Extruder and heated bed cables grinding  

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

Hi all,

First I have to say that I do love the Prusa I3 MK2, print quality is just great!

What I noticed the past few prints is that the cable bundle of the extruder tends to go behind the cable bundle of the heated bed. It even happend that it eventually got stuck...
I did the cable management as described in the manual, and with smaller prints you don't have this issue, but when using the entire bed I did.

Did somebody else find an other way to guide the extruder cables, so it isn't grinding or even getting stuck behind the heated bed?
I have been searching for this on the forums, and found that some people do use printed cable chains, but I'm not sure if I'm going to like that since I think it will make more noice 🙁

Suggestions are welcome!

I opted to go the Cable Chains route. I saw that the extruder cable bundle tends to run across my prints/heat bed. Now with Cable Chains, that doesn't happen. The extruder bundle is routed up and down along the Z-Frame. Check out page 4. You need a minimum or 12 links for the heatbed. My printer is whisper quiet. Cable chains don't really give much of any noise as long as you don't make them too long. I know for some models of the cable chain mod, I had to reinforce some parts of the plastics so they would stop creaking.

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

I was not happy with the assembly instruction of the cables from the beginning. One thing that I did immediately different ist how I pressed in the 3mm filament piece. I turned it around, so that it actually pointed upwards, not down. This way the cables are forced to stay floating in air. So my cable chain of the extruder is always higher than the nozzle and does not interfere with the bed's cable chain. The upwards twist gives momentum to the cables.

Btw.: Prusa Research should really consider to shorten the extruder fan's cable. It is at least 15cm too long (on both kits of mine this was the case).

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

I have also been running into what appears to be similar binding between the extruder cable cable bundle and the heated bed cable bundle.
I see the same symptoms, it tends to happen while printing large objects.

It loses its Y axis position, and screws up the part being printed

Chris

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

Decided to unwrap my extruder wires and rewrap them such that they go 'uphill' from the extruder. Used an additional cable tie to pull the wires and filament 'up'. Held the bundle up while rewrapping it.

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

The printout of Aaron Yourk's mini rambo base modded for cable chains from TinkerCAD successfully finished after making this cable loom change, and is looking good!
Chris

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

My solution to this problem...

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

My printer is for the first time able to print out a full table of parts!

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

My solution is the same as Simon.P But I used a long rubber band and two paperclips. Haven't had a problem with that since.
Bill W

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

I have never had this issue with my Genuine Prusa I3 Mk2 upgrade from a Genuine MK1 Its not as issue for me.

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

My high tech solution. I have actually designed a part that might help this but havent tested it yet. Once I do I will share.

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

I'm also not a friend of these heavy plastic spiral wraps, so I use an braided cable hose.

Thomas

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

I have the same problem, I like your solution - what knot did you use? When will you have a more permanent solution?

Re: Extruder and heated bed cables grinding

I have designed a fix for the problem 😀

Look under:

Prusa Cable Support
by Jimbo70, published Jul 5, 2017 - thing:2420157

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2420157