What to measure
A cable is soft, so a caliper squeezed hard reads small. Close the jaws until they just touch the jacket and the cable still slides between them, and read that. Round network cable is usually around 6 mm, but it varies by half a millimetre between makes, and flat cable does not suit this clip at all. Measure the jacket, not the moulded strain relief next to the plug. If the plug has to pass through the clip, it will not: the cable snaps in sideways through the opening instead.
Clearance, wall and material
The clearance here is 0.2 mm, so the bore is 6.2 mm. A cable jacket gives a little, which means a small clearance holds it without pinching; do not go to zero, because a data cable that is squeezed out of round can lose performance. The opening is 90 degrees, narrower than on the pipe clips, since a cable compresses as it is pressed in and would fall out of a wider gap. The wall is 1.6 mm, four passes of a 0.4 mm nozzle. Both PLA and PETG work at this size; the arms are so short that the stiffness of PLA is not a problem indoors.
Printing
Print the clip on one C-shaped face with the bore upright. The part is only about 19 by 8 mm on the bed and 8 mm tall, so print a plate of twenty at once and slow the first layer down for good adhesion; small parts come loose easily. No supports are needed. Use a 0.16 or 0.2 mm layer height. With three perimeters the whole part is solid. If your slicer leaves a seam scar inside the bore, set the seam to the rear so it lands on the outside of the clip.
Fixing it
The tab is 10 mm long and 2.4 mm thick, with a 3.2 mm hole for a 3 mm screw. Along a skirting board or the underside of a desk, a clip every 30 to 40 cm keeps a cable straight. Leave the cable free to slide so it is never under tension at a plug.
Outline drawing
Schematic, not to scale. The clip is 8 mm wide along the cable and about 8.4 mm high.
Parameters the generator will use
| Setting | Link parameter | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Model | model | pipe_clip |
| Cable diameter | diameter | 6 |
| Fit clearance | fit_clearance | 0.2 |
| Clip wall thickness | wall | 1.6 |
| Clip width along the cable | width | 8 |
| Opening angle, degrees | opening | 90 |
| Screw tab length | tab_length | 10 |
| Screw tab thickness | tab_thickness | 2.4 |
| Screw hole diameter | screw_diameter | 3.2 |
| Number of screw tabs | tabs | 1 |
All lengths are in millimetres. Outer size from these values: about 19.4 x 8 x 8.4 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.