The first project for designing accessories to mount on the extrusion beam, a holder for ER11 collets, turned out well enough I wanted to continue. Apply some of the lessons learned to create more nice-to-have accessories for the CNC project.

One accessory is a holder for a 5mm hex wrench. This is the size used by the fasteners bolting our gantry's extrusion beams together. There are a set of four bolts, two on the left and two on the right, that we loosen to adjust the height of the gantry. Lowering the gantry lets the cutter cut through our work surface to cut holes for threaded inserts, raising the gantry gives us more Z travel for the work piece. Or we might deliberately trade off Z travel to use a shorter and more rigid gantry for more challenging pieces. We're not sure what the viable combinations are, but we do know we'll need this wrench handy for experimentation.

The other accessory is a wire management clip. Wiring is a perpetual challenge on this project, from finding appropriate component placement to isolating electrical noise. I'm sure electrical challenges will continue to vex us as we proceed. We'll figure out the problems one by one as we go, but one thing is for sure, we'll need a lot of ways to route wires and keep them in place, hence the clips.

Unlike the previous accessories, the wiring clip may be mounted in any orientation. To hold themselves in place, each clip will require additional holding force. To get this force, they are printed slightly more open than their installed configuration. Installation would then require compressing the ring and this tension in the plastic will provide friction against extrusion rail to hold it in place. And while I'm not entirely sure it will be necessary, I added a small flap to keep the wire from sliding out of the ring into the rail slot.

There will be more accessories along the lines of what's been printed so far, but I'm eager to get back to the primary exploration of cutting material.