Sometimes You Never Really Understand the Dimensions Until You Have It in Your Posession

[MadHatter]

So, I planned on putting my spindle cable, water lines, limit switches, and stepper motor wiring, so I wanted to make sure the drag chain would be able to fit all of that, so I ran across this drag chain. I figured it would hold everything and leave a bit of room to pull things in and out. My last SO3 drag chain had barely enough room to get everything in, and it was not pleasant to get stuff in or out when troubleshooting or changing things out.

Well, it arrived today, and let me just say, it was a bit bigger than I really expected it to be.

Really big. Here it is next to the stock SO3 XXL drag chain. . .

And my favorite.

I’ll be spending the next few days designing and printing the brackets for these monsters and mounting them. Of course, more pics will follow.

[HDRyder (Gary)]

Here’s how I did mine. Maybe it will help with ideas.

[HDRyder (Gary)]

[HDRyder (Gary)]

Here’s what I used to make the channel. I purchased on Amazon. Although it is un available right now.

[MadHatter]

Actually, that does help me with some ideas, thanks!

What are you running for spindle coolant? Is that urethane tubing? How’s it holding up? This will be my first time using a spindle and VFD. I’ve been using a Dewalt router previously.

I’m going to sleep now, but I’ll respond in the morning. Thanks again for your help.

[MadHatter]

I live just north of Seattle near 2 of Boeings largest plants. I have more aluminum companies around here than I know what to do with.

[HDRyder (Gary)]

Yes it’s urethane tubing. I’m running 2:1 distilled water and Zerex Dex-cool. So far so good.

[HDRyder (Gary)]

I used to live near Bremerton almost 30 years ago.

[mikep]

Thanks for sharing this - yeah, it’s a bummer when you mis-guesstimate…but it is pretty humorous how huge it is

[HDRyder (Gary)]

Actually extra room is your friend. If you look at mine I have a 1" piece of round foam between my coolant lines the full length of both drag chains with VFD cable on one side and motor/encoder cables on the other. That extra distance ensures I don’t get disconnects while running since VFD signals are very dirty and can cause feedback errors on the encoders. My VFD cable (orange cable) is not insulated because the Belkin cable was too big and too inflexible for the application.

[MadHatter]

Thanks for the info. I am hoping that I can get the Belkin cable to play nice. I’d hate for it to be not usable after spending the money on it.

[HDRyder (Gary)]

Mine is setting in a cabinet waiting for an appropriate application. And yes it was expensive cable.

[gose (Greg)]

I would second that the larger the drag chain the better. I ended up securing what appears to be the same drag chain using a piece of leftover 1/4 x 2 x 2 aluminum angle to the threaded holes where the controller box was originally mounted - I since moved that to my separate wiring cabinet. I also upgraded my X drag chain to fit my VFD, coolant / air, spindle coolant and re-wired shielded stepper cables.

Used the existing brackets to mount the new chains. On the front of the Y, I added some M5 spacers left over from my HDZ upgrade to raise it enough to handle the increased bend radius. Additionally, instead of relying on VHB tape to keep the chain mounted on the rails, I tapped into the extrusion to mount them down with bolts.

Good luck with your upgrade!

[MadHatter]

Wow! That looks great! That’s pretty much what my setup is will be like. XXL with a threaded aluminum bed, HDZ and water cooled spindle.

Yeah, I redesigned the rear bracket tonight and I’ll do the gantry bracket tomorrow and just keep plugging away until I can go power on.