having said all that, the thing has died.  It seems the extruder will no longer heat up.  I have dealt with both XYZprinting's customer service, and their online store in the past, and find them both to be horrifyingly bad.  I would like to know if there is any other way to get a replacement extruder.

I use a combination of blue tape with Aquanet to hold parts down, works just fine.

My offset is .60 with this combination.

For the price, the machine has done some remarkable work.   If they ever open it up to use non-branded PLA it'll be a wonder-for-under $300.    Until then I can't recommend it because the material-lock scheme is batshit insane.

1. Adjusting Z axis nozzle height to 0.2mm (didn't work at the recommended 0.3mm) but make sure the gap is enough to slide 2 to 3 sheets easily between bed and nozzle having first pulled forward the bed and positioned printer head over it.

2. Still not sticking onto supplied printer's tape so have bought from Smiths some easy peel two-sided tape (made by Sellotape in a red packet, cost £4 something). I have used this to make a cross shape on top of the painter's tape. The cross does not go right into the corners rather just offset a bit from them. You need to press the tape firmly onto the printer's tape with your nail then gently ease off the backing paper to leave a thin transparent film of stickiness.

3. Proceed with the print if all is well and after removing the finished article you can simple roll off the sellotape with a finger leaving no damage or trace of the two sided tape on the painter's tape.

QED

scobo wrote:

gkuzyk wrote:

You need to look at Lulzbot Mini 3D printer, self leveing bed heated no need for glue or tape on the bed. have been using it for 4 months flawless prints.

Except it's just a little bit more expensive.

Isn't  lulzbot over a grand? Thats like three times the junior. Hardly an option if a budget was the reason you buy the junior in the first place.

Exactly !
In fact it's nearer 2 and a half grand.
You can hardly compare the two.

gkuzyk wrote:

You need to look at Lulzbot Mini 3D printer, self leveing bed heated no need for glue or tape on the bed. have been using it for 4 months flawless prints.

Except it's just a little bit more expensive.

Isn't  lulzbot over a grand? Thats like three times the junior. Hardly an option if a budget was the reason you buy the junior in the first place.

Actually its 1200 to 1500. So I stand corrected.

You need to look at Lulzbot Mini 3D printer, self leveing bed heated no need for glue or tape on the bed. have been using it for 4 months flawless prints.

Except it's just a little bit more expensive.

No HW problems so far on my side.
The SW is a big crap.

XYZware so far couldn't slice anything I threw at it.
I'll try switching to Slic3r - following suggestions from hacks online it looks as it should work;
just haven't had time to try so may run into further surprises.

Based on my experience so far I wouldn't suggest replacing yours to another DaVinci Jr.

p.s.
I wanna know who writes those bullshit reviews... Have they printed anything?

Bought the Da Vinci Jr and got it yesterday in the mail from Best Buy.  I really wish I had read this forum before buying it (all the official reviews online were extremely positive...).   I am using the latest firmware and software.  I have not gotten a single print to go longer than 10 seconds without 1) the nozzle making PLA spaghetti or 2) the PLA print coming disconnected from the bed and getting dragged around.   

The manual says that the Jr was carefully calibrated at the factory, so I made note that it shipped with a Z-Offset of 1.45 before making any adjustments.  I've now tried Z-Offsets of 1.45, 1.55, 1.65, 1.75, 1.85, 1.95, 2.35, etc (printing with and without a raft).  I do get the loud banging noise and filament spool shake that others are getting when I print, although I think that subsided when I jacked up the Z-Offset to something ridiculous like 2.5mm.  Nothing works and it appears that the Jr doesn't have much more to tweak beyond changing the Z-Offset.  The bed itself seems fairly level and I haven't seen the nozzle impact the masking tape.

I have cleaned the nozzle several times with the thin wire pick that the Jr ships with and when doing a "Load Filament" operation, I can get filament to stream out of the nozzle. I've been using the square masking tape-like stuff that the Jr shipped with on top of the glass bed.  I also just tried putting blue 3M painter's tape on the print bed instead -- same result.

Unless there is something else I can try, the Jr is getting dropped off at Best Buy (I think I have 15 days to return it) and i'll either try another Jr or just splurge for a Robo3D or Printrbot Metal (which are almost twice the price of the Jr).