MyBalls! cable holder and organizer

MyBalls!

This is my take on the idea in https://www.printables.com/cs/model/145616-cableball-cable-manager-holder; this is my own design, but as CableBall inspired me to do it this way, I am marking it as remix.

The purpose of MyBalls! was to prevent mouse-, keyboad- and headphones-cable from sliding down undr their own way, which made me to tug on them constantly, slowly damaging them. The cables are clamped inside a plastic ball that can rotate inside a spherical cutout. This allows the cable to move without bending, but prevents it from sliding (or falling, if you use this to hang your cables on the wall. The holder is attached to the table (or wall) using a 20mm  wide/1mm thick mounting tape.

How to use it

• Print the holder, put a mounting tape on it and stick it to your table, wall etc, flat side down (i. e. the same orientation as printed)
• Measure the cable you want to hold, and print the ball with slit that is the same or slightly lower width: the cable should be squished by the ball slightly. Or just print all the balls and test them all
• Thread the cable through the ball and press the ball into a slot in the holder
• Rotate the ball so that the slit in the ball points inside.

You are done.

Improvements on the CableBall:

• The cable-holding balls print as a single piece, without any supports
• There's an opening in the from of the holder that allows you to insert a cable with large connector. CableBall requires you to thread the cable through the hole in the holder, making it impossible to use with DVI cables or similar
• The hole holding the cable is S-shaped; as the cable straightens out by its own weight, it presses on the sides. This allows for better clamping and higher tolerances.
• The cutouts surround the ball even from top (slightly): to pull the ball out, you have to push on it from the bottom. It can't fall out accidentaly.
• Editable drawing included: make your own, improve it!
• The name. Yes. I have no shame

Recommended print settings:

All common material will work. I recommend PETG, as it is more flexible and has lower friction.

Layer height: 0.1 - 0.25 mm

Perimeters: cca 3

Infill: 15 % - 40 %

Basically, use default setting and you will be good.

If the fit is too tight, enlarge the holder or shrink the balls slightly.

Notes on the drawing:

In development, I tried to model a chamfer on the balls' edges - the idea was to prevent the cable from breaking if bent along its sharp edge. It didn't go well (the geometry is too complex) and it is unneeded, as the balls rotate freely: the force necessary to bend the cable is higher than the force that makes the ball rotate. Sadly, the rest of the drawing depends on this part of the drawing (even if I moved it away, so it won't change the model), so I can't delete it without redrawing half of the model. If you edit the drawing and see groups named “-unused”, just make sure it is not in the way of anything and ignore it.