So during my 79 hour print, the bed was no longer heating and the culprit was just fatigue on the wires. Not the safest thing in the world, I know. I ended up just unplugging the bed and finishing the print as it was already running that way anyway. While I was resoldered the wires I found a little hole that was conveniently placed for a zip tie to hold the wires. No bending means no fatigue. I’m also going to turn the plate around so the wires come out the front. The reason why they we’re bending in the first place was because it was up against the wall. Every time the bed would move forward and backwards it would just bend and re-bend the wires against the wall. I was lucky this time so I’m going to make sure all my wires are free from binding like that.
Nophead used ribbon cable on his Mendel90 design so it rolled back and forth which I thought was a good idea. Although ribbon cable is lower current you can use a wide one and parallel up lots of wires.
I think I might wrap the wires in some of that spiral wire protector stuff (not sure what it’s called) and then maybe come up with some kind of cat track system. I’ve seen people print some off but honestly I could probably get some for cheap or even free from work. I work for a custom automation shop and bet the builders have some laying around somewhere. Otherwise I might just order some. The stuff we use is high quality and would look nicer than what I could print.
I always tether the wires to the bed base and rout them to best reduce stress.
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I also need to do something about the extruder wires up top. I never had an issue with them until I printed that pot. They started to drag across the top of my print. I might just leave the zip ties for now and the print off some kind of holder. I haven’t figured it out just yet. But objective number one is to keep the wires safe.
Yeah thats not great, check out the NopHead… https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOhHl84juE8js0DKcp_S2LiwnCtTtoOUibvOuEgZZy33QRuU0BYyuMU4Ukp89ljDg?key=UTRueWJGSlJuT3RvUDNLRE5fN2RuekpCRnNpV213
@Daniel_Bull That’s an interesting idea!
I use ribbon cable on our Simple Pro… it works well. We spent a lot of time testing and making sure the order of the wires was optimized. That order matters. And we doubled (tripled?) some up… had trouble w the LEDs so had to put a chip on the extruder end to smooth things out. It’s so much cleaner and no more wire fatigue.
In the Simple Pro heated bed, we use big gauge silicon wrapped wire from Turnigy… stuff you would use on a quadcopter. Firmly secured at solder points and plenty of length as not to bind the wire as it drags back and forth.
3d printers are excellent wire fatigue test rigs 
Brook
@Brook_Drumm I’ve figured that out. Lol constantly moving back and forth doesn’t take long.
@Kevin_Danger_Powers he used an D connector on the end so you can unplug it which is a nice feature.
Don’t turn it around, fairly sure the wires will hit the front
+B Once Well I did turn it around and I think it should actually work pretty well. What do you think?
@Kevin_Danger_Powers 'pologies, only just seen this.
Personally I prefer it from the back, mostly because I have that cable snake that ensures the cables clear the rear upright plate.
To me that’s just a little bit too close for comfort, wouldn’t take a great deal of bad luck to cause the cable pipe your using to jam the bed moving.
'Tis personal preference though, what ever works for you.
@Mr_Bonce that’s why I put the zip tie around the spring. It prevents the wire guide from getting caught. I just ran a 20 hour print and had zero issues. Well other than the fact that I picked a wrong setting on accident and the print didn’t come out right. Lol. But the machine worked just fine.