3D printed cable carrier
Outcome
This is not my idea. I showed product designer extraordinaire Páll Einarsson the experiments we've made embedding mesh fabric into 3D prints, and he suggested making cable carriers that way. Here's a proof of concept:
Basic design
This is a very simple model using the linear pattern in Ondsel. I modeled the mesh because Ondsel doesn't let me make disconnected parts with the linear pattern command in the Part Design workbench. I didn't feel like making an assembly. I'm still learning the workflow in this flawed but promising CAD package.
In Cura, I inserted a G-code pause at 1 mm height and inserted the mesh fabric:
Then the Ultimaker printed onto the fabric and embedded it into the 3D printed parts. I had to hold the fabric while the first layer was being printed. It would have been better (safer) to extend the fabric to the edges of the build plate and secure it with small clamps. You could make cable carriers much longer than the build volume of your printer, simply by printing again and realigning the mesh.
Printing on top of the mesh fabric.
Cura makes infill at 45˚. I rotated the parts by 45° so that the nozzle would go straight across the gap and bridge properly:
This mesh fabric is quite soft:
If you want to make a stiffer cable carrier, you could reduce the spacing between the 3D printed parts or get stiffer mesh fabric, e.g. at a hardware store. Or maybe use two layers of mesh with a little bit of 3D printed plastic in between them.
Design file
Download cable carrier Ondsel/FreeCAD design
Parametric design
I made the 3D printed cable carrier in response to a discussion that Nikhil Lal started about shielded wiring and cable carriers. Nikhil suggested that it would be nice to parametrize the 3D printed design above to retain each cable based on diameter individually. The reason being that it's annoying when you run many wires through a cable carrier as they get tangled.
This would be a good reason to make instead of buying. I'd like to attempt it with a nesting algorithm at some point, but for now here's a simpler parametric solution where all the holes are the same size:
I set up the spreadsheet in the Ondsel model based on Neil's short video.