Cura PLA Profile to download: https://www.patreon.com/posts/17073952

Ok another box. This one’s from Zenshione, ah it’s from the Peoples Road. Longgang, Shenzhen. What have they sent me this time? So after everything I said about. I think I pissed of the person I was working with in regard to the 3D printers, someone else turned up and decided they wanted to work again. And I thought, well. I said to them this is what happen last time and er, I think most people watch my videos to find out why they shouldn’t buy something, not because they want that authoritative figure like me to kinda convince them to spend money.

I don’t feel like a figure of authority. I mean if you’re here because you’ve researching this very printer you probably already know why you want it. And if you’re watching this video because you know this channel, well you probably know why you want to watch.

I’ll try and show this printer off in the light I think suites it best and you can make a decision yourself. Whether to keep watching this channel or to purchase a 3D printer form a land far far away.

So this thing is similar to the AnyCubic as far as I can tell. It’s a JGAurora A3S. I need to stop throwing these away and start changing the plugs. Ohh I got a quality sticker,

I happened to watch a review video of this model of printer by homofacian and the other by myfordboy and I noticed they got a pair of pliers in their box. This one doesn’t come with the pliers but it’s also 60 quid cheaper. But the pliers alone are not worth 60 quid. You also don’t get a pair of latex gloves, a spatula and tweezers, and those are kinda essential tools when you’re working with a 3D printer I’ve come to discover.

Before power on please refer to the instructions in USB stick.

Satisfying bit of plastic here.

What you do get is a fairly curvaceous printer, that looks like a game console that belongs in your kitchen. You also get 250grams of PLA filament, a decent spool holder, some machine screws and allen keys, and a bed that looks very similar to the Ultrabase on the AnyCubic however goes under the abbreviation DBG – Dimond Black Glass.

Essentially this is some kind of screen printed texture on glass. Oh and an additional nozzle in case the first one bungs up.

Take out machine parts in the package. Printer base frame filament holder toolbox. Let printer base pass through frame, beware of the screen should be the same direction as the frame as shown in the pic. Aim the A point to B point. Fix between the slot then use large screw with shim to install it. On the other side of frame should install the filament holder using small screw then connect the wires.  Ok.

On the side, and then screws under here.

Oh, that’s cleaver. So you know it’s quite early.

What little wiring I have here doesn’t feel as neat as the AnyCubic.

Ok I can see something I don’t like already. That looks like it’s totally buggered there. These should not look like that. They should look like this… my CNC machine.

Ok you’ve got this humongous power adaptor. It’s 24v 15 amp. Would have been nice if this was actually inside. I hate having all this cabling trailing around although it’s still not bad compared to some of the early printers. And you simply turn it on with this switch over here.

So you do get a small spool of PLA. It’s a 1/4 of a KG but I’m not going to open this and just use one that I’ve already got open. That fits on there and this goes in there.

You can automatically feed the filament in using the touch display control panel but I just pushed it through. This printer also sports a filament runout sensor – the concept invites leaving the machine alone but I would advise against it. Always be in close proximity in case something unusual happens.

This is really quiet. I’m really surprised.

I began by homing the machine, and looking at the movement. It seems ok considering the couplers looked like they’d been yanked.

Not sure what the power rating of the stepper motors are but again they are smaller than the AnyCubic. Two tiny fans here, it’s on a linear rail at the back. I assume it’s a similar thing in there. I have not idea how you open this. I’m not sure what this board is, but it says MKS maker base. The electronics doesn’t look pretty bad to be honest.

There was also a thin piece of plastic which you can use to level the nozzle agaist the bed. I used the assisted self-level which moves the nozzle to pre-determined zones. I went through the motions several times until it felt consistant.

It’s a bit too compact. I really struggled to get my fingers in to adjust the bed height.

You also want to check either side of the z axis so everything is parallel, and make sure the bed and nozzle are heated to compensate for any expansion in the material.

You just do this several times. I don’t like the positioning of the terminal here on the hotbed. It just feels like it’s a bit too close to the frame when it catches on this bit of wiring here. I’m not sure where to push that.

I decided to print a cooling nozzle for the printer. One of possibly many prints you could do to improve the print performance. The first few prints however kept un-sticking. I kept adjusting the bed height, further compressing the first layer of PLA but that didn’t make any difference. In the end I suspected the hotbed was contaminated with some kind of oil so I cleaned it with some methylated spirit and that seemed to do the trick.

I tried to print something else and that came unstuck as well, so what I’m going to do is just wipe with a bit of meth just to make sure there’s no grease on it that might be contributing to pieces coming unstuck. I know I’ve got a fan going on in the background which can effect the print. It might be cooling the PLA just enough for it to contract and un-stick from the bed. But since I read a report about UFP ultra fine particles production from 3D printing I’m kinda in the mind it’s worth having a fan on with a filter to collect as much of that stuff up.  Ideally I’d like to build an enclosure for this sort of machine. Obviously it protects them against the elements of the workshop but also contains anything that’s being produced from the print.

I eventually had some success printing the nozzle for the extruder, which I found on the USB pen that came with the printer. I had to generate the Gcode as this was only an STL file, and I used my settings from the AnyCubic as a starting point on Repetier Host. Eventually I decided to install the software that was provided with the machine. It looks like a version of Cura with pre-configured settings for the JGaurora range of printers. It is called JGcreat which I think is a spelling mistake and was meant to be JGcreate. If you prefer to use the latest version of Cura which at the time of filming was 3.2.0 you can copy the .JSON profile files from the JGcreat installation. You’ll find these in programme files\JGcreat 2.5.0\resources\definitions which you’ll have to copy over to \Ultimaker Cura 3.2 \resources\definitions.

Once you’ve done that you can open cura and add the printer. I also noticed the new version of Cura (3.2.0) has a pre-installed configurations for a few other printers including the AnyCubic i3 Mega – which is my go-to printer.

I played around with the settings in Cura until I started to get successful prints. This included raising the bed temperature to 60. Which is a lot higher than I set it for the AnyCubic i3 Mega. I printed a new nozzle which can fit on both the A3s and the A5. I’ll provide a link to the thingiverse file in the description below.

I noticed something unusual with the PTFE tube moving upon retraction but I can’t see any obvious effects the print.

Ok success. You can print this particular nozzle on the bed of the A3S using the factory set nozzle.

I also printed a test cube, the first layer of which was a little compressed but under extruded so I further adjusted the settings in Cura. I’ll write down the settings in the article which will company this video.Anyway this printer took a little while to get use too and despite the buggered couplers it actually still works. The unsaid rule with these printers is – they are really cheap and it’s really difficult to send them back. You might be able too get replacements parts so double check what else is available from the supplier and just be aware you might have to fix or adapt the product.

What I will do now is update the Top 3D Printer List on my website, so if you want a quick summary of the pros and cons of this and other machines, have a read as it may help you make a more informed decision before you part with the cash. Thanks again for watching and in the next one I’ll be playing with this, and this monster here.