Cable management panel for 10-inch racks

Route patch cables between the levels instead of letting them run across the front.

The 10-inch rack from the front: two switches, a patch panel and the black panel with pale and blue patch cables routed through it

The 10-inch rack from the front: switches, patch panel and the black panel with the cables routed through it

Close-up of the fitted panel, pale and blue patch cables sitting in the slots

The panel on its own on the workbench, seen from above at an angle — the row of tabs is visible

The same panel photographed flatter, the tabs pointing upwards

Close-up of the tabs from the side, the print layers discernible

Material: PETG
Layer height: 0,2 mm
Print time: ca. 1 h

While building my second 10-inch rack — a few switches, Raspberry Pis, mini PCs — I was missing a clean way to route cables between the levels. Without one, the patch cables run diagonally across the front.

A few prototypes later this panel came out of it: 1 U, snap-in slots, RJ45 passes through from either side. So you pull the patch cable straight through, no cutting off plugs, no recrimping.

What it does

cables can be slid along in the slot — the routing stays changeable
retaining tabs hold them, two cables per slot
for standard patch cables around 5 mm, 6 mm works too
32 cables per side, in theory 64 per panel (who has that much LAN? 😂)
reinforcements on the back
nothing else needed — no clips, no cable-tie orgy

Why PETG and not PLA

The retaining tabs get bent every time you clip a cable in. PLA takes that for a while and then snaps — not while printing, but months later while you're repatching and don't have a spare panel. PETG gives and comes back.

And one note that has nothing to do with printing: mind the bend radius of your LAN cables before clipping them in. Patch cables don't respond well to force. 😁

Printing

0.2 mm layer height, 4 wall lines
25 % infill, triangles or gyroid
5 top and bottom layers
no supports, around 30 g

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