Adapting the sewing machine cable clips for larger USB cables:
The calculation positioning the posts wasn’t quite right; they now touch the cable OD at their midline and converge slightly overhead to retain it.
They’re great candidates for sequential printing:
With the basement at 14 °C, any cooling is too much: the platform heater can’t keep the bed above the thermal cutout temperature, the firmware concludes the thermistor has failed, and shuts the printer off. So I popped the four finished clips off the platform, removed the skirt, unplugged the fan, rebooted that sucker, and restarted the print.
One clip in the front keeps the cable away from the power switch and speed control directly below the gooseneck mount:
A few clips in the back route the cable from the COB LED epoxied directly onto the bandsaw frame away from the motor enclosure:
They’re mounted on double-sided foam tape. The COB LED on the frame isn’t anything to write home about, but you can see the foam tape peeking out around the clip base:
Unlike those LED filaments, it seems you can gently bend the aluminum substrate under a COB LED.
The bandsaw platform now has plenty of light: a fine upgrade!
Yeah, you can buy stick-on cable anchors, but what’s the fun in that? These fit exactly, hold securely, and work just fine.
The OpenSCAD source code as a GitHub Gist:
| // LED Cable Clips | |
| // Ed Nisley – KE4ZNU – October 2014 | |
| // February 2017 – adapted for USB cables | |
| Layout = "Show"; // Show Build | |
| //- Extrusion parameters must match reality! | |
| ThreadThick = 0.25; | |
| ThreadWidth = 0.40; | |
| HoleWindage = 0.2; // extra clearance | |
| Protrusion = 0.1; // make holes end cleanly | |
| function IntegerMultiple(Size,Unit) = Unit * ceil(Size / Unit); | |
| //———————- | |
| // Dimensions | |
| Base = [15.0,15.0,6*ThreadThick]; // base over sticky square | |
| CableOD = 3.8; | |
| BendRadius = 5.0; | |
| CornerRadius = Base[0]/5; | |
| CornerSides = 4*4; | |
| NumSides = 6*3; | |
| //– Oval clip with central passage | |
| module OvalPass() { | |
| intersection() { | |
| hull() | |
| for (i=[-1,1], j=[-1,1]) | |
| translate([i*(Base[0]/2 – CornerRadius),j*(Base[1]/2 – CornerRadius),0]) | |
| rotate(180/CornerSides) | |
| cylinder(r=CornerRadius,h=Base[2] + 1.00*CableOD,$fn=CornerSides,center=false); | |
| union() { | |
| translate([0,0,Base[2]/2]) // oversize mount base | |
| scale([2,2,1]) | |
| cube(Base,center=true); | |
| for (j=[-1,1]) // bending ovals | |
| translate([0,j*(Base[1]/2 – 0.125*(Base[1] – CableOD)/2),(Base[2] – Protrusion)]) | |
| resize([Base[0]/0.75,0,0]) | |
| cylinder(d1=0.75*(Base[1]-CableOD), | |
| d2=(Base[1]-CableOD)/cos(0*180/NumSides), | |
| h=(CableOD + Protrusion), | |
| center=false,$fn=NumSides); | |
| } | |
| } | |
| if (Layout == "Show") | |
| color("Red",0.3) | |
| translate([0,0,Base[2] + CableOD/2]) | |
| rotate([0,90,0]) | |
| cylinder(d=CableOD,h=2*Base[0],center=true,$fn=48); | |
| } | |
| //———————- | |
| // Build it | |
| OvalPass(); | |
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
5 responses to “Bandsaw Worklight: LED Cable Clips”
I like your clips! Have you had any trouble with them delaminating and cracking open at the base of the posts? I’d be leery about them breaking if done on my printer, but yours look to be pretty solid.
This bigger-and-better version doesn’t have many power-on hours, but the older & smaller clips (with a central post and four pillars) on various sewing machines have survived several few years. Admittedly, that’s a low-stress occupation: the foam tape adhesive tends to give up where the wiring applies a steady force.
I just tried breaking a corner post off an older clip and … it won’t break, even with a painful amount of finger pressure. PETG is good stuff!
I’ll borrow these to get motor cable on my lathe to behave :) Thanks.
As for the platform heater, try adding a volt or two on your power supply if it has a tuning pot. Most industrial PSUs can give that little bit extra and other components probably won’t mind (check the caps and other usual suspects before you do that).
I’m on it! [grin]
It’s a 30 V PCB heater running on 40 V: scary enough, even for me…
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