COMPLETE Strain Relief for Dual Titan Direct Sleds and Carriage

Discussion in 'Guides, Mods, and Upgrades' started by Ephemeris, Jan 1, 2017.

  1. Ephemeris

    Ephemeris Well-Known Member

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    I'm using Chase Wichert's beautiful Dual Titan Direct setup with the simplified carriage designed by Alex9779 and my own version of the extruder/hotend sleds with Molex Microfit 3.0 connectors (Tip of the hat to Folkert Kaman for that idea)

    This setup makes it much easier to maintain and rewire once you get it put together. Unfortunately, the cable bundles, as described in the original BigBox instructions, tie your hands and make things messy and harder to work on than they should be. The key is to reorganize the X-carriage wiring into three bundles.

    IMG_1765.JPG

    The left bundle contains the left extruder's heater, PT100, fan, and stepper wiring.
    The right bundle contains the right extruder's heater, PT100, fan, and stepper wiring.
    The middle bundle holds the cooling fan, X-endstop switch, and Z-infrared sensor leads.

    The next photo shows how this layout stiffens the arch of cables. What I did was slide heatshrink tubing over the top of the removable Molex receptacle and the cable sleeving.

    IMG_1766.JPG

    The heatshrink tubing acts as both a strain relief and a stiffener to make the arch form gracefully

    IMG_1764.JPG

    Materials used:

    3/4" PET Expandable Braided Sleeving - 25Ft (Blue)
    Use this for the two extruder bundles. Available in many colors!
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01919F3N4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    1/2" PET Expandable Braided Sleeving - 25Ft (Blue)
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01919ETIY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    18 mm heatshrink 3:1 (available in several colors)
    https://www.parts-express.com/Search.aspx?keyword=18mm Heat Shrink 3:1&sitesearch=true

    Doing this makes things much cleaner, reduces the strain on the non-extruder wiring, and makes future maintenance and rewiring much simpler.
     
    #1 Ephemeris, Jan 1, 2017
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2017
    JvdP and Syko_Symatic like this.
  2. Syko_Symatic

    Syko_Symatic Well-Known Member

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    This was exactly what I had been thinking of doing but I don't have the heatshrink size. Will have to buy some now add that looks slick. I actually have a secondary connection at the back of the printer as well so the looms are entirely seperate. No real reason other than I can completely remove them for maintenance. Thanks @Ephemeris I will order the size now! I think I need some more sleeving too!
     

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