CNC Drag Chain

This is a way to make your own drag chain if you are building your own cnc machine this design is big enough for 4 15mm OD cables.

You need a laser cutter and 4mm ply. a strip of material if you want to reinforce the drag chain but not strictly necessary.

4mm ply

Super glue

strip of material x2 (optional)

contact addesive(optional)

This should cover everything you need to know. Ill answer any question you have in the comment section

Download these, If you want to use exactly what is pictured then put these straight into your laser cutter and follow the assembly steps below. (they are set up to use on a k40 laser using k40 whisperer.)

If you are use a different thickness of ply then the size of the notches and the pivot point hole will need to be adjust to accommodate for this. The notches need to be the kerf of your laser narrower than the thickness of you material. ( thickness of material - laser kerf = notch size)

The files provided are to fit on a 300mm by 200mm piece of ply but if you are using a larger machine you with find it more efficient use of material to rearrange the section of the drawing they are currently all group as one object but ungrouping will allow the maximum flexibility for rearrangement for your particular cutter.

First take a bottom plate (the one with the little pins on the sides) and attach a side piece (the one with the round hole) to each pin.

Then slot in the three middle dividers (small square with 2 notches) to the bottom plate.

Next attach the top plate ( large rectangle with 5 slots no pins) to the three dividers.

To then start the next section slot the next bottom plate into the current side pieces then repeat this for the length of chain you require. you can attach the side piece on your first section at any time but once they are slotted in it is virtually impossible to add a bottom plate to them.

Only glue the vertical piece of wood to the bottom plate this will mean the top plate is removeable making it a lot easier to install the drag chain.

Once the chain is together then remove all the top plates and insert all the require cables and slide each top plate back on. It is easy one direction and very hard to do in the other if you let the drag chain open up a the point you want to insert the top plate it will make it easier.

or

if you haven't wired everything up feed the cable through the already assembled drag chain.

I'm not a great wordsmith so if you have any questions please ask for clarification and I will do my best to answer.