Elegoo Neptune 3 Direct Drive Mount

thingiverse

Direct drive mount for Elegoo Neptune 3. Made to fit with the same stepper motor and extruder that comes with the printer. Installation is pretty straight forward so I wont go into too much detail but if you have any questions leave a comment and I'd be happy to help:) You will need to buy a 1 foot extension cable for the stepper motor, or solder extra wire to lengthen the cable. I soldered mine so I don't have a link to an extension cable but it would be the same as the Ender 3 cables which shouldn't be too hard to find. You can still use the filament runout sensor if you run a PTFE tube between the extruder and the sensor. The purpose of the tube is to keep the filament out of the way so it doesn’t need have any real connectors for the extruder and sensor The new length for your PTFE tube should be 53mm though I would still double check with the depth gauge on your standard measuring calipers. If you're new to 3D printing I highly highly recommend buying at least a cheap pair off of amazon. If anything, have the PTFE tube be on the longer side to provide some compression between the extruder and the hotend. I also made an stl file of a non-locking PTFE tube nut. I wanted to keep the profile of the mount small and a full sized PTFE locking nut took up too much room, regardless I left just enough room to use a locking nut if you'd like but it's a tight fit. Installation: First you'll need to put the printed 3M washer on the right screw of the hotend shroud to keep the screw from protruding out the back of the meatal gantry plate. Then remove the top 2 wheels completely and press the mount onto the meatal plate until the holes line up nice on the mount and the metal plate (you may need to unscrew right hotend mounting screw just a bit since it barely protrudes out the back of the mounting plate, but once the mount is on you can screw it back in tight) I built in some tolerances so the mount might not fit all the way down onto the metal plate, this shouldn't be an issue as long as the front and back of the mount is pinching the plate, and the wheel spacers snugly fit into the corresponding mount holes. Now re-install the wheels and wheel spacers and you're good to install the stepper motor and extruder. I would recommend installing the PTFE tube nut before screwing the extruder into the mount. Also, there are no threads on the printed PTFE nut but it will thread itself as you screw it in. Like always, this as a tight fit and you should calibrate your printers dimensional accuracy first! For example my printer prints 0.2% smaller than it should so I have to scale all of my prints to 100.2%. I highly recommend using this print to check your dimensional accuracy and NOT the standard calibration tool (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5020524). Clough42 makes a good video explaining what's going on with printer accuracy so check it out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dFThbwAx2Y) This is only my second time using Fusion 360 so any criticism is welcome! If you'd like to remix it just comment what type of file I should upload to make it easy and Ill do it. Print settings: Print upright with supports At least 60% infill (this part needs to be strong) At least 1.2mm wall thickness 2mm resolution I printed with Duramic PLA+ at 220 deg. and 65 deg. bed temp Supports are a pain but after using the settings from this vid they've gotten alot easier (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaE7YPvh4E8)