I am looking to purchase some cable drag chains, is there is preferable manufacture for quality and function? I’ve considered printing them, but I am not sure I have the patience. Having the little cavity dividers to separate power and encoder cables would be kind neat, though probably unnecessary.
Thanks!
There are lots of suppliers of drag chain. I guess it would depend on the size you want. Openbuilds has a lot of good quality parts for CNC machines and are usually in stock. Amazon has lots of things that I am sometimes surprised about.
Precisely, there seems to be a lot low cost suppliers, with slightly differing designs. Assumedly, some are junk. Not a critical purchase, but I’d be happy to pay for a premium product on this machine. I’ve checked OpenBuilds, but their offerings are too small. Size wise, I’d like to go quite large for future flexibility. The drag chain will likely have to fully open, as the servo encoder cables use DB15 serial communication connectors, and the power cables are 4 pin circular connectors.
I went with some rather large drag chain, but I am able to fit quad shielded VFD wire, coolant lines, stepper motor wires, separate grounding wire and USB cable inside it.
In that thread, there are other large drag chains worth looking at from other owners if the one I have is not what you are looking for. Also, I designed and 3D printed custom supports for my drag chain for my SO3 XXL. They are available on my Google Drive if you are interested.
Thanks for asking…when I was looking it seemed every link I clicked in THIS community forum AND on the wiki was dead…but after measuring a friend’s XL, this is what I am using on my 4-Axis Shapeoko 3 Along the Y and X Rails. (I’m not going to paste links…cause we know how well that works…
From The Jungle Place (Amazon): Search: LMioEtool R28/38 15mm x 20mm Drag Chain (Make sure it is the style that OPENS (Ref: 15*20B)…Cause I first bought a non B style…NOT what you want…trust me.
Price $13 for 1 meter
I also bought some extra Chain ends: (Search) uxcell Drag Chain End Connector for 15x20mm
Very pleased with them.
Thank you for the info. And I appreciate you offering the files.
This is for another machine. I started to consider upgrading my Shapeoko, purchased a variety of supplies to rebuild the frame/base, purchased a HDZ, and such, but while the machine is rarely used, I have not found the right time to have the machine unavailable, it works. At some point I started looking to purchase a proper industrial machine, but found the capital investment hard to justify with my low one man show throughput. Eventually realized there were many a vintage industrial CNC available, sometimes for nothing, to someone willing to take on the task of moving the substantial object and figuring out a vintage system; I’ve now picked up a couple. This machine is all German made linear rail and ball screw, full servo motion, and PCI computer interface. Full extrusion machine bed with a working area that will fit full sized standard sheet goods, though sadly, not 5x9’ HDPE. Downside - moving it was a logistical operation involving quite a few people. I am quite excited about it.
Thank you Richard. This is precisely the information I was looking for, and I greatly appreciate you sharing your user experience. I see the semi bridge type and bridge type options. Having ready access without pulling cables is important for me, partly because I have no idea what I am doing.
I recommend going thicker than you think you will need. I got some 30x15mm drag change and it is tight. When I rebuild my cabinet I plan on swaping it out for something thicker.
I’ll probably go with a 1550 or 1850. Right now it has some kind of interesting 6" conduit cable guide system, so anything I put will be smaller. Considering a duel energy chain, one for servos and the other for spindle, but that doesn’t seem to be a concern on the original machines. I’ll use a smaller one for the Z-axis.
I just popped the .stp file open. Interesting, I might play with that a little. Thank you.
I thought there maybe some interest in this. For you as well as others.
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