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.
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.
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
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.
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)
Apparently couldn’t attach video. Send me a note in Messenger if you’d like it.
Thanks Mitz,
Great explanation, I sent you a DM for that link to the video.
Keep up the great work!
-Alex
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
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.
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
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.
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