Ender 3 Pro "Ender Dragon" Cable Chain and Celtic Braid Decorations

I was not happy with the standard cable chains you can find out in the wild for the Ender 3 Pro - their two-part-per-link design was prone to having the clips fall off mid print, and I figured I could do better. In the process of creating a new, rounded one-part-per-link design I had the idea to take it a few steps further and allow my Ender to cosplay a bit and let his inner dragon out!

Update 7/10/2022 - Added revised hot end side mounting bracket and swivel connector, which now uses spring tension to stay in place better.

Ender Dragon Extruder to Hot End Cable Chain w/ Additional Decorations

PRINTING

What you are going to need to print:

The Main Chain:
1x Dragon Cable Chain Bracket Extruder Side.stl
1x Dragon Cable Chain Bracket Hotend Side.stl
1x Dragon Cable Chain Link Hotend Swivel.stl
10x Dragon Cable Chain Link.stl
1x Bowden Tube Tension Relief.stl
1x Dragon Head.stl

Decorative Pieces:
2x Celtic Braid Riser Decor.stl
1x Celtic Braid Riser Decor - Dragon Insert.stl
1x Dragon QR Cover - Celtic Knot.stl

Optional Additional Items:
1x Dragon QR Claw.stl
1x Dragon QR 32mm Mini Mount.stl
0-10x Optional Dragon Cable Chain Decorative Clip - Armored Plates.stl
0-10x Optional Dragon Cable Chain Decorative Clip - Spiked Plates.stl

All parts should already be properly oriented for printing. You will need supports for the Dragon Head, Dragon Claw and Spiked Plates prints, the rest should be printable without supports. The Bowden Tube Tension Relief part actually has designed-in supports that will need to be clipped off to open up the mounting hooks.

Celtic Braid and Dragon QR Cover parts should be printed with a color change called at the appropriate level - please use your slicer's built in tools for this, or if your slicer/firmware doesn't support a GCode filament change, you will need to manually pause/change filament by hand.

INSTALLATION

To attach the Extruder side bracket, Unscrew two of the four screws that hold in the stepper motor (the two on the Bowden tube side of the extruder), put the bracket back into place and retighten. (There is a chance that you may need to replace the screws with longer M3 screws, I honestly dont remember how long the stock scews were at this point)

To attach the Hotend side bracket, simply place the forked "Y" part of the bracket over the hotend's left wheel axle, then rotate the bracket so that the notch in it's underside rest's on the right wheel axle. The gap on the bracket's loop should be pointing to the right. Pas the cable through this gap.

Push the cables into the gap in the Hotend Swivel piece so that the "V" shape is pointing twoards the back of the machine, and then snap it into place in the bracket so that the gap on the Swivel is pointing to the left.

Attach the 10 chain links together so that the form a lobster-tail like chain, and then push the cables into the gap of each link until the cable runs all the way through the chain. Be sure to make sure the connectors on each end are appropriate for the connectors on each bracket.

Snap each end of the cable into the brackets. I find this is easiest to do when the hotend is centered on the X Axis.

With steppers turned off, slowly slide the hotend along the X Axis to make sure the chain isn't binding at any point.

Slip the Bowden Tube Tension Relief hooks over the side pegs on the Cable Chain Bracket and nestle it down so that the tube is positioned within it's forked center. Then do the same for the Dragon Head, carefully hooking it around the pegs and rotating down until the "eyes" lightly snap into place.

Enjoy your printing!