The Neptune Era
If the CR-10 Max was where I learned that I didn't know anything, the Neptune era was where I started to actually learn something.
After trading away the Creality, I picked up an Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro. The difference was immediate. Direct drive extruder, better assisted leveling routines, faster print speeds — it wasn't perfect, but it felt like a real machine. I loved it enough that I went back and got a Neptune 4 Plus to run alongside it. I looked at the Max, but I couldn't justify the cost. I couldn't think of a single print I actually wanted to do that needed that build volume, and I've always believed in buying for what you need, not for what sounds impressive.
So there I was — two Neptunes running side by side, and things started to click.
I switched from Cura to OrcaSlicer and never looked back. I started working seriously with PETG instead of living exclusively in PLA. I got enclosures. My success rate climbed, though it was still well below 90% — something that would have embarrassed me later but felt like real progress at the time. I spent countless hours adjusting belt tensions, unclogging the weird nozzle setup those machines ran, learning the M6 nozzle system from the inside out. There's no shortcut to that knowledge. You earn it one failed print at a time.
Looking back, I'm genuinely grateful for the Neptune era — and for the Creality nightmare that came before it. The bowden drive frustration, the A4 paper bed leveling rituals, the raft-on-everything workarounds — all of it built something in me that you can't get from just buying a good printer on day one. I was forged in those machines, in the most literal sense.
The era ended the way most eras do — with one problem I couldn't solve. The Plus started giving me unlevel prints no matter what I did. I was printing rafts on everything just to get adhesion. Eventually I made a decision: traded the Plus one-for-one for a Sovol, which I never actually used, then sold the Sovol not long after. The 4 Pro went into storage.
What came next was a deliberate choice — a Bambu Mini and a Prusa Mini sitting side by side while I tried to decide which direction I was going to commit to. Three machines, one company, all in. That was the plan.
Stay tuned to find out which way I went.
