Drag Chain Bottom Connector Remix - No Support Print by PenitentHollow

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

I had been using and enjoying the original bottom connector for some time but when it came time to do a partial disassembly of my printer I decided to make some quality-of-life changes.
To start with, my X-axis chain kept popping off. I stiffened the connector and now it holds firmly even without the extra clip (which I kept for aesthetic purposes).
Second, I wanted to use washers to reduce the stress on the plastic, but I had to file a washer down so that it could lie flat against the connector. I added cut-outs to allow plenty of room for washers without the need to file them down.
Third, I was having trouble with the Y-axis chain rubbing up against the power cable. I moved the connector over 2mm and now it just clears the power cable while keeping it in line. If you're interested in your cable chains being parallel to each other I also made link to use at the top of the Y-axis chain to keep everything nice and straight. You can find it here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4785189
And Lastly I wanted to be able to print this piece without supports to avoid unnecessary material wastage and scarring, so I cut off a bottom corner at 45 degrees and now it can be easily printed on the resulting face with no need for support material. I did have to remove some decorative angles leading to the Y-axis connector to achieve this but that part ends up under the machine any way.
UPDATE: I realized while watching my printer work today that the original base connector actually pushes the X-axis chain 3mm outside the frame which means it is not in-line with the top connector I designed for this purpose. Now this isn't the biggest deal and it certainly works just fine despite not being aligned. This is the kind of thing that really bothers me however, so I went back into Fusion 360 and moved the X-axis connector over. So if your like me and that kind of thing bothers you, the new model is called "Stiffened In-line Bottom Connector - No Support Print.stl" NOTE: I have not printed this yet, I will upload pictures and remove this note when I have. Of course I have taken every precaution to make sure it will still work but this new model is currently untested by me. If you print it before I do, please post a make and let me know how it went.