BLV MGN Cube – Ender 3 Hotend Adapter Plate [WIP]

After I had made my BLV MGN cube, I had noticed that the part cooling was never up to par on it. I tried others’ cooling solutions for it, but since they could never really be adjusted to the perfect level, I was not successful with part cooling. So, I tried designing my own fan duct on Fusion360. Turns out, I don’t know how to go about doing that lol. So, I started to look elsewhere. Since I have an Ender 3, which was my first personal 3D printer, I was already familiar with different part cooling setups for that printer. Knowing that many those are adjustable, I figured that I might be able to achieve the good cooling that I had hoped for. So, I modified the BLV MGN Cube X-carriage hotend mounting plate to have the same holes and necessary dimensions as an Ender 3 setup. I have been able to mount the E3D V6 version of the Hero Me for dual 5015 blower fans (probably overkill but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) and so far it looks promising. I have been able to fit a BL Touch on it as well.

——- Note ——-

I did need to slightly adjust the location of my printer bed due to the offset of the nozzle. Since I’ve been upgrading the heated bed as well, this wasn’t really an issue for me. However, I kind of want to try the Petsfang duct setup though, since I don’t think the adjustment would need to be made.

——- Hardware ——-

You shouldn’t need any different hardware to mount it, as it uses the same holes and screws as the rest of the BLV MGN Cube X-carriage. It’s basically just a replacement front plate. I have also left areas for nuts to fit into the plate behind the holes for better mounting.

——- WIP Note ——-

This is a work in progress, as I have been too busy caught up in other things to find time to work on this or my printer. I have uploaded this at the request of someone else. I have included the STEP files to make modification easy.

——- Print Settings ——-

To print it it, I printed it flat against the back so the hexagonal cutouts for nuts are facing the bed. The only place support is needed is for the edge off of one side IF YOU ARE USING THE CUSTOM SUPPORTS VERSION. The custom supports version just has a 0.2mm sacrificial layer so the printer can bridge for the entire top of the hole resulting in easier to remove support from the holes and less filament used. For one ledge that needs support, I just played with the overhang angle so that the holes were bridged and not supported. There’s probably a better way of doing this, like with support blockers or something, but I was lazy when printing and this worked out just fine. I am aware that I could probably change the design to make it a bit more easier to print without support, but I wanted the form of the plate to resemble that of the regular one.

Mine’s printed in PLA right now because I was prototyping and testing. I would probably try it in PETG once I’m confident that it works. So far, 0.2mm layer heights have worked fine for me. Otherwise, just print it how you would print the X-carriage front plate.