What to measure
Five millimetres is the middle of the range for light household cables. Round two-core flex for lamps is usually 5 to 6 mm, ordinary network patch cable about 5 to 5.5 mm, and the heavier kind of USB cable 4.5 to 5 mm. None of these carries its outside diameter on the jacket, so measure it. Close the caliper gently, because a soft jacket gives under the jaws and reads small; let the jaws just touch and turn the cable a quarter turn for a second reading. Flat or figure-of-eight cable is a different case: measure its widest side and expect it to sit on edge in a round clip.
Clearance, wall and material
This page uses 0.3 mm of clearance, for a bore of 5.3 mm, with a 1.6 mm wall and a 90 degree opening. The gap between the arms is about 3.7 mm, so the cable squeezes through and cannot drop out, even under a desk with the opening facing down. A clip this small is nearly rigid: the arms are only a few millimetres long and barely flex. The cable jacket does the giving, not the plastic. That is fine for soft flex, but for a hard jacket widen the opening to 100 degrees so you are not forcing it. PLA is suitable indoors; nothing here is under lasting stress once the cable is in.
Printing
Stand the clip on one C-shaped face. The footprint is about 17.5 by 7.7 mm and the height 8 mm, which is very little plastic: print ten or twenty at once so each layer cools before the next arrives, and slow the outer wall to keep the bore round. Two perimeters make the 1.6 mm wall solid with a 0.4 mm nozzle. No supports are needed. A brim helps only if your bed adhesion is poor; the flat face is small and a clip that comes loose mid-print takes its neighbours with it.
Fixing it
The tab is 9 mm long and 2.4 mm thick with a 3.5 mm hole for a 3 or 3.5 mm screw. A small pan head is best; a countersunk head splits a tab this thin. Along a skirting board or the back edge of a desk, a clip every 25 to 30 cm keeps soft cable from sagging between them. For mains flex, route it where it cannot be pinched or walked on, and do not use clips to hold a cable under tension.
Outline drawing
Schematic, not to scale. The clip is 8 mm wide along the cable and about 7.7 mm high.
Parameters the generator will use
| Setting | Link parameter | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Model | model | pipe_clip |
| Cable diameter | diameter | 5 |
| Fit clearance | fit_clearance | 0.3 |
| Clip wall thickness | wall | 1.6 |
| Clip width along the cable | width | 8 |
| Opening angle, degrees | opening | 90 |
| Screw tab length | tab_length | 9 |
| Screw tab thickness | tab_thickness | 2.4 |
| Screw hole diameter | screw_diameter | 3.5 |
| Number of screw tabs | tabs | 1 |
All lengths are in millimetres. Outer size from these values: about 17.5 x 8 x 7.66 mm.
Open the generator with these values
This model needs the $7 licence key: one payment, one key, and it opens all five paid models. Get a licence key on Gumroad ($7)
The pipe and cable clip needs a licence key: without one the generator shows the model locked, lists the values from this link and fills them in as soon as you unlock. The fitted drawer organiser bin is the free model and downloads with no key.