Ender 3 Chimera Aqua Half Direct Mount

thingiverse

Mount a Chimera or Cyclops Aqua hotend for the Ender 3/Creality CR-10 style X carriage. This design is half direct and half Bowden. The direct portion is intended for a Titan extruder but isn't fully direct due to the need for a short PTFE length because of the aqua tubes' spacing and fans. Part cooling fans are not included in this design, which is made for the hero.me 2-piece system from here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3744260 The single fan duct that crosses won't fit. Both the 5015 and 4010 should work. There are two main parts to this mount: a base plate that attaches to the carriage and a small carrier that attaches to the hotend. This was necessary since the hotend only has holes on its back side. The hotend mount requires flat head M3 screws that are 8mm long. The hidden holes for the base plate are M3 6mm button head screws with washers. Two of the other holes are oversized due to some slight variation in mounts, and they use M3 screws with washers here; any length will do as long as it doesn't stick out too far from the back. The hotend plate is attached with M3 screws and captive nuts. One of these nuts is trapped between the carriage and mount so that its holes aren't a tight fit since it's not needed, but the screw used needs to not stick through or it will hit the carriage. The BLTouch mount sits centered in front as there isn't any hotend fan in the way. Two bonus holes are provided for a wire management arm that hasn't been created yet. There is no loss of X travel. No loss of Z, as long as the stepper motor is less than 31mm or so. There might be possible loss of about 10mm or so in Y. It's recommended to set the 'direct' hotend about 1mm down from being fully seated in the heatsink so that if things aren't straight, the 'bowden' hotend can be moved up and down to compensate as the direct side will need PTFE cut exactly for the right length. 2020-02-03: A new STL was added moving the hotend down hopefully allowing the nozzle to reach the bed. 2020-02-10: Thicker arms, slightly narrower hotend plate. The touchbracket has been removed until it can be resized and checked for the new arms. 2020-02-20: This time for sure. 2020-03-12: Tubing was added to a fan adapter for the 4010 blower, which uses a tube with air from somewhere else instead of a blower. 2020-09-11: Photos were added along with a newer STL with wider arms for wiring to clear and a newer touch bracket to match.