JGAurora 3D Printer Review

There is a new cheap 3D printer under $200 on the market. This is from JG Aurora. Read our JGAurora 3D printer review to find out the features, performance and price of the unit. Is it really worth the small price.

JGAurora JGMaker Magic 3D Printer

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JGAurora 3D Printer Review

The JGAurora JGMaker Magic is a cheap 3D printer in my test. This is a full-fledged FDM 3D printer that costs under $200. The unit comes with additional features, such as a filament runout sensor, heated print bed, filament holder, etc.

JGMaker Magic 3D Printer Technical Specs

General Specifications

3D Printing Specifications

Software Requirements

Dimensions & Weight

What’s in the Box?

When you purchase the JGMaker Magic 3D printer review, this is what you’ll get in the box:

• A card reader
• A small spatula
• Filament roll holder
• Filament runout sensor
• A small sensor
• A variety of screws packed in well-labeled bags
• Other necessary tools
• Booklet manual
• An SD card reader
• An 8GB SD card
• Test filament

The structure is a bit more extensive, since the printer is not delivered pre-assembled to a large extent. Only the electronics are already installed in the lower housing.

Apart from that, the items are packed in the usual Tetris manner. After unboxing the package, you can start assembling the device either according to instructions on the manual or the video instructions.

The screws are exemplary packed in labeled bags. Apart from that, the necessary tools, a card reader and a small spatula are included in the scope of delivery. Tweezers and the usual blue pliers are missing. There is a little spare material for that. So a couple of screws and a small sensor are also included twice in the scope of delivery.

Assembly Process

For the most part, the assembly is quite simple and can be done in 30-60 minutes. The electronics are located at the bottom of the housing. Therefore, roughly speaking, only the axles have to be mounted and the motors connected to the wiring harness.

This time I didn’t have to bother to unscrew the printer because there is no cover on the bottom. That is why the bottom of the photo above is also green, because any LED on the circuit board is green.

For my part, the lack of cover on the underside does not seem right. If you put the printer on a screwdriver or the like, a short circuit or the like could very quickly occur.

The wiring is fine to my non-electrician mind. No cable was disconnected or looked to be in any way. The rest of the processing of the printer is also exemplary. Nothing looks shaky or cheap.

The lack of a cover on the underside makes the fan in the power supply noisy during printing operations. The mainboard has permanently integrated drivers on the circuit board. Therefore, the printer cannot be made quieter without completely replacing the mainboard by installing quieter drivers.

In this case, you can install quieter fans. See our guide on the best 40mm fans for 3D printers. However, this is not a must. If you will not be using the printer in the living room or right next to or on the desk, the background noise is okay.

The scope of delivery also includes a holder for the filament rolls. The holder is so large that normal rolls can also be placed on it. With very small rolls, the strong axis of the bracket is likely to cause a problem.

In addition, a filament runout sensor is also included. The sensor is mounted directly on the extruder and has a strange angle for my taste. I haven’t quite risen to the question of whether the roll should deliver the filament from below or from above. 🙂

Print Head

The printhead is neatly assembled and preassembled and makes a valuable first impression. I like it when the wire harness plugs into a connector on the printhead. If necessary, you can replace the entire printhead. You don’t have to pull cables from the mainboard to the printhead for each element, or cobble together cables somewhere with the soldering iron.

Print Bed

The print bed has an extra pressure plate on the heating bed. The plate is held in place with the foldback clips and does not hold magnetically. The surface is slightly rough (almost reminiscent of sandpaper) and holds prints incredibly well!

Even when it had cooled down, various prints were very difficult to remove from the plate. But since it is only clipped, you can replace it with your personal favorite printing plate after a few prints.

I’ll show you the enclosed plate after 3-4 prints. Each time I had to freshly level, reset and set the nozzle a little higher (i.e. more distance between nozzle and plate), but the models could not adhere well.

That’s why I put on the cheap printing plate I trusted and with that, things worked without any problems. The printed numbers, for example, held on super well during printing. There was no warping and as soon as the plate had cooled down, you could literally flick the prints away with your finger.

The rough surface is handy and keeps the prints bombproof.

The filament remains on the orig. I couldn’t remove the plate either cold or warm, or with a spatula or IPA. Rarely seen anything like this. 🙂

In case the SD card is accidentally removed during a printout (who does that?), the printer also has a resume function. This means that printing can be continued after inserting the SD card.

The printer is controlled via the well-known display on the front with a large rotary wheel next to it. The SD card can be found on the right side. An SD card reader and an 8GB SD card are included in the scope of delivery. The latter also contains installation videos, PDFs and test objects.

Once the printer is assembled, the usual homing test follows to see if all cables etc. are properly connected and the print head moves in the right direction and stops at the end stops. After that, preheat the print bed, disable the stepper and level it with a piece of paper.

With the leveling done, you can start printing right away.

Print Quality

You should already have filament at home, since the one provided in the scope of delivery is really small. You definitely won’t get far with it.

As a test, I clamped a blue PLA glitter filament and was pleasantly surprised how clean the first layers were printed. You really can’t complain about that!

Below are some more prints we made with the JGAurora Magic 3D Printer.

You can see on the ass with ears that the overhangs (the earlobe is always such a problem) was printed well. Ironing also worked very well (you can see the zero in the lower center) and the orange/gray quiz also went very well together.

With a little optimization of the settings you can get rid of the elephant feet and then everything is fine.

This vase also worked without any problems when printing. Well, not quite. For results with beautiful details, I had to reduce the speed for some objects to 50-60 mm/s. But that is often due to the objects and less to the printer itself.

For the price range (check price), I really like the print results.

So let’s come to the experiences in everyday life. The printer is not exactly quiet. If you want to optimize here, you have to replace the fans, but it’s also bearable.

The print volume of 220 × 220 × 250 should definitely be enough to get started.

The Magic is only driven on one side of the z-axis. Therefore, make sure that everything is set correctly when assembling. Still, even with only one driven z-axis, the Magic printed really well in my test.

What I didn’t like was the inability to use Baby-Steps to change the Z-axis while printing. So far I have been able to readjust the bed a tiny bit on almost every printer and have not had to manually fiddle with the four level screws, which is admittedly very bad and inaccurate.

I will look around for an updated Marlin firmware the days. The printer has been on the market for a few days. Something should be found there.

Conclusion

Since 3D printers have a modular structure, there are many parts that could be optimized and retrofitted. However, this also means a significantly more expensive printer. For example, you can get 2 extra driven Z-axes, optical end stops, quieter drivers, quieter fans, faster heating beds and much more. But that is not the purpose of this printer.

The JGAurora JGMaker Magic currently costs just under $200 on Amazon. Therefore, it’s the ideal entry-level model. We recommend it for anyone interested in getting started with 3D printers.

However, if you have some experience in 3D printing, or are planning on staying in the hobby for long, get something bigger. Of course, this will mean spending a little more money. Here, we would recommend a model from Anycubic, Tevo or Creality.

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON