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We ordered an Elegoo Neptune 2 a couple weeks before Christmas, it sat in its box for about a week, because I’m not gonna lie, it was intimidating. The only part of the unit that was assembled was the base. We had to assemble the whole top part with the rollers and belts and stuff. The manual was sort of helpful, and we made it though. Only to find out there was video to watch LOL
When we got it all together we noticed the entire thing was rocking, and from what we had learned it’s very important that your 3D printer is steady. We started loosening screws in the base and pressing it flat to see if we could get it to straighten out, and we did manage to do that. Again, found out later, there is a video about that too!
Once we got it all together, I managed to figure out how to feed in the filament and got straight to printing the test print that comes with the printer, the adorable Buddha i nthe gallery below. For its first print without knowing fully how to level the bed or setup much, it did fairly good right out gate. It has however gotten better and better over the past couple months of learning adjustments and getting the bed nice and level. I also replaced the original build plate for a magnetic one. I’m pretty sure I had warped the original build plate and the center of it had issues. I ordered this Creality Original Ultra Removable Magnetic 3D Printer Build Surface It’s also meant for a 235 x 235 build plate so even being for a different brand, they are similar enough it works out great.
Also, if you are asking, what Filament do I get? This uses 1.75 mm filament. PLA is the easiest to work with, but you can use other types as well, but some you need to keep your machine in an enclosure due to fumes and smells or them being temperature sensitive. PLA is fairly easy and will provide you with nice firm prints once you get your setting down right. Its available in many neat colors.
Now, as for your slicing software, this is what you need for making 3D files ready to go to your printer. Elegoo has a special install of Cura, but most of us in the community just download the normal version of Cura and make adjustments and install profiles after the fact.
Download Cura here
You will then want to install this profile to it, specific for your Neptune 2. If you need help with using Github I’ll get my hubby to explain that. I just know thats where we got it from.
I’ll write more about things we have done. But here are some more links that have been helpful in my journey.
Elegoo Neptune Series Owners group on Facebook
Uncle Jessy on Youtube has some help videos on the Neptune 2
Elegoo Support Page
I ultimately chose the Elegoo Neptune over the Creality Ender as I was reading a lot on Reddit, and it was suggested since Elegoo actually provides decent customer support whereas Creality has gotten so popular they just rely on the community to help each other out, and you are sort of left with that.
