Ender 3 Direct Drive Mount

thingiverse

This is a mount for the Drakon geared extruder, inspired by the Speed Drive mount (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3816051). My goal was to reduce the weight of my direct drive setup by using a smaller stepper motor in combination with a geared extruder. Fitted with a 20mm deep pancake stepper, the whole assembly barely clears the left extrusion of the z-axis, so no need to relocate the x-axis endstop and no loss of print area. The whole setup is roughly 40% lighter than before. I printed this face side down with supports and 20% gyroid infill. For installation, you need to fit the sleeves of the x-carriage wheels into the 8mm holes in the mount. You probably need to heat them with a soldering iron similar as you would do with threaded inserts. I've added an x-axis endstop mount that can be bolted directly to the x-axis with a M4x8 hexhead bolt and a M4 t-nut.