Reusable cable end for bicycle shift & brake cables

Design

• Very simple design

• Much nicer to reuse these ends rather than toss consumable cable tips

• single design accommodates both shift & brake cables

Hardware required

M3 x 3 mm cup point set screw

Revision history

Rev 8

• revision 8 is a better, but untested attempt at directly printing the internal threads

  • early versions were printed at pilot hole IDs to be hand tapped

  • 2025-01-06 tested – really tight fit with an M3 screw, but it's still net better than previous versions in that less material needs to be cut with a tap

• I've had good luck with other metric threads on Formlabs equipment by designing pilot holes to minimum material condition (in this case, max allowable major ID for internal thread) & then extruding thread

  • equivalently, you can try minimum allowable minor ID & then cut the thread

    • I did not do this because Solidworks threw an error this way

  • I like this lookup sheet for metric thread dimension limits

• previous versions are sort of hit & miss

Printing

• files are optimized for SLA printing

• it is extremely difficult to print spheres with FDM

  • the best method is probably by custom printing a support for each

  • revision 8 includes such a body, with a .2 mm offset

  • this has worked for me in the past with cylindrical contours, but untested with spherical surfaces