The Monoprice Maker Select v2.1 comes with cable chains on the X and Z-axis, but not the Y-axis. I have no idea why. It has been on my list of to-do items to add a cable chain to the Y-axis, but I have just never gotten around to do it. About a year ago or so I managed to get around to printing the cable chain links and mounts but I never installed any of it. Fast forward to present day and I find myself wanting to tinker with the printer and have been thinking of new upgrades for it. Thats when I spotted the chain that I had printed in a box. I originally printed the chain to mount to the printer and to the stock carriage, but I no longer have that carriage. Now I have a carriage from Gulfcoast Robotics, so what I already printed doesn’t fit.
Off to Tinkercad!
I have previously designed a handle for the new Gulfcoast carriage that just slips on, I added a zip-tie to keep it from accidentally falling off and it works great! So I figured I could take that designed and remix it to work for me as a contact point for the heatbed cable chain. A day or two and 6 prints later and I have a slip-on cable chain for the Maker Select. I remixed a rear frame mount so that no screws are needed, just slide the piece over the bracket. The same goes for the bed carriage, just slide it on. I did add a zip-tie to make sure it doesn’t pop off, because it is a pain to put on. I used the existing chain links that I had already printed and it all came together.
The one thing I did not think about was the offset that the chain would have. The original mount that uses screws mounts to the same place as the Y-axis stepper motor and this is centered with the bed and the wiring. Adding a cable chain here you are going to get a nice straight line. I am using a slip-on rear mount so I cannot center it due to the stepper being in the way. Luckily I had two offset links printed from back then. Like it was meant to be. I still need to print one more but it works fine it just looks a little odd because of the way the chain is offset.
Maker Select Gulfcoast Robotics Heatbed Cable Chain (my cable chain mounts) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4644050
The cable chain links to make the chain https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1060522
Y-axis cable chain mount for MP Maker Select (the thing I based my remix off of) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2221459
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