DIAMOND BACK A1 drag chain (for A2L, A1 & A1 mini)

This is a Ball and Socket type drag chain that your 4mm bowden tubes clip into to help guide your filament from your AMS-lite  to your tool head and carry your signal wire partly along the way. each link is 10mm pitch when connected. (in other words this is not for X or P series printers but mostly for the A series printers with AMS-lite like A1 or A1-mini)

the print profile also includes tool head locking clips for the push-to-connect fittings so that they can not get bumped loose by machine motion. 

!!! UP DATE !!! print the A1 FREE FLOAT WIRE KIT so you don't have to use the five point clip for the tool head wire! 

+ Works great with A1 FREE FLOAT WIRE KIT
+ no tools
+ no hardware
 

                                                                            print the A1 FREE FLOAT WIRE KIT to go with this too!





(1) starting from the tool head, one 4 point ring link is optional
(2 ) then you may want to add about 5 4 point clip links 
(3) then you must use one of the two irregular spaced 5 point transition links to add the signal wire to the following links.
(4) this is the point where you can add 12 regular 5 point links
(5) then you need to use the other irregular spaced 5 point transition link 
(6) then you add as many 4 point clip links as you want 
(7) finally you add one 4 point ring link with enough freedom left in the remaining length of 4mm tube to reach each position on your AMS-lite.

You can skip steps (3),  (4), and (5) above if you install the FREE-FLOAT-WIRE-KIT print the model for it by clicking HERE! 

Once it is together you should have a very nice free flowing articulating snake like drag chain that keeps all your 4mm tubes and signal wire well managed with minimal strain from bending.

smooth radius's make it nice to touch
minimum bending radius is about 2 inches or 50mm

Please post a picture of your machine showing the number of each links and how you configured them for all to see. 
or at minimum report back with the number & sequence of each type of link you chose to use on your machine, Like I said I don't actually have and A1 so I might have included to many links or not enough so your feed back will be very helpful. Thank you. 

(NOTE: You must have a clean build plate probably with glue because these models have very small first layers. and you must have your filament dry, a lot of people think they are sure their filament is dry, and then they have stringing and layer adhesion problems which means the filament is NOT dry. filament for this print needs to be below 20% RH and should have been dried for 10 hours down to 10-12% RH to make sure it is dry to the core, because just a few layers into a spool can hold several grams of water still if you don't dry your filament. if you are having strength problems with your brand of filament [ looking at you JAYO brand matte PLA ] you can re slice this model globally to have more wall loops, in fill or even print solid, but this will make it tak almost twice as long to print and be excessively strong and hard to put together, to the point that the links might bind a little before getting broken in from use. up to you though. )

(Assembly Note: you will have to slightly brute force press them together to get the ball and socket fetures to interlock, some rocking back and forth can help, twisting my work but is not advisable because of it potentially sheering off the small area of the layers in the neck under the ball head. so be aware if you have small finger it might be kinda hard to assemble. I am considering designing some fork jaw pliers or a press to assemble them kinda like a chain brake tool is needed for bicycle chains. I think most people will be able to do it with out a tool but I am 6ft 75kg so your mileage may vary. just FYI)

Some of you clever ones might have realized that you can mix and match links for other configurations that can work even for A1-mini or top mounted AMS-lite configurations. if you are one that does that Please post a picture of that also, I would love to see how you use this DIAMOND BACK drag chain. so thank you, to you too for your feed back on this.

( A NOTE ABOUT PRINT PROFILE RATING: Print Profiles and model design are not the same thing. when you rate a print profile you are not awarding points to the model size, shape, or merit of the design functionality of the model itself. the print profile is only about things like layer thickness position on build plate, Filament material type, speed, adaptive layering for smoothing top parts of soft radius to eliminate the appearance of steps for example. the number of top or bottom layers, the print pattern of top or bottom layers, the number of wall loops on first and last layer, the number of walls through out the print. the % of infill, the pattern of infill, how well it handles over hangs or bridging etc. does the print fail or finish not counting users who don't correctly understand the importance of drying their hygroscopic filament, leveling their machines bed, keeping the nozzle clean, or if you have finger oil all over the build area that prevents first layer adhesion. also if you are not a creator who has put a lot of hard work and hours of prototype design revisions to perfect a lean design you might not be aware that maker world only awards points to print profiles of models that maintain 4.0 stars or more.)

please have a look at my other designs that you might like also like this one…

                                                                                                             CANDY CHAIN

CANDY CHAIN

Also please Check out my other super cool models here! 
 

Please post pictures and comments, I love the feedback on how you're using this model and enjoying it!

Enjoy!

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