Heat Bed Wire Mount

thingiverse

The Thing: A heatbed wiring fastener designed to provide mechanical support and preserve solder joint integrity. To Print: 1x Heatbed Clip 2x Heatbed Clip Bar Vitamins: Secure parts together with small bolts and nuts. I used Nylon Lock Nuts Screw Fastener Zinc Plated Black Hex Insert Female M3x0.5mm and M3x14mm Screw Cap Point Hex Socket Screws Bolts. Epoxy How to Use: 1). Thread wires through the gap in "Heatbed Clip". 2). Position "Heatbed Clip" gently pressing wires against heat bed edge, temporarily clamping it in place. 3). Solder wires to terminals on heat bed. 4). Screw "Heatbed Clip Bar" onto wires against "Heatbed Clip", tightening until wires cannot move easily. Repeat with distal holes. 5). Epoxy "Heatbed Clip" to bottom of heat bed, clamping until dry. 6). Enjoy printing! The Story: After burning out original heatbed wiring, I replaced it with 10 gauge threaded wire, which was a bit excessive but satisfying. Unfortunately, such thick wire snapped heatbed terminals after twenty hours printing despite my attempt to offset mechanical stress using zipties and looping wires around existing heatbed connector. As such, I resoldered leads directly to heatbed, leaving me with no mechanical support whatsoever. To address this issue, I CADed and printed this assembly (on a different printer). After thirty hours it has suffered no apparent strain. Potential Improvements: I'm most worried about epoxy eventually failing due to thermal stresses. A good improvement would be providing a structural means to secure the assembly to heatbed without infringing upon heatbed surface while remaining thin underneath to avoid collisions with y-axis motor. My original prototype attempted to fasten itself to screws connecting heat bed to T-bar but proved unstable with a tendency to sag and jam on y-axis motor. As such, I removed it and settled for epoxy, but would be happy to see someone succeed in fastening the assembly with a structural rather than adhesive means.