DIY Cable Carrier

[svenakela]

Great work everyone!
I added this thread to the DIY CNC Link Librabry

[epineh]

What is depressing is that I just looked at the start date of this thread and I still have not made any working chain

I can't even blame my machine as it is working these days (mostly)

I better get my act together and make myself some chain, I still have the original HDPE I was going to use stashed somewhere...

Russell.

[Bertram]

That looks great, the CNC almost looks like a commercial one, I think the purple and grey go together well too. Glad to see someone making the most of the files.

Did you manage to get the parts to fit together tightly or did you just glue them together (or both)?

Shannon.

Thank you for the comments and for the inspiration.

The parts are just held together by friction.

[RiseUp]

Wow. I started reading this thread expecting to see clear hose and u channel, but you guys really blew it out of the water! Great job with those chains!

[ger21]

Here's another one for ya. I studied a little 1" IGUS chain that's sitting on my desk, to see how it works. I allowed 30° of rotation per link, and it gives you about a 2-1/2" radius through the center, and about 5-1/2" tall when folded back on itself. See the .dxf to see what I mean. Each link is 3/4" high and 2" long, and in the model it's 1-1/4" wide. Thinking about this, it may need to be wider to gain a little stability in longer runs.

The sides are 1/4" thick, the spreaders are 1/8" thick. I'm thinking 1/4" MDF for the sides, and maybe hardwood for the spreaders. It would be pretty easy to make the spreaders in long strips, and then cut them to size on the table saw with a cutoff sled.

[epineh]

Nice work Gerry, I think you also may need a stop on the top side to stop the chain falling down under its own weight, so it stays up if you know what I mean, sorry its been a long day and I may not have explained very well

Russell.

[Big S]

ahh but there are internal stops that wont let it do that

Shannon.

[ger21]

Yeah, the stops are on the inside. They keep it staright in one direction, and 30° bends in the other. One thing you'll need to do is round off the sharp corner on the bottom stop, with the tools radius to keep the point from interfering when actually cutting these.

I actually set up the Solidworks model with collision detection to make sure it worked properly. I was able to grab one end and bend away, with the stops actually stopping the movement.

[ger21]

Also, if you want to increase (or decrease) the degrees of freedom, just change the angle of the stop at the bottom. Just draw the line from the center of the pivot pin. The angle you draw the line is the degree of movement, with 0° being straight down.

[epineh]

Yup I got it now, I saw the 30deg stop and then looked on the outside for the 0 deg stop very neat !

Cheers.

Russell.

[Big S]

Reverse engineering at its best I made mine with the wider tops to give a bit more protection from the cables.FWIW

Shannon.

[Robert M]

Gerry, would it be too much asking if you could give us a copy of your Solidwork file. Would make it easier for some one like me w/ 3D software ?
Thanks, Robert

[ger21]

I'll make some small changes tonight and post them.

[joecnc2006]

Ger21, Looks nice, I also think in MDF you can make a descent chain.

Joe

[edmond]

I made the cable carrier as per Shannon's DXF files, made it out of 6mm satin orange and 3mm frosted acrylic.I still have to fit it to my machine, but it snapped together tightly no glue necessary will post pics when its on my machine.
Big thanks to Shannon for sharing DXF files

[ger21]

Solidworks files, as requested. Looks like you'll need to use an 1/8" tool to cut these, as I needed to use 1/16" radius inside corners for the stops to still work.

[Robert M]

Many thanks for your time to my request fficeffice" />>>
Robert >>

[gadman58]

Was playing around with Gerry's design to see if I could get away with out having to curve the cross pieces. Here is what I came up with. You still have to break the edges of the cross pieces but a sander should do it quit nicely. I think I would probably make the cross pieces to stop it from moving inward.

I was able to make 6' of Shannon's design for about $30 with acrylic from Home Depot. I machined it with just watching the cables so they did not get in the way.

I just about had it all together and a friend brought me about 12' of the Igus E-chain he found laying in the road a little scratched up but usable, score.

Glenn

[epineh]

Been thinking a little more about making chain and I though that both Gerry's and Shannon's design's would lend themselves quite well to plastic injection moulding, I have a friend of a friend that has a basic injection moulding setup, I may see if I can try it out.

This will give me the incentive to try machining aluminium on my router

Russell.

[ger21]

I would imagine that that is how the IGUS I copied mine from were made, as each link is one piece. You just flex the sides a little to snap them together.