Cable Dock | Five Cables Clipped In, No Supports

Customizable: the OpenSCAD source (.scad) is in the files. Open it in the free OpenSCAD app and use its Customizer panel (Window - Customizer) - that is what "Customize" refers to below.

A weighted block that sits at the back of the desk with your charging, USB and headphone leads clipped into it, so they stop sliding down behind the table every time you unplug something.

Each slot is a keyhole, not a groove. There is a round pocket the cable lies in and a throat narrower than the cable that it clicks past. A straight slot holds by friction and lets go the moment the cable is tugged; a throat holds because the cable has to be pushed back through it.

The no-supports claim rests on one number, and the file checks it. On a round pocket the wall passes 45 degrees at exactly 0.707 of the radius. As long as the throat is at least that wide, the shoulders of the pocket never become an overhang. The file works the limit out from the cable diameter you give it and stops if the grip you asked for would go under it. Measured on the defaults: 0 mm2 of surface steeper than 45 degrees.

A lip runs all the way round the base to widen the footprint, so pulling a cable sideways does not tip it over.

Customize is on: how many slots, cable diameter, how tight the grip is, spacing, body depth and height, end margins, corner and top rounding, the foot lip, and an optional recess underneath for double-sided tape. That recess is off by default on purpose - its ceiling is a flat face pointing at the bed and the printer would have to bridge the whole base to close it. A pad on the flat bottom holds just as well.

Print it in TPU if you can. This is one of those parts where the material is half the design. The throat is meant to be narrower than the cable: in PLA the cable has to be forced past something rigid and over time it is the throat that gives, while in TPU the throat opens as you push and shuts behind the cable - which is how a cable clip is supposed to feel. TPU also grips the desk, so it stops sliding when a cable is pulled sideways, which is the thing the foot lip and the tape recess exist to fight. The 0.707 rule does not change with the material; what changes is how tight a grip is worth asking for - In a rigid filament leave grip at 0.80. In TPU switch on auto_grip and the file takes the throat down to the tightest it can print for your cable - there is a floor and it is not a fixed number, because the pocket is always half a millimetre wider than the cable, so the floor climbs as the cable gets thinner: about 0.79 at 4.5 mm, 0.83 at 3 mm, 0.88 at 2 mm. Ask for less by hand and the file stops and tells you the number for your cable.

Printing. No support, no raft. 0.2 mm layers, 3 walls, 15% infill. Measured on an A1 at 0.2 mm with the stock profiles: PLA 29 min 50 s and 17.3 g, TPU 90A 1 h 32 min and 17.2 g. Same filament, three times the time. Feed TPU from an external spool, not through the AMS lite. 88 x 32 x 20 mm with five slots.