>>2939830
>Can the standard Ender 3 handle direct drive?
>That's a lot of extra weight for the print head to be slinging around.
Absolutely, even with a heavy stepper it can handle it. The typical kits come with a new bracket for the gantry that contains four roller wheels instead of three, and this gantry holds the stepper back over the gantry to even out the weight distribution. I just used the existing bracket and printed an additional bracket out of PLA. It’s holding up fine. I found that the V6 heat sink I already owned just mounted straight into my cheap BMG clone without needing an intermediate short PTFE tube (ignoring the internal 3mm tube to take up space) and it’s printing really well now. Because I’ve mounted the extruder sideways, I get good access to the filament path, and the stepper motor is kept to the side. In total it’s maybe $30 in parts.