Drag Chain Adapter for Ender 3

prusaprinters

<h3>!!!! PLEASE NOTE !!!!</h3><p>You<strong>CANNOT</strong> use the stock extruder setup for this mod, and frankly I'm not sure if the stock wiring harness is long enough to be using any of this either. If you still want to use a stock-ish extruder, consider using a right-angle bracket like <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4021286">this one</a>. Both sides will have holes for captive nuts, and you might have to use something like M3x10 or M3x12 instead of M3x8 with washers as a result. I run direct-drive so I don't fully know the answer to this.</p><h3>Hardware Required</h3><p>5 x M3x8 bolts (button-heads are best)</p><p>1 x M3 Nyloc Nut</p><p>4 x M3 Nut (non-nyloc)</p><h3>USING A NORMAL NUT IN THE X AXIS CAPTIVE NUT HOLE CAN LEAD TO IT COMING UNDONE -- USE ONLY AN M3 NYLOC NUT FOR THIS SPOT</h3><p>You<i>can</i> choose to use 5 x M3 Nyloc Nuts instead of only one, however the motor mount doesn't experience any reasonable amount of flex for undoing itself to be a concern like the cable chain mount is. The use of nylocs here is entirely up to your own discretion. They're cheap enough for peace of mind, but I can't see a reason to require it.</p><h3>DESCRIPTION</h3><p>Remix of a couple cable chain mounts that allow you to use an off-the-shelf 10x20mm drag chain (like <a href="https://amazon.com/gp/product/B07MGGYTKK">this one</a>) instead of 3D printed one that will invariably come undone with relative ease. I've never had a 3D printed drag chain not come undone somehow, including for the two I remixed. The thin part that holds the wires in on every link damn near never fit, and when it did, it damn near never stayed securely. The rest of it was designed just fine however.</p><p>The "quick and dirty" hack if you're upgrading from the remixed variants is to use the Cable Link Adapter pieces, which form an adapter link that goes between the 3D printed version the mounts expect and an off-the-shelf 10x20mm drag chain. Different ones go to different spots.</p><p>If you're reprinting everything however, then the Extruder Gantry Clip parts will clip onto the V wheel axes on the extruder gantry (the moving part of the X axis). Which one you print depends on which side of your drag chain links open up -- if they open up to the outside, pick Open Max, but if it opens on the inside, pick Open Min (Min/Max in this case referring to where on the X axis the drag chain opens towards). If neither side opens on your drag chain, either flip a coin or pick the one that makes running the wires into the drag chain for your hotend setup easier. PETG or bust for this piece due to proximity to high-temp components (not only the hotend but the bed as well)</p><p>Extruder Motor Cable Chain Mount bolts onto the pre-existing plate. Pretty self-explanatory, and is where all the mounting hardware is used.</p><h3>BOTH Z axis clip varieties require disassembly/reassembly of the rear of the frame</h3><p>They do NOT "pop" in, you <strong>MUST</strong> slide them in by removing the rear rail. Although the Z axis clip variant works just fine and is as close to the Tobi0892 design as you can get as far as spacing, I personally use the Longer Gap variant to allow the wires to have more room to exit the cable chain without putting stress on the pop-open links (I don't know what those are called) which can sometimes work themselves open if the wires push on them too much from the inside.</p><h3>FOR CUSTOM HOTEND MOUNTING SOLUTIONS</h3><p>See <a href="https://www.printables.com/model/320981-10x20mm-cable-chain-mounts">this design</a> that you can either run a boolean union on or even just copy-paste the dimensions from the source Fusion360 file. The dimensions in those files is identical to the ones in the Extruder Motor Cable Chain Mount.f3d file, but also gives you a third option if you're crammed for space. 2-clause BSD license too so it's practically public domain.</p><h3>YOU<i>WILL</i> LOSE Z AXIS SPACE WITH THIS MOD</h3><p>If you're able to flash firmware to your rig, it's best to auto-home, then get the Z up to about 200 before slowly going higher bit by bit until it gets close to the max limit without actually touching, then set that as your new Z max limit, and leave a comment in your firmware so you know what it was originally set to. You'll thank yourself later for leaving a comment if you ever undo this mod. I personally do ones like // 2022-10-06 - Changed Z height from 200 to 150 - Julie etc. so I can Ctrl-F for Julie and find everything I changed with datestamps so I know when I made said change too.</p><h3>LICENSE NOTE</h3><p><strong>ONLY</strong> the Extruder Motor Cable Chain Mount is licensed under the 2-clause BSD license, with the source Fusion360 file included. The two Z Axis clip parts are remixed from Tobi0892 and are Creative Commons Attribution non-sharealike, so "based on a design by Tobi0892" is more than sufficient for those two. ALL remaining parts -- both Extruder Gantry Clip parts and all three Cable Clip Adapter parts -- are remixed from diogosantos88, so similar phrasing should apply there. While none of the parts I modified have a sharealike qualifier and both can<i>technically</i> be converted to BSD 2-clause as a result, large parts of their design dimensions remain intact and I don't feel like being a jerk either.</p><h3>How I Designed This</h3><p>The Extruder Motor Cable Chain Mount was largely designed with a caliper to reverse-engineer things like the motor holes and where the threaded rod was to avoid it, plus geometry from <a href="https://www.printables.com/model/320981-10x20mm-cable-chain-mounts">these test pieces</a> using Fusion360</p><p>Due to the rest of the parts being pre-existing STL's, I opted to use Blender to modify the remaining parts using the dimensions from the above linked test design. I also modified Z Axis Clip to be wider as the original width was narrower than the design I used for the drag chain mounts. There might have been a bevel I removed too.</p><p>Category: 3D Printer Accessories</p>