Combined fan / drag chain holder for NEMA 17 Extruder / X-Carriage Mount AnyCubic i3 MEGA

thingiverse

The Anycubic i3 Mega printer has its strengths, but for me it was the cable management that was the biggest issue from day one. That's why I immediately switched to using drag chains for my printhead. I opted for Michelx parts because they fit perfectly and worked well. With my quick conversion to the Bowden MK3 R3 X-carriage for the Anycubic I3 Mega, or the Anycubic I3 Mega Prusa i3 X-Carriage Converter, it was clear that the Schleppkette / drag chain design of Michelx no longer fit. However, I found a great alternative in this thing from makercan, which has worked well for me over the past few months. As part of my upgrade to a Titan Extruder, I realized that I needed to do more with less material expansion and avoid any step losses due to overheating. To address these issues, I designed a combined solution with a 40x10mm cooling fan mount from scratch. In doing so, I also redesigned the holder for connecting the drag chain to the printhead unit because I was not satisfied with its stability. The basic concept still holds and works stably and reliably using drag chains from HaoBase. An additional cable tie can be used to secure the drag chain in place. The NEMA 17 holder is secured by an M4 screw, utilizing an existing thread. Other drag chains may also fit, but I specifically designed the tolerances so that 10x20mm drag chain links with a maximum radius of 12.5 millimeters and a bore of 4 mm, along with inside dimensions of 22.5 (20.0) x10mm can fit as well. I highly recommend Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX fans due to their superior quality compared to cheaper variants, reflected in the manufacturer's 5-year warranty. Any fan should work, given the distances between the mounting holes are 40mm. However, if you choose to use a standard screw instead of vibration dampers from Noctuna, be aware that air can flow through these channels on the outside of the engine! The construct has been running smoothly for some time now, and I only plan on making minor adjustments in the future. The model was printed using filament from Goedis: Black PLA. I suggest 20% infill, a layer height of 0.20mm, 1.06% flow, a nozzle temperature of 215°, a heatbed temperature of 60°, and 60% cooling. You can try adjusting these settings based on your standard PLA settings. I set the support pillar resolution to 1mm size in Simplyfy3d to ensure that there are no artifacts in the intake of the drag chains, which rest firmly with a full "click" and hold. The design is bomb-proof. * 13.06.2019: Optimized printing settings (Supports to 1mm) Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.