I hadn’t been so excited to get my palms on a brand new gadget in years, however did the eufyMake UV Printer E1 stay as much as my hopes or go away me upset? Learn on to study all about this distinctive machine and my emotions about it.
What is that this? What’s UV printing?
I’ll admit that these had been the primary questions I had when eufyMake reached out and requested if I wished to assessment their new UV printer. I contemplate myself to be extraordinarily well-versed in every little thing associated to maker know-how, however UV printing is a singular course of that one usually solely sees in skilled print retailers. This machine, being designed for prosumers and hobbyists, is one thing solely new.
One of the best ways to grasp UV printing, in my view, is to consider it like a cross between 2D inkjet printer and 3D resin printing. The eufyMake UV Printer E1 can print in full coloration instantly onto any kinda onerous object with a largely flat floor, and it may well try this whereas add texture and 3D reduction.
That’s potential as a result of the jets are spitting out particular ink that cures when uncovered to UV gentle, just like the resin in an MSLA 3D printer. And, like a 3D printer, it may well construct up these layers to create 3D results.
It doesn’t change 3D printing or something like that, because the variation between the bottom and highest factors must be lower than 5mm. However that’s in full coloration and there are a lot of inventive potentialities for this know-how.
What are you able to print on? DTO? DTF?
No, I’m not hitting on you. DTF means “direct-to-film” and DTO imply “direct-to-object.”
DTF is whenever you print onto movie, such as you would possibly do for a sticker or a vinyl wrap. DTO is whenever you print onto an object with none type of middleman step. Historically, DTO has been utilized by skilled print retailers to place logos on espresso mugs and art work onto canvas or metallic panels.
You may completely do stuff like that with the eufyMake UV Printer E1 (that’s a serious promoting level, in spite of everything), however I feel there may be a lot extra potential for folks with the creativity and talent to suppose exterior the field.
The chances are just about infinite, as a result of you may print on something strong that’s at the very least pretty flat. The specs say that it needs to be flat to inside about 2mm, which is numerous wiggle room.
As you’ll see within the testing part of this assessment, I attempted printing on plenty of various things and it at all times labored.
There may be additionally a rotary attachment, so you may print on cylindrical issues like water bottles.
Is that this like these handheld inkjet printers?
A number of years in the past, I bought a tool from TheGodThings (bizarre selection for a model identify) known as the PrinCube. It was, primarily, an inkjet print head in handheld type. The thought was that you can print in full-color onto something. I received it as a result of I wished so as to add logos and labels to 3D-printed issues I made.
This factor was such a disappointment
I consider there have been comparable gadgets offered by a number of different corporations. However the level is that it sounds type of just like the eufyMake UV Printer E1, proper?
I used to be frightened about that, as a result of the PrinCube sucked. It was a really terrible product. The promoting was a lie and there have been few issues you can print onto efficiently. On most supplies, the ink would simply smear. My PrinCube has been sitting in a field for half a decade, as a result of I couldn’t deliver myself to promote it to and put that frustration on anybody else.
Fortuitously, the eufyMake UV Printer E1 is by no means like that, which needs to be a reduction to those that had been questioning. Whereas they each spray out ink with a print head, that’s just about the one similarity. The eufyMake UV Printer E1 cures the sprayed ink instantly, so it doesn’t smear. It’s by no means “moist,” so to talk, as a result of the machine performs a curing go proper after a spraying go.
It will probably put logos on 3D-printed plastic elements!
Who’s eufyMake?
That identify would possibly sound a bit acquainted to you. “eufyMake” is a rebranding of AnkerMake, which made the M5 and M5C 3D printers. So far as I can inform, these printers have been discontinued.
AnkerMake was an Anker model, which you in all probability know for his or her chargers and batteries. eufy is one other Anker model with a concentrate on know-how for the house. I’ve certainly one of their robotic vacuums, as an example.
I really reviewed the AnkerMake M5C 3D printer and wasn’t in any respect impressed with it — one thing I used to be vocal about and that plenty of followers discovered upsetting. My opinion was that the M5C was mediocre for the worth and that AnkerMake dramatically overpromised on the capabilities of the AI digicam.
However I made a decision to depart that previously and to method the assessment of the eufyMake UV Printer E1 with an open thoughts.
What’s the competitors like?
This machine is a giant deal as a result of there isn’t any competitors. That is the primary product of its type to hit the market.
The overwhelming majority of UV printers are massive, skilled machines supposed for print retailers or manufacturing in giant portions. A cursory search exhibits that they have an inclination to value at the very least $20,000.
The whole lot else I can discover that may be extra accessible to hobbyists and prosumers is questionable. Some Vevor machines come up in searches, however I don’t see these on the precise Vevor web site. Different machines can solely print on movie. And all of them are the type of generic, brandless (or white label) designs that savvy buyers are likely to keep away from.
Extra importantly, all of them lack the user-friendly options of the eufyMake UV Printer E1. Although I do suppose these options is usually a double-edged sword, so let’s speak about them.
Options
DTO and DTF UV printing know-how shouldn’t be, by itself, significantly groundbreaking. A lot of the innovation with the eufyMake UV Printer E1 is in making that know-how reasonably priced and user-friendly for the buyer market, whereas becoming all of that functionality into a comparatively small bundle that may reside on a desktop.
With the aspect panels folded up, the eufyMake UV Printer E1 is roughly the identical dimension as a carry-on suitcase. Once you fold the aspect panels down, it clearly takes up extra room. The Normal Flatbed is 330×420mm and the Mini Flatbed is 330×90mm. The latter is an efficient choice if you wish to take the machine to someplace like a craft honest, because the Mini Flatbed matches solely within the machine.
That is with the usual flatbed.
The digicam is, arguably, a very powerful function for making this printer user-friendly. It enables you to see the mattress and any objects, so you may place your designs precisely the place you need them to go. With out the digicam, positioning designs can be actually tough.
That digicam works with the smartphone app and desktop software program. You should utilize these to get discover designs created by others (search for those I made!), put together your individual designs, arrange print jobs, and so forth.
The software program makes very heavy use of AI, which I feel might be considerably controversial. There are AI options to create art work, which is a complete can of worms with ambiguous copyright possession. However there are additionally AI options that can assist you generate the peak maps for including 3D textures to prints. One, for instance, creates synthetic brush strokes to make the print appear like an actual portray. One other helps with the creation of “gentle portray” prints backlit to glow in a satisfying method.
Ink cartridges and costs
Let’s speak ink. This makes use of a CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key [black]) coloration system, plus white and gloss. The white is normally to offer a base on darkish surfaces and to construct up 3D reliefs. The gloss is to present the prints a pleasant end.
All of these inks are available in 100ml cartridges. There may be additionally a further cartridge particularly for cleansing the jets.
In my view, these cartridges are prone to be the most important grievance with the eufyMake UV Printer E1. They need to be simpler to deal with than conventional UV ink bottles and can cut back upkeep, however they’re costly.
eufyMake says that an ink package will value $299 and that may embody all the CMYK colours, white, gloss, and the cleansing cartridge. Ignoring the cleansing cartridge, that works out to about $0.50 per milliliter. Bottles of UV ink for skilled printers, then again, work out to round $0.08 per milliliter. Due to this fact, eufyMake ink cartridges are about six occasions costlier (although that does embody the cleansing cartridge).
This is identical mannequin we noticed (and proceed to see) within the client inkjet printing market and other people hate it. I’ll allow you to determine how a lot that issues to you.
However hey, that is Hackster and perhaps certainly one of our members will provide you with a method to refill the cartridges.
First impressions
I used to be very excited when the bundle confirmed up at my door and I began unboxing instantly. The whole lot was packed very effectively and the packaging appears to be like good — barely extra “premium” feeling than is typical.
Unpacking and arrange had been straightforward sufficient, with out something tough or sophisticated. You simply set up the cartridges and flatbed, let the machine calibrate itself, hyperlink it within the app, after which begin printing. The automated calibration and priming process is pretty sluggish, however I used to be in all probability printing inside an hour.
The eufyMake UV Printer E1 feels well-made, with high quality supplies. It’s sturdy and although there may be plenty of plastic, it doesn’t really feel low-cost in any respect. Nevertheless, I don’t love the shiny black plastic, as a result of it attracts mud and fingerprints like loopy. Inside 24 hours, the highest cowl (across the ink cartridges) appeared downright soiled. That isn’t significantly necessary, after all, however it’s value mentioning.
Getting my first print began was fairly straightforward. The software program is easy sufficient to grasp and commonplace flat prints are easy. Simply seize a snapshot of the flatbed, select or add a design picture, place it, choose the print settings (you normally need White>CMYK), then begin!
These flat prints are fairly quick, too. Not as quick as an inkjet printer, however most small gadgets normally solely take a couple of minutes. It’s whenever you get into 3D textures and reliefs that print occasions get actually lengthy (usually a number of hours).
Talking of, organising these textured print jobs is lots trickier. There are a number of strategies for doing so and most of them depend on AI. There are numerous AI instruments they usually work in numerous methods, however all of them try and routinely create textures/reliefs and achieve this with various success.
If you happen to’re the kind of one that desires full management over every little thing (I definitely am), you’ll need to place in additional work.
Creating 3D textures
One of the best ways I discovered to manually create textured prints was to make use of vector art work with layers. In eufyMake Studio, you may then set a particular top for every layer.
I did that to print a donut onto a forty five vinyl report — in all probability my favourite piece amongst my checks. I wished the frosting to sit down above the donut, after which sprinkles to sit down above the frosting.
To attain that, I began with an overhead picture of the donut. Then I stretched/warped that picture to make the middle gap large enough to go across the label on the report. Subsequent, I used Inkscape to do an “picture hint” operation and simplify the picture right down to vectors (20 colours). Lastly, in eufyMake Studio, I set a top for every of these vectors.
It turned out nice!
Nevertheless, that’s extra of a 2.5D design than a full 3D design. The perfect method to create true 3D textures can be with one thing like a grayscale top map. Sadly, eufyMake Studio doesn’t presently help that. However my contact advised me that they are going to be updating the software program quickly to permit one thing alongside these strains.
Within the meantime, we’ll have to depend on the AI options or 2.5D vector art work. The AI options are hit-or-miss in my expertise. They do create 3D textures, however whether or not that appears the way you anticipate is as much as probability.
The AI can do very bizarre issues generally, like turning my canine and me into …this
And attempting isn’t free. To make use of these AI options, you want to use credit. These credit value cash and also you’ll should maintain shopping for them to maintain utilizing the AI options.
For that motive, I consider it’s completely vital that eufyMake Studio get an replace for sturdy handbook texturing instruments instantly. They’ll maintain the AI options for those who need them and are okay with paying for them, however the remainder of us will demand an alternate.
Testing
Within the time for the reason that eufyMake UV Printer E1 confirmed up at my door, I’ve been operating as many print jobs as I can. I’ve printed on every kind of issues: canvas, wooden, ceramic magnets, ceramic coasters, PCBs, sticker movie, metallic bottles, plastic, 3D-printed plastic, metallic, cardboard, and paper.
It labored on every little thing and I attempted every kind of designs, too. Lots of them my very own and a few of them from the library within the eufyMake Studio software program.
For instance, I put the Hackster emblem, The Maker’s Toolbox banner, and the Serial Hobbyism (my YouTube channel) emblem on a bunch of stuff.
I additionally printed extra “inventive” items, like this practice Zippo lighter.
And this canvas “portray” of my canine and me, which is a photograph that was made to appear like an oil portray.
I additionally printed this dashing fella onto a telephone case.
I wished to check the UV resistance of prints, so I left this sitting exterior within the intense Phoenix solar for every week. It held up simply effective with none noticeable degradation in that point.
In all of my testing, I solely bumped into a problem as soon as. That was after I was printing on that Zippo and, for some motive, the white ink simply stopped working. I ran it by way of cleansing cycles and even changed the white cartridge with out luck. Ultimately, I power-cycled the printer and advised it to undergo the ink injection course of and that labored — although I am unsure why or what the issue was.
Stickers and DTF printing
DTF printing for, say, making stickers is a particular course of. You print onto paper movie with a layer adhesive, spraying the ink onto the adhesive. You then run that by way of a eufyMake lamination machine, which applies a layer of clear plastic movie onto the highest (so the UV ink is between the adhesive and the clear movie).
After that, you should use scissors or the offered paper cutter thingy to trim off the surplus. Then, whenever you’re prepared to stay the sticker on one thing, you simply peel off the white paper backing.
Right here you may see the place I tried to place a sticker with my Serial Hobbyism emblem onto my automotive. I did a poor job with the appliance, however you get the concept. It’s a bit like vinyl and also you need to keep away from bubbles.
I feel this sticker performance is a neat bonus, but it surely isn’t the primary enchantment of the eufyMake UV Printer E1 for me. You may make good vinyl stickers with a $300 Cricut machine and even full-color stickers with any previous inkjet printer. However the UV printing provides you full-color and, in principle at the very least, higher long-term resistance to fading.
There are different makes use of circumstances for DTF printing, similar to making banners. eufyMake will even have an adjunct for printing actually lengthy sheets of movie. However I didn’t get that accent and so I wasn’t in a position to take a look at it.
Rotary printing
The opposite notable accent is the rotary printing attachment, which helps you to print onto cylindrical issues, similar to water bottles and mugs. It’s well-made and work simply effective with official eufyMake “clean” gadgets.
Sadly, it’s fairly restricted on what sizes and shapes it may well accommodate. The design of the drive wheels and rollers prevents you from inserting something that isn’t the best form: a cylinder open on one aspect, with a large “mouth” and at the very least largely straight sides.
I grabbed a handful of bottles and different cylindrical gadgets from the thrift retailer to check, however discovered that none of them match on the rotary printing attachment. Although, to be honest, I’m positive I might discover lots now that I do know what to search for.
I am additionally going to look into designing a modification that will permit for extra shapes, so observe me if you happen to’re excited by that.
All of that mentioned, the rotary printing attachment didn’t have any issues with the gadgets offered by eufyMake.
I do have one closing gripe, although: the digicam doesn’t work with the rotary printing attachment. So, it’s important to be very cautious with positioning. You may see right here how I messed that up after I printed The Maker’s Toolbox banner onto this bottle.
Issues I like
General, I feel the eufyMake UV Printer E1 is absolutely superior and I plan to get lots of use out of it. There may be simply a lot potential for creativity and I have already got an extended record of issues I need to make with it. I’m even contemplating organising a sales space at a craft honest to promote some stuff.
I really like you could print on something, in full-color. It’s like what I wished from the PrinCube, and it really works.
And the 3D texture capabilities signify a heaping pile of icing on high. It will probably make printed art work appear like it was really painted, as with that image of my canine and me. And it may well add a brand new inventive dimension to a bit, as with the donut I printed onto the report.
The digicam is superior and, after calibration, is fairly darn correct. I printed some emojis onto pennies and you’ll see that the positioning may be very exact — in all probability inside 0.5mm.
I like that the machine itself is enticing and compact sufficient to tuck away, and even to deliver to the aforementioned craft honest.
And, regardless of the prices, I even just like the cartridges. They’re fast and simple to swap with none type of mess. Although I am positive I will be complaining as quickly as I’ve to purchase some extra.
Issues I’ve
My greatest issues are associated to eufyMake’s potential enterprise choices.
The costly ink cartridges are one instance. The AI options are one other. The UV Printer E1 is superior, however enterprise would possibly get in the way in which.
What if, for instance, eufyMake goes below? Will we nonetheless be capable of use our machines? In spite of everything, every little thing has to undergo the app or desktop software program. There may be any method to load a up a file on the machine instantly.
And what if companies for the AI options go down? Will we not be capable of create 3D textures anymore?
These issues are speculative, after all, however they aren’t farfetched. We’ve seen that occur time and time once more when tech corporations fold, leaving homeowners with bricked gadgets. That’s dangerous sufficient for a $300 Zune, however it could actually damage for a $1,500 machine — particularly if you happen to’re counting on it on your earnings.
Ultimate ideas
I’m simply going to say it: I really like the eufyMake UV Printer E1. It’s so cool and is definitely my favourite factor that I’ve ever reviewed. I’ve had a ton of enjoyable enjoying with it to this point and I plan to maintain experimenting with new concepts.
This can make critical waves within the maker neighborhood and I feel will probably be a giant success. Even when I find yourself being flawed about this explicit machine, I feel it’ll kick off plenty of new growth within the space of client DTO UV printing. The tech merely has an excessive amount of potential to disregard.
The UV Printer E1’s print high quality is unbelievable and it may well print onto absolutely anything. And people prints are sturdy and resistant.
I’m involved about ink cartridge pricing, in addition to points which may come up from enterprise choices made by eufyMake. However I’m hoping that gained’t be an issue or that eufyMake will present an answer if it does.
If you’d like a eufyMake UV Printer E1, it’ll launch on Kickstarter on April twenty ninth. A “commonplace bundle,” which is able to embody the printer itself and a cartridge bundle, will value $1,899. Tremendous Early Birds on Kickstarter will be capable of snag a bundle for $1,699.
However till April twenty eighth, you may put down a pre-order deposit of $50 on eufymake.com to safe an ordinary bundle discounted to $1,499.
