Modding the Neptune 4 Max to work

When I bought the Neptune 4 Max (N4M), I predicted vibrations were going to contribute to the difficulties of printing. I initially tried to use a heavy duty folding table, but quickly discovered everything was shaking like a 7.5 earthquake. I thought and tried to implement some dampening weight, but the N4M and the table was still shaking too much. I ended up moving the printer to my kitchen countertop.

After solving the physical shaking issue, I attempted to calibrate and print my first model. The quality wasn’t bad but it wasn’t as good as my first print from the Bambu Labs P1S. I decided to run a few calibrations to see if I could get consistant results, but quickly found out the results were wildly random. I ended up looking up user reports and saw that many were suggesting upgrading the firmware (or downgrading). Since I feel that downgrading firmware is a crime, especially when release quality seems to be all over the place (according to user reports).

Since I’m a fan of fully open source projects, I quickly found [OpenNept4une]. While the firmware did help, I still wasn’t satisfied with the results.

The bed on the N4M is huge, the bed is 420mm by 420mm, which is just a tad over 16.5354 inches squared. As such, there’s a ton of inertia when 3D printing something like an Iron Man Chest or Back piece (for cosplay). The bed moves so much that the leveling knobs (the leveling knobs and the buffer springs that attach the bed to the y-axis sled) and pom wheels (the alignment wheels that attach the y-axis sled to the frame) will loosen. So I upgraded the leveling knobs with bed screw locks [screw-locks], and replaced the bed springs with Silicone Spacers [silicone-spacers]. The most recent mod is the linear rails for the X and Y-axis, found at TBStron3D [linear-rails]. A few other mods for quality of life are corner guides [corner-guides] to align the print plate with the heated bed. And belt tension stoppers [beltstopper].

This is personal preference, but I didn’t like the cables flopping around, so I printed out the main cable chain [cable-chain] and recently needed another mod to remount the cable to the print head [linear-cable-cain] after installing linear rails.

After using the normal head, the quality of the prints weren’t as good as my Bambu Labs P1S. I was thinking the filament wasn’t be cooled enough, so I opted for an print head [printhead] that intregrated 5015 fans.

At this moment, I have only just moved apartments and installed the linear rails. I plan on reporting back after I’ve calibrated the printer and attempted a new piece for my Iron Man cosplay.