Looking to print the softest filament with your Ender 3 v2? Upgrade your printer with a direct extruder for improved results!

This is the Direct Extruder part I designed for the Ender 3 V2, it requires you to disassemble and reassemble the Extruder stepper motor and Bowden extruder into a Direct Drive Extruder.

Optimized the structure, and designed the heat dissipation vent of the motor and the Zip Tie hole for bundling wires.

The tested version can successfully print the softest TPU filament I know - Filaflex 60A 1.75mm:

https://recreus.com/gb/filaments/1-5-filaflex-60a.html#/2-diameter-175_mm/3-weight-500_gr/6-colour-white

The downside is that the position of the motors affects the max position of the X-axis, so I updated the Marlin firmware configuration I used to sacrifice some print range to get this.

Download Here:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5855162

4 comments

Comments (4)

Ludovic Cloutier

Mar 12, 2023

hey, how long should the bowden tube be cut?

X—GOKU

Mar 14, 2023

Replying to

Hi, it depends on your pneumatic connectors and hotend, I have replaced the pneumatic connectors with different ones, so I cannot guarantee that our lengths are the same. Please make sure that one end of your tube is fully inserted into the hotend and the other end is fully inserted into the extruder. You can use a drill to slightly enlarge the port so that the filament can enter the tube smoothly.

If you want to use the same pneumatic connectors and hotend as mine, you can refer to the link and pictures below.

Redrex Dual Gear Ender 3 Extruder Metal Drive Feeder Upgrade for Ender 3 V2,Ender 3 Pro,Ender 3 Neo Series,Ender 5 Pro,Ender 5 Plus,CR10,Vyper 3D Printer TPU Filament Support(Motor Shaft>20mm):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09H6T3NNT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Hope this can help you build.

Ludovic Cloutier

Mar 15, 2023

Replying to

Thanks! With the stock connectors, double gear metal extruder, the lenght was 6.7mm. There is a wall under the handle to feed in filamemt that should be have a bit less height as it makes it flex with the current file. It works tho! Btw, do you know if there is a easier way to restrain the bed size on the X axis to 200 without flashing the firmware? The extruder motor knocks on the frame when creating a mesh with

X—GOKU

Mar 15, 2023

Replying to

Thank you for sharing this information. I'm not quite sure where the wall you're referring to is, as I don't seem to encounter this issue when feeding the filament, but I don't mind making adjustments to it.

Without updating the firmware, you might consider adding a maximum X-axis limit switch, but this means that you would need to design a structure to mount it on the other end.