Any idea on solving the drag chain links

i have a quite long drag link for 8’x4’ table?



See how it rubs each other

If I’m not mistaken, this is a design issue on the printed links

I think real drag chain has a stop built in so it can’t go beyond straight

I could be wrong…

but I don’t think I ever see people’s “real” drag chain go beyond straight

Hmmmm those were 3d printed from STL file off printable website

3D printed drag chains often seem to have this flaw. I went through several iterations of drag chains that could bend backwards before remixing one that could not… then just buying nylon ones because they work better.

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If that’s my own design… so sorry.

By the way, it seems to me that it isn’t always the drag chain designer’s fault. So it might not be you at all, Doug. :slight_smile:

We all knkw that everyone’s printers are slightly different, and skmetimes we don’t pay enough attention to print settings. One of those drag chain sets I remember worked fine if you printed with a 0.1 or 0.125mm layer height, but since I was printing everything at the time with a 0.3333mm layer height, some of the detail that the catch needed was removed by the slicer. (0.2mm would have removed it also. I have to wonder how durable the chain would be…)

As designers we tend to make things that work for our own configurations. At least I know that I do. And once it works, I don’t go making it in all kinds of different versions, sizes etc. Scale my parts up to 200% and maybe it doesn’t work. That’s how it is. Maybe 1m of drag chain is fine, but 2m will break under its own weight… This is one of the challenges, and why I ultimately decided to just buy drag chain.

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Upon examining the links some has it and some doesn’t have it i printed in 20mm x 40mm on 2 different printers with .4 mm nozzle it’s hard to find ready made links online that has removable bars for laying cables in

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I’d make drag chain too and it’s quite good in support itself on the ‘bottom’ side (through the gaps ect.) but when drag 180 degrees and bottom side is facing up it sags like #Doug one

my designe

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Have you put that chain design on one of the model repos? I’d be interested in printing some.

Mike

@DougJoseph shared a nice drag chain model on printables that I printed for my LR3, but never got around to using since ended up just velcro strapping control/power cables to 2-1/2" vac hose.

Marius who does interesting projects/videos shared Drag Chain with removable closing brackets by Marius Hornberger | Download free STL model | Printables.com which is featured ~10:50 in his broader automatic CNC dust shoe project video.

Personally drawn to some of the parametric customizable OpenScad based designs like Fully Parametric Drag Chain by Gasol1n | Download free STL model | Printables.com and various remix/related models.

Something for Y axis that doubles up to assist with vac hose support like this drag chain is interesting Onefinity X35/X50 CNC Vacuum Hose Companion Bracket For Drag Chain Rail by Ghislain | Download free STL model | Printables.com, but will increase overall table footprint

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Nop, but I wil :wink:

If you wish to use and save this chain you can just add the tape measure trick inside the links.

neat idea.
I haven’t tested it yet so I can’t say if it’s a good or bad design,
I made it so I can make it in different sizes, it is easy scalable (in mm :wink: )

Hi
I placed it on makers world LINK-click here if someone want to test it.