Ender 3 (V2) Removable Filament Spool Holder for Direct Drive Extruder.

Features:

• Neat looking easily removable design. Reduce the dimensions of the printer during storage time.
• Reuses the original Ender 3 spool holder, bolts and nuts. Save on plastic and fasteners!
• Has a 20-degree slope back for the best experience with the Sprite Direct Drive Extruder.
• Very firm and reliable. No shaking at all. Feels as a single solid part if printed properly.
• The upper part is 100% compatible with the original Ender 3 extrusion and can be used separately. It can also be used to mount other equipment such as hooks, filament guides, filters, etc.
• Tested on Ender 3 V2.

Requirements:

To mount this holder you need 2 original M5 bolts and nuts and 2 additional M5 L8-10mm bolts and nuts. M5 L12-14 mm long bolts can be probably used as well if enough spacers are added under their heads.

Print settings:

0.4 mm nozzle, 0.2 mm layer height, PETG, 40mm/s speed. Make sure the seam doesn't appear on the extrusion shape when slicing! Fast speed is not recommended as it may result in round corners in the places where they have to be sharp.

Warning: I used very little tolerance to ensure firm hold of the parts and avoid the shaking during printing. To achieve this, I printed several prototypes to find the lowest tolerance possible for Ender 3 V2 and PETG, so please check the belts and the flow ratio before printing! The parts printed on a poorly tuned printer may not join properly. I recommend to print all the parts with 5 mm height from the bed and try to insert one into the other. If they fit, print the parts completely, if they don't, you should tune your printer or slightly increase dimensions of the lower part in the slicer.

Assembling instructions:

1) Print all the parts.

2) Take UPPER1 and UPPER2, insert 3x 10mm pieces of filament to any side, put additional 2 nuts into the same side. Try to join them without glue first. If they fit well, apply glue to the other part and join 2 parts together.

3) Test your 2x M5 L8-10 bolts by screwing them with your fingers till the end. They should screw completely or leave no more than 1 mm between the part and the heads. If it's not the case, use shorter bolts or use required number of spacers under the heads of the bolts, otherwise you will damage the part!

If the bolts fit well, attach the original holder to the glued UPPER part using 2x M5 L8-10mm bolts.

4) Insert 2 original bolts into the holes of the LOWER part and screw the nuts just a little.

5) Put the LOWER part on to the upper extrusion and fix the nuts securely.

6) Insert the UPPER part into the LOWER part till the end, until little pins on the LOWER part fix inside little holes on the UPPER part. 

The pins are initially designed higher than required to compensate the difference in printing quality of different printers. Use a fine file or a dremel to reduce the height of the pins until you feel that the UPPER part goes into the LOWER part with little effort and fixes securely in the end. This is needed to prevent undesired removal of the holder. Theoretically, you can remove these pins almost completely if you are satisfied how the lower part holds the upper part without these pins.

7) To dismount the holder, just push it to the opposite direction. A couple of initial inserts and removals may be hard to proceed, but then the parts will get used to one another and it will become easier.

8) It's possible to attach the upper part to the original metal extrusion without the lower part. This gives you more possibilities of using this mount for various purposes.

8) When the printer is not needed, remove the holder and store it on a shelf.

9) Enjoy and don't forget to post your photos here if you like this thing.