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The printer’s surface is held in place with two metal clips, which lets you remove the glass if you need to. This is a handy feature for cleaning up after print jobs. One item to note is that the Aquila does not have insulation material beneath the printing bed. Power supply You’ll get a single-gear plastic extruder with the Aquila 3D printer, which serves its purpose. It would be nice to have a metal extruder, but plastic is what you get with the Voxelab unit. The spool holder resides at the top of the Aquila printer, which makes the filament path a little challenging. But, the plastic extruder does have a metallic insert, which protects it from any filament grinding into the body of the extruder itself. Firmware updates Carborundum glass bed provides good adhesion and easy removal - Carborundum glass is a great build surface that provides good adhesion while heated, but parts can be removed easily once it cools. The surface finish is not quite as smooth as borosilicate glass, but the superior adhesion without any hairspray more than compensates. With a carborundum bed, you wont need to use any additional adhesives like hairspray, but it is important that you clean the bed with a damp cloth after every 5-10 prints to maintain the adhesion. Finally, there the BLTouch that’s recommended by everyone. I added this to the guide just so you know this can be a solution for easier bed leveling, but in the free section I will tell you about the free alternative which can be used (manual mesh bed leveling). In my opinion, a BLTouch is not needed for small format printers like the Voxelab Aquila but it can be a helpful upgrade if your print surface is not perfect, and you don’t want to mess with MBL. When your Voxelab Aquila 3D printer is sitting idle, it will draw around 9 watts. When it’s heating up, the wattage bumps up to 240W, which then levels off to around 90W once the print job starts. Noise
One of the coolest features about the Aquila printer is that you’ll get a nice, color TFT screen with the unit. The screen has a white user interface with red accents. Unfortunately, it’s not a touchscreen, so you’ll have to use the hardware buttons to navigate through the menu. The screen is responsive and fast, which is nice to see since the printer doesn’t offer many advanced options or additional features. PTFE hotend The Voxelab Aquila printer is a great option for anyone who wants to save some money while getting their feet wet with 3D printing. Its specs aren’t going to blow you away, but the unit gets the job done for 3D printing hobbyists or beginners. The screen interface is nice, as is the ability to update the firmware. If you decide to flash a custom firmware on your Voxelab Aquila, then you will notice that it’s recommended to mount the LCD in a vertical orientation. This vertical LCD mount on Thingiverse should do the job. But if changing the firmware is not on your Voxelab Aquila upgrades list then changing the screen orientation won’t help. V-slot covers Because the hotend is similar to what you get with a Creality 3D printer, I would recommend looking for a drop-in replacement like the NF-Smart CR-10, Trianglelab Spiral Tower or the popular Microswiss hotend. Any of these hotends should allow you to print higher temperature materials more reliably without having to service your printer that often. Bare-bones appearance - This printer is not built to be attractive, which is apparent by the standard aluminum extrusions used throughout the design, and the exposed power supply unit. While this is a purely cosmetic issue, it makes the printer less attractive than some of it's more expensive cousins.Voxelab offers a Creality style hotend with its printer, where the PTFE tube enters the nozzle. The hotend is one of the cheaper models on the market, which is to be expected with a 3D printer at this price point. As expected, the Aquila 3D printer comes with X and Y-axis belt tensioners. This is something you’ll find on newer printers, which is why it’s no surprise to find it on the Voxelab Aquila offering. Bear in mind that you don’t want to overtighten the tensioners because you may wind up with degraded print quality. Plastic extruder The Aquila C2 by Voxelab is a 3D printer that is the most affordable model in the Aquila line. This printer is very similar to the Creality Ender 3 in appearance, but offers a newer mainboard and more premium carborundum glass bed at an even lower price than the Ender 3. Benefits of the Voxelab Aquila C2
The hot end module contains two fans: a part cooling fan mounted on the right that blows cool air over the printed module and a heat break cooling fan that is mounted over the hot end. By far, this is my least favorite part of the Aquila X2 due to the distractingly-loud noise generated by these fans. The silent stepper drivers on this printer provide a nearly silent mechanical movement system, but the fans sound like a hair dryer when they are running. Additionally, you can upgrade the hotend in the future if you plan on doing a lot of printing at higher temperatures. This is handy if you don’t want to have to regularly troubleshoot issues with your hotend. Belt tensioners Dated LCD Screen - The printer's LCD screen is a more basic monochrome interface with limited resolution and no support for graphical components. While this does not detract much from using the printer, it can take a bit longer to navigate through the text only menus, and gives the printer a less premium feel. Where to buy the Voxelab Aquila C2 I covered the Octoprint installation in this article, so if you have a Raspberry Pi laying around, there’s no reason not to give Octoprint a chance because it’s an excellent addition in the free Voxelab Aquila upgrades list. You’ll love it! Wrapping up The Aquila C2 supports popular slicing software such as Cura, VoxelMaker, and Simplify3D. You can choose the software that suits your needs and start creating stunning prints with ease. Additionally, it is compatible with various filaments including PLA, ABS, and PETG, giving you the flexibility to explore different materials and achieve the desired results.You’re not going to get anything fancy with this 3D printer. It looks a lot like any other budget option you might find on the market. It’s not going to blow you away, but it will get the job done. There is no front drawer on the device and the unit’s screen is set to landscape mode. Printing volume
If you choose one of the bi-metal hotends, you will also be able to replace the hotend fan with a more silent variant.
The good news is that it works very well with PLA, but if you start printing at more than 240 degrees Celsius for long periods of time, you’ll start to notice degradation in the tube and a foul stench in the air. Manual bed levelling - This printer requires you to to adjust the bed level manually using nuts on each corner of the print bed. Once you have calibrated the bed leveling, you may need to adjust the levelling knobs periodically to ensure good first layer adhesion to the print bed. If you are in two minds about whether to buy one of these Vs a Creality machine, don't give it a second thought. At the Feb 2022 prices available in the UK there is no contest, you would be mad to buy Creality. The Voxelab Aquila has a generic single-geared extruder which does a decent job, and with a better hotend, it might perform even better. Mostly, because a better hotend won’t require a high retraction value and will allow easier filament feeding to the nozzle.
Experience the world of 3D printing with the Voxelab Aquila C2 FDM 3D Printer. This versatile printer combines high-quality performance with user-friendly features, making it the perfect choice for beginners and enthusiasts alike. If I needed two printers I'd buy another. And yes 'TOM' it does know what it's about. It is a budget version of a good solid enthusiast's machine at a startlingly good price. With no significant technical compromises to hit the price point!
This Creality Ender 3 clone is really loud, without much to shout about.
Make sure you read the documentation carefully before flashing a custom firmware, to ensure that you understood all the steps needed, and you have the correct files at hand. It’s also important to format the SD cards as recommended in the flashing guide, for a successful firmware upgrade. Vertical LCD mount Some people hate bowden setups and choose to convert their printers to a direct-drive setup, mostly for better filament control and less retraction. It also improves the print quality for flexible filaments like TPU, so it might be an interesting Voxelab Aquila upgrade, especially considering that it can be done with no cost except for a few grams of filament. If you decide to convert your Aquila to direct drive, make sure you print this mount first then start working. Tool holder There’s a huge list of added features, like Manual Mesh Bed Leveling, the possibility of adjusting the screen brightness, tuned PID settings and custom menu colors.
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