a simple Shapeoko cable management solution

[mmorlan62]

I've had a blast building my very first CNC with the excellent help of the wiki and the gracious folks at Inventables. Thanks!

Managing your servo cables is where the assembly wiki gets kinda vague and requires you to use some of your own ingenuity. Here's what I came up with:

Aquarium tubing! (Well, that's what I'm calling it. I scrounged around my shop and ran across some extra tubing from my PCB bubbler kit.) The tubing has the perfect amount of flex and support. The tube running from the y motor to the back corner has some spare 4-conductor ribbon cable I'd bought for LED strings. Perfect for servos as well.

Oh! And I couldn't resist. Took some snapshots in stereo. (Just cross your eyes and converge the images to view.)

Michael Morlan's SO2 w/aquarium tubing cable management

mmorlan_shapeoko_2_x.JPG (144.84 KiB) Viewed 1982 times

Michael Morlan's SO2 w/aquarium tubing cable management . x-axis motor

mmorlan_shapeoko_2_x-motor_x.JPG (109.66 KiB) Viewed 1982 times

Michael Morlan's SO2 w/aquarium tubing cable management . y-axis motor

mmorlan_shapeoko_2_y-motor_x.JPG (134.08 KiB) Viewed 1982 times

Enjoy!

[will1384]

Looks good.

I just did something similar with spiral wrap, I have Cable carrier / drag chain but wanted to save that for when I scale up my Shapeoko 2, the only problem is that the spiral wrap combined with the heavy gage stepper motor wire that I used, is a little stiff, and it does tug at the wires a bit were the wires are attached to the terminal blocks that I use, even when using zip ties to restrain the wire, so I worry about the wires and about the wires coming lose during use, from what I have read that could be disastrous for the stepper motor driver.

I might try some split loom tubing next to see if it allows for more flexibility.

[chomdh]

What diameter is that tubing? I'm planning to order some sleeve and not sure what size to pick.

[WillAdams]

Elegant!

One concern --- I'd suggest that you move the wire bundles off the motors, which can get fairly hot.

[mmorlan62]

will1384: The tubing plus cable ties = zero movement of the wires coming out. Very stable. Also, it provides a very graceful strain and bend relief.

Chomdh: I'll measure the ID on the tubing and post here.

WillAdams: Thanks for the note about hot servos. I'll reposition those wire loops away from the motor bodies.

[mmorlan62]

Meant to get back sooner. The tubing I used is 1/4" I.D. I'm pretty sure you can find it at Home Depot and Lowe's.

[samc99us]

Nice! I have a lot of that stuff lying around but need more like 30 feet for the new machine.