of coiled power cord with zip tie to the x rail.
I purchased a female connector and attached it to the remaining piece from the router power cord which runs in the drag chain. Currently I have the drag chain attached to x rail with small bolt but waiting on a 3D printed part from Greg Dimant which should be here tomorrow.
Added a short video explaining connection.
Working on an enclosure design now!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Route1WoodDesign

(Attachment Video.mov is missing)

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Apparently couldn’t attach video. Send me a note in Messenger if you’d like it.

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Thanks Mitz,

Great explanation, I sent you a DM for that link to the video.

Keep up the great work!
-Alex

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Thanks for the video Mitz, that was very helpful. I found a coil 10’max cord on Amazon (it was referral product when I pulled up the one you go. It is Orange and has male and female normal 3 prong plug on it and it was $14.99 so gave it a shot, it matches my Ridged vacuum hose.

Thanks again,
Alex

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Great setup Mitz. Looking forward seeing that bracket installed. Let me know if there’s any issues with it.

I’ll post later this week my X axis drag chain setup.

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Great, i’ve downloaded files however before I begin to print I am using the prusa mk3 any settings or things I should know first before printing I appreciate it ahead of time thank you God bless, whoops It’s all right there, https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4619804

Mr. MuddyFeet, ty very much, your sharing is refreshing, if I may can I ask a question pertaining to an issue with printing I have, all pieces printed perfect but one, the Rail_Spacer_Plate.stl, I am using same printer as you I believe, the Prusa mk3, it says "an object outside the print area was detected Resolve the current problem to continue slicing, I am positive you have a simple solution and I am hoping you will share sir, thanks ahead of time Mr. MuddyFeet

image

This is how I printed it

Yeah, orient it diagonally on the plate and it should fit without trouble.

Thanks for your quick reply, I must confess at the risk of sounding Du, I had the settings in Prusa slicer set to the mini, I removed that and now only have the Mk3 so it wont happen again, thanks again.

For anyone looking for 18/2 coiled cable for router cord management. Here is a link you may be interested in. This is the same brand they have used for the Z motor. I plan on wiring this directly to the router as it is very easy to unscrew the top of the router and access the terminal connection.

This is about $15 and another $9 to ship for me.

https://www.coilcablespecialist.com/index.php?route=coil-cables/power-coil-cords/18-awg-2-conductor-coiled-cable-1802pm03&filter=11%252C4

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Mark, you beat me to the post. I just got off a call with them 10 minutes ago and I ordered my cord, I got 2 since the shipping was 9, figured a backup was not a bad idea as its the same cable the OF uses for Z.

-Alex

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