MakerFarm i3v Heat Bed Wiring High Strain Relief by Printbus

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

This is a remix of my other strain relief at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1957391. The remix raises the strain relief surface a distance away from the y-bed without requiring a lot of infill volume, and provides the option to recess the heads of the mounting screws into the top surface of the higher strain relief. An example of an application for this is to provide a strain relief for wiring to the original MK1 style heat bed that has been flipped upside down so that the heat bed circuit traces are towards the print surface, not away from it as in the MakerFarm OEM approach. Recessing the screw heads helps eliminate or reduce any conflict between the screw heads and wiring, or can be used to affect the length of screw required to mount the support to the y-bed.
Two STL files are provided. File 10mm_high_arc_support.stl is an example that raises the strain relief surface 10mm above the print bed for use with a wood-style y-bed. This strain relief would mount to the y-bed using the two holes in the bed MakerFarm intended for a cable tie. File 8mm_high_block_support.stl is an example that raises the strain relief surface 8mm above the print bed for use with the optional MakerFarm aluminum y-bed. This strain relief would mount to an aluminum bed using holes that have been drilled into the aluminum plate, perhaps using the strain relief as a hole pattern.
A zip tie is used to tighten the wiring from the heated bed to the extending leg of the strain relief.
The gallery photo shows the 10mm_high_arc_support.stl version installed on an 8-inch i3v with the MK1 heater flipped and an aluminum plate added on top of the heater. For info on the aluminum plate, see https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:195653. More information on the flipped MK1 heater orientation on a MakerFarm i3v is available as part of my build thread on 3dprintboard at post http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.php?3461-MakerFarm-8-quot-i3v-Prusa-build-by-Printbus&p=103977&viewfull=1#post103977
NOTE: This works fine with an 8-inch i3v where the rear of the y-bed does not extend rearward over the cross-brace of the printer frame. Those with larger versions of the i3v may need to verify there is adequate clearance for the mounting hardware used if their y-bed extends over that cross member.
The openSCAD source is provided for those wishing to tailor the strain relief design.