3D Printing Design Challenge: Cable Organizer

A problem that many people face nowadays as tech becomes increasingly more prominent is messy cables. Cables that need to be swapped for others or cables that linger all over people's desks cause aesthetic and visually displeasing problems for people. For this reason, I constructed a lightweight and cost-effective 3D Print Design to organize cables.

In this project, I utilized the Markforged MK Mini Printer, Autodesk Fusion software to CAD the design, and PrusaSlicer to finalize the print settings and add supports.

This is my initial design printed in person and it is a lightweight and cost-effective cable management system that can organize cables.

In my first instance of designing the cable management device, I constructed a simple box with ridges for the wires and holes at the end to firmly secure the cables. Although the design achieved its purpose at organizing cables, it failed at three major aspects. For one, the design couldn't firmly mount to the desk and it kept sliding around, making the organization of cables tedious. Secondly, the circles at the end were relying on the print support and showed signs of breaking in the future, ruining the security of the cables. Finally, the design was too large and aesthetically unpleasing for a minimalist desk setup, adding to the original clutter of the unsorted cables and reversing the effect.

In my second design, I addressed two of three problems outlined earlier. This design incorporated mounts at end the device and instead of using flimsy circles that relied on print supports to stay stable, I utilized rectangles. In contrast to my first design, this design firmly holds the cables, but I encountered a new problem: it was hard to take the cables in and out of the device and the design was still very large for a desk application.

Taking in all the problems from my first two design iterations, I decided to scrap the mounts entirely because they would obstruct the print and they don't actually firmly mount the device to the desk. Instead, I relied on a flat surface device hoping that the user has Velcro, rope, or some other external method for fastening this device to their desk. In addition, rather than implementing the firm holes I established from before with rectangles and squares, I made circles with an extrude at the top to allow cables to be slid in and out and firmly secured at the same time. Ultimately, this design effectively sorts cables for a commercial and personal application as it is lightweight, interchangeable with various cables ranging in size, and a cost-effective print regardless of the use case. Considering other applications than simple cable managment, this design could also be used to hang clothes or keychains if the extrude was removed, making this a highly versatile project.