Magnetic Cable Sleeve

If you’re tired of cables sprawling all over your desk, this project might be the solution. It’s a 3D printed cable sleeve that snaps shut with magnets, keeping things tidy while looking pretty neat too.

The idea comes from 3D printed fabrics (flexible, interlocking parts) but here it’s adapted into a cable management system. The sleeve is made up of repeating sections that link together and close around your cables using magnets, so you can make it as long as you want.

Printing :

The main thing to get right is bed adhesion. A clean build plate goes a long way, so make sure to wipe it down before starting this print.

Assembly :

Magnets press into the holes on each side piece and should be fixed in place with a drop of super glue.

⚠️ Double, triple, quadruple-check your magnet polarity before gluing! 

Opposite edges need to attract, otherwise the sleeve won’t close properly.

Parametric model :

The model is fully parametric, so you can adjust the sleeve’s length and diameter to suit your setup. 

Just note : The online solver is very very slow because there are lots of parts involved. It can take over a minute just to open and the another minute for a changed parameter. And if you go too far there is a timeout error after 5 minutes..

If you really want a big custom size, just download the .f3d file and open it in fusion 360, then modify the parameters as you want, it will be 100x faster.

• Standard version with width 6 → about 4 cm in diameter.

That’s it ! 

Hopefully this little project helps you tame the cable jungle on your desk.