ConfigChain

thingiverse

So, after really much wanting to go and get my printer a cable chain to tidy up the mess of wires and give it a more professional look, while obviously wanting to do them myself, I went off on an epic quest. I had found some good models for parametric drag chains, but none of them quite hit my style. Some were a bit too hard to print, others used print-in-place, or a snap method that required good overhangs and larger parts (and I just don't feel comfy with those). Anyhow, after an afternoon of fun with OpenSCAD, I came up with this! My pretty much fully parametric, very easy to print, overhang- (not bridge-)less, pretty stable drag chain design! Print Settings Printer Brand: RepRap Printer: Prusa i3 Rafts: No Supports: Doesn't Matter Resolution: 0.2mm layer (for quick printing) Infill: No infill here! Notes: Configure the chain to whatever you want /USING VALUES.SCAD/. All important config settings are there, you do not need to touch the other ones! You can then create the STL for a chain piece with "ChainElement.scad", and an STL for a cable clip of fitting size with "CableClip.scad". Then, print the different pieces. You can modify the length of a piece, or the upper or lower angle bounds, while keeping it attachable to the other pieces! Post-Printing Post-Step 1: Adding the axes After printing the different drag chain pieces, connect them by inserting a piece of filament through the holes (which can be seen easily in the title picture). After doing so, cut the filament as close to the pieces as possible, and then either: Carefully glue the filament piece to either the outside or the inside piece or (Recommended) Squeeze the filament piece so that the ends squish and thusly lock it in place. Why this? Using filament axis is the quickest, easiest, and probably also most stable way to create a rotating piece using 3D printing on small scales! Post-Step 2: Wiring the cables Once the chain has gotten the right length, lay out all the wires that will go through it. Make sure that the chain is still flexible, and that everything fits nicely! Spend some extra time on getting the cables tidy!! Once that is done too, you can then use the cable clips provided in "CableClip.scad" to fixate them in place. This makes for a very quick, surprisingly reliable, easy to implement and most importantly: easy to remove way of securing the cables inside the chain! Should you ever want to redo the wires, just remove the clips, and reinsert them once done! Additional Info Contributing Is this model not good enough? Have you found a bug or want to tidy up some codes? Then open up a pull-request of my random-stuff-repository here: https://www.github.com/xasin/TRRIAN