I wanted to find a pen holder that attaches to my Ender 3 V1 without interfering with my other accessories on it and without replacing the printing block, but most had a different mounting to the E-plate or Fan cover.

I also needed the pen attachment to e adjustable so i can fine tune the pen to the right height and change the force of the pen to not damage the printing bed, but i only found static designs or springs without adjustment and most sockets wouldn't fit all pen sizes well and.

Creality

Ender 3

No

Yes

0.2 mm

100%

I designed a roughly easy to install socket - you only need to unscrew one bolt, put the socket next to the E-plate and tighten the bolt back over it. The socket is also decently stable during usage. The second part holds the pen with one or two M4 bolts and nuts so it works for pens up to 12.2mm in diameter. The top also has holes for screws so the pen can be tightened to reduce vibration. The socket also has a hole for a screw if the thread comes out too loose after the print.

The design was made with the aid of sketches and dimensions from the PDFs in this github repo: https://github.com/Creality3DPrinting/Ender-3/tree/master/Ender-3%20Mechanical/PDF

I made the drawing by converting this image to SVG using Inkscape: http://designlooter.com/images/international-space-station-coloring-10.jpg

Then i converted to STL at 1000 times scale, removed the text and extruded along Z
axis 0.25m and used a custom profile in Cura to slice the GCODE instructions (profile found in files)