Ender 3 Cable Chain Heat Bed Bracket

Features

• Replaces original support bracket and cap. • Supports 20x10mm (Inner width) Cable Chain / Drag Chain. • Two cutouts for a single 1.5mm zip tie / cable tie • Prevents first attached link from moving vertically.

Installation Instructions

Tools: 2mm (5/64") Allen key

• Loosen and remove Y carriage tensioner. • Slide out Y-carriage assembly. • Loosen bed leveling wheels and remove the wheels and V-roller base plate. • Replace the old bracket with the new.

Introduction

Introduce a neat, subtle way to attach a cable chain to your printer by using this new support bracket. This sleek design follows the aesthetics of the cable chain while providing tightly-toleranced mating surfaces and a light press fit install. Modifying the existing trapezoidal cap and reusing the bracket resulted in a bracket that was too brittle - a rework of the entire bracket was needed.

Description

This is a connection piece for the top end of the Y-carriage cable chain. Its centre hole locates on one of the bed's countersunk adjustment screws and can pivot a couple of degrees when installed to accommodate lateral cable chain movement. A cable tie can be used to fasten the main heat bed cable to the bracket as the solder joints are often not parallel to the board, resulting in an oddly-angled, unwieldy heatbed cable.

Cable or drag chains are used to organize and protect cables that have relative movement between the termination points. The chain length can be adjusted by adding or removing modular links. During the machine design stage, it eases planning of the cable lengths needed to connect the base and carriage while maintaining the required relative movement. More importantly, in non-3D applications it enforces a minimum bend radius of the cables to prevent cyclic movement from damaging the conductor's insulation over time, resulting in crack and weak point formation. It provides not only form, but function as well!

Conclusion

Comments and critique are welcome! I hope this little print is useful to you.

Miscellaneous Notes

Changelog

-[2024/02/17] Release

-[2024/02/17] Release edit (grammar, bottom piece comments removed, more notes, added tools)

-[2024/02/19] Added notches to contact faces

-[2024/02/22] Added bottom bracket

-[2024/02/24] Moved Ender 2 Pro cable chain kit to its own post, keeping this post to only support the ender 3 bracket.

Design and description by crathob , licensed CC-BY.