I just watched the JGAurora review referenced above.
That review demonstrates the issues with the 3D printer marketplace at the moment. For me these are....
1. A generic printer design fitted with generic control, drive and display PCB. Not an optimised solution.
2. Issues with generic settings in the GUI as in the case of loading filament and the nozzle temperature causing a Bowden drive lockout. Plain laziness on the part of the manufacturer of the printer and pretty damn obvious !
3. Issues with levelling the bed. No auto levelling and poor levelling repeatability due to poor bed levelling mechanics. This could get very tiresome as bed levelling is important for a decent print.
4. Generic firmware running on the unit that, in this case, was very out of date. The fact that features appeared in the GUI that did not exist in the printer makes for a real DIY feel to the unit. Not refined at all on this front.
5. All manner of options to 'fine tune' the printing process. Some might Love such controls, others, like myself, may hate the fact that the printer doesn't just get on and produce a high quality print on its own without the need to faff around with minute adjustments in the settings menu. This is a tool after all ! Sometimes the ability to fine tune a system is good, other times it is just an early warning that the system is unstable and needs lots of tweaking and fettling for a decent result. The use of generic boards and firmware likely make such fine tuning options essential for the firmware to match up with the design and performance of the hardware. A non optimised solution that requires the user to do the hard work. No thanks !
6. The OEM appears to have used an old version of firmware yet not made it easy to upgrade it to the latest version. Poor show if it is subject to the GPL. Why use an outdated and problematic firmware in your product ? Weird, plain weird.
7. The physical layout of the printer is pretty generic and typical of the arch type designs. It uses a filament push system that pushes the filament through a Bowden cable sleeve. Not my favourite system as it can suffer binding issues and is, IMHO, less reliable than a pull/push system like on the UP! Printers. The motor on these is on the head and pulls the filament through a Bowden cable sleeve before pushing it through the closely coupled Extruder head via a straight path. The reviewed design also leaves something to be desired on the cable management front. Having the moving bed cable foul the X-Axis motor cable is just plain lazy engineering and testing.
8. It appears that the printer cannot print in ABS or other similar materials with their high nozzle temperature and bed temperature needs ? That, for me, is a deal breaker. ABS may be smelly to print but it is a great material where you want to be able to sand, paint or glue parts. It is like working with Airfix model kits ! PLA is a comparative nightmare on this front. Large units can be printed in sections when using ABS and simply glued together using plastic weld or standard modelling hard plastics glues (Airfix Cement). Damaged parts can also be repaired in the same way. RC aircraft prints benefit from repairability. If a printer cannot cope with ABS, I would remove it from my short list, simple as that.
9. The reviewed printer is an 'open' frame design. I personally prefer the enclosed build area designs that go some way to creating a warm build environment for ABS printing and help to contain any fumes produced during the printing process. This may be important for people with breathing related conditions or allergies ? Modern enclosed printers contain HEPA filters to scrub the air inside the enclosure. ABS does produce quite acrid fumes when being heated and extruded !
Well that just about does it from me. 3D printing can be the veritable minefield when it comes to selecting your first printer. Buying a used printer, like I have, is feasible but remember that printers can be abused, worn out, or just bad performers, hence being rehomed ! Some people sell their smaller 'first' printer in order to move up to a larger model. This is what I effectively did. My UP! Mini and UP! Box printers came from fellow Forum member Toploser and they were customer returns to either CPC/Farnell. It is a fact that some 3D printers get bought and returned after a 'project' is printed or the user just does not have the required understanding of the process to make it work for their needs. The printers become customer returns with no actual faults present. In the case of the UP! BOX, it did have a faulty Extruder but Toploser bought a new one for over £200 before selling it to me. Toploser is a Top notch chap
The used UP! BOX had extruded 9kg of filament before it was returned. It looked like new inside and the 9kg of printing has thoroughly tested it for me
It has not missed a beat since I got it 7 months ago. Do not rule out used printers in order to save money, but do be careful when buying such. Faulty parts can be expensive to replace , negating any saving made by buying a used unit.
Fraser