Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Network cable routing bracket

We're getting ready to install a network switch on a wall at my church. We'll have a few cables to run, and to make them nicely vertical and horizontal it's common to use what I used to call "U-brackets". Turns out they are called "Routing rings" or "Distribution rings". I found one such bracket on Thingiverse but I didn't like the design because the bracket is square, which would cause wear and friction on the cables. These should be round - they're usually made out of round stock with feet pressed into them or attached to them. So I designed my own.

Here's a shot of the design in Fusion 360. Obviously it can't print in this standing position, I'll print it lying on its back. Round things can be a problem, but I've found that round things lying down on the bed can work OK if they are not too big. Originally I had the feet oriented in alignment with the axis of the bridge, but then realized that would cause the bridge to not lay flat, but to print at an angle to the bed. So, duh, I turned them at an angle so the back of the leg will align with the back of the foot and lie flat.




The bridge printing horizontally will take advantage of the strongest direction of the plastic.












The feet sticking up will be printed in short layers and will be the weaker parts... in theory they could snap if a lot of stress was put across the screw hole. I printed it in PLA with 50% infill and the result feels plenty strong.