3D Printer Review: Elegoo Jupiter SE

Manufacturer: Elegoo

Price: $700

Link: https://www.elegoo.com/products/jupiter-se

Summary

The Jupiter SE is a large resin printer, with a build volume of 277.848×156.264x300mm. It boasts a 12.8 inch 6k mono LCD for exposure, linear rails, a built in air purifier and a built in automatic resin feeding system.

Unboxing and setup

There really isn’t much to the setup of this machine. You pull it out of the box and it’s nearly ready to go. The air purifier and automatic resin pump are both add-ons that simply slide in to place using a USB interface. You plop them on, and you’re ready to go.

The only thing I did before starting to print is set my initial z-height. Like any resin printer, you’re going to want to do this immediately. It’s the usual simple process of loosening screws, dropping it into place with a spacer, then tightening the screws and hitting the button to set the initial height. That’s it. It’s ready to print! They even included a test print on the USB stick (the rook).

In use

Like any other Elegoo resin printer, this thing just works. It isn’t a complicated system, so there isn’t a ton to talk about there. The laser etched bed holds the prints fine and the quality is stunning. I’m not sure how well the air filter performed. My nose doesn’t work all that well in the first place, but I could still detect resin smells in the air. Maybe it worked great, maybe not. I’m not the best judge of smell.

I was very interested in the automatic resin pump. I played with it quite a bit. It was pretty cool how you could just screw in a bottle of resin and it would automatically dispense enough to keep the vat full. This seems like it would be invaluable if you were doing really large prints that consumed more than a single vat of resin.

In my personal use however, I found I didn’t need it and was often annoyed by it’s presence. I don’t print massive things often, so the quantity of resin in the vat wasn’t an issue for me. My shop is cold, which resulted in a lot of failed prints – totally my fault, the printer works beautifully when in the correct environment. However this meant a LOT of cleaning the vat and removing failed prints, and the pump was just another resin covered thing to deal with. It dangles on the side of the vat, which means you have to remove it each time you remove the vat.

I’m sure for some folks, that resin pump will be amazing and very helpful. For me, it was just annoying. Luckily, the machine throws up a warning that it is missing, but you can just click to proceed anyway.

The outer shell of the machine is the style where you have to lift it off. This is fine for me, the placement of the machine has nothing above it. However if you’re wanting to store this on a shelf, you’re going to need almost 2x the vertical size of this machine in order to remove it and get your prints.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to print large things in resin, this is a steal. It feels solid and works well. Having an air filter is nice, even if I personally can’t tell you how good it works.