Bad and great 3D printer wire management explained!

tom
Just because there’s a drag chain on your printer doesn’t mean it’s got great cable management. There are still a lot of things to looks out for and even a few much cheaper alternatives that can work just as well if done right!

This article is simply going to serve as a quick list of a few “dos” and “don’ts” – for the full story, watch the video above!

Drag chains: Great if used properly on a machine, but hugely detrimental to the longevity of a printer’s cabling if used wrong.
A smaller bend radius (in the moving section) results in a shorter lifespan of the cable,
but a thinner cable will generally last longer than a thicker one at the same radius
An appropriate bend radius for the IGUS CF130 cables and other, simpler cable types. The super-tight drag chains you see on many cheaper printers are almost never engineered properly and will lead to premature failure of the cables.
Cables need to be tied down at both ends of the drag chain. They should not be pulled or pushed tight, but still have some wiggle room either way.
  • Spiral warp: Bundles wires and has them supporting each other
  • Mesh sleeving: Does little to support wires, but keeps them tidy
  • Good design: Strain is taken off the connector with the cable support
  • Bad design: No strain relief, solder joint and wire right next to it sees maximum stress
  • Good design: Extruder wiring reinforces with bowden tube
  • Bad design: No strain relief at connector, but acceptable for the Z-axis
  • Bad design: Loose wiring and missing strain relief
  • Bad design: Crimped plug sees continuous movement
Bad design: No strain relief, shrinkwrap amplifies the issue by acting as a rigid lever (like a stress riser)
  • Regular cable can work in relatively tight radii if it doesn’t see much movement
  • Good design: Thin cables and a relatively large radius

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