Wire Guide

[todd@mitrewright.com]

Has anyone had their wire guide break? If so, what did you replace it with? I tried lexan, that worked for a while, then that broke. Any suggestions? Thanks, Todd

[Brady Watson]

You can either buy one from ShopBot directly, make your own from ABS sheet or spend big $$$ on energy chain and eliminate them altogether.

-Brady

[dingwall]

Ours broke at the end. I installed a strap hinge on the end of the Y-car and bolted the end to that. It's ugly, but it works so far.

[elcruisr]

Hey Sheldon, great minds run along the same paths!
We did the same thing and have not broken one since. Just seemed like the best solution. We have a 5' wide table and the longer wire guide seems even more prone to the problem.

Eric

[paco]

Or you can build your own design to suit your particular needs...

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...and I don't think this one gona break someday!

[dingwall]

Pretty ingenious Paco.

[Rita (Unregistered Guest)]

How did you came up with this clever setup.

[paco]

And very low cost... in fact it's the "Ty-wrap" that got me spending! The rest is from my recycling habits! Notice that the AC wire are ALWAYS away from the sensitive wires... This is one of the first project I made with my tool!

[paco]

Rita-
I need low profil wire carrier and wish to keep AC wires away from the sensitive ones... and I read through the forum that the provide wire carrier was often breaking...

[fleinbach]

Todd,

When I purchased my Prtalpha120 I put on E-chain. I like it much better. It is made by a company named Ingus. Here is ther web site http://igus.bdol.com/echain.asp

I put one on the y car and the X both. They cost $75.00 and $125.00 respectively. The rear one is twice as large.

[Rita (Unregistered Guest)]

On your own? Paco

[paco]

Yes!

[Brady Watson]

Frank,
Last I looked Igus energy chain was a LOT more expensive than that. What style/model did you get and where?

-Brady

[fleinbach]

Brady,
I purchased it direct from Ingus. The total bill was under $190.97 for both chains. I just searched for the reciept to find the model but can't seem to find it. If I locate it I will let you know.

[Brady Watson]

Thanks Frank. I looked into this for my machine about 2 yrs ago and it would have been about $1500 to do the X and Y. It is a 5X16, but it shouldn't be THAT much considering what you paid.

-Brady

[mpr.designs@gmail.com]

Just to add my $.02. I had some overhead clearance issues in my garage, so the wire guide was out of the question, and I had to go the e-chain route. I found a length on e-bay for about $40. The same length would have cost me about $100 from Igus. It works very, very well. I'll have to throw some pictures up when I get a chance.

Matt

[gerald_d]

Some older posts on "energy chain" (http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?tpc=27&post=14790#POST14790)

[fleinbach]

MY E-chain


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[Brady Watson]

Frank,
How wide is that E-chain? I don't think that the same stuff you have will work for my machine. Essentially I need to run two 1" power cables to the Z axes and the motion control cables. Looks like the stuff you have there is about 2" wide or so?

-Brady

[fleinbach]

Brady,

E-chain comes as large as you need. In fact you can't see it in this picture but the rear chain is twice the size of the one you see in this picture. And would easily carry two 1 inch cables plus room for a few more

[fleinbach]

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