I just purchased the Eufy Make E1 UV printer which is on sale now on Kickstarter with a shipping date of July (at lease that is what they say).
I have been wanting a UV printer for a few years now thinking it would be a great addition for my laser business. Being able to apply full color images to the items I laser cut allows a lot of new product ideas. But until now most UV printers were expensive and difficult to maintain/ The Eufy E1 is under $2K with the rotary option included. And according to the huge number of online reviews of pre-sale units the printer does a very good job of self cleaning the print head and keeping itself clog free even if it sits idle for long periods of time. It looks like most (if not all) of the review are from popular YouTube makers that got a free printer in exchange for the review so keep that in mind when evaluating.
But if it works as advertised then this looks like a perfect device to pair with a laser cutter.
Curious to see if anyone here has bought one or has a different opinion of it.
Not sure how good the included design software from Eufy is so I immediately started thinking that it would be great if LightBurn could integrate into their software. Unfortunately it appears at first glance that Eufy may have the printer locked to their software but I am not sure about that.
If it could be made to integrate with 3rd party software I can see a really design flow where I create the geometry (SVG) on Lightburn as usual and then have the ability to paint color onto the design in different layers. The UV printer has the ability to build up the UV ink to heights up to 5mm so in LB having the ability to specify the height of each color layer would be perfect. The Eufy does have an alignment camera so getting the correct alignment on the print bed should not be very difficult.
I think that is close to impossible. Printing is a fundamental difference to lasering or CNC. And using layer colors for images would provide you with 20 colors or so, this is by far not enough for great designs. You could still create your SVGs in LB export them to another tool and do the coloring there.
Chances are very close to zero that any effort in that sense will be made. And if they have a closed ecosystem, chances are even below zero
The more I viewed the site, the lass interested I became. Some images appear to be staged to show what it could be. I get the feeling the site is a lot of over-sell.
I was very skeptical just due to the fact that they were offering it on Kickstarter. I have backed 4 projects on Kickstarter and only two of them actually shipped. One of the failures did refund my deposit but the other failure just disappeared with everyone’s money. So I generally don’t deal with Kickstarter anymore.
I decided to purchase this even though its on Kickstarter for three reasons:
The hardware/software they are providing for review is a fully completed system in final packaging ready for customer shipping. Many times you see a very sketchy prototype on the Kickstarter page that would never be provided to anyone for review. But Eufy appears to have already manufactured complete ready to use systems that they are not afraid to provide to the maker community for review.
Eufy is a real company with real products that they currently ship (search Amazon for Eufy). They have a complete line of home security cameras, robot vacuums and home security systems. So they have a good history of managing a supply chain, shipping logistics and customer service.
The discount offered on the Kickstarter is substantial (32% off what they claim will be the retail price). And the promised shipping date is relatively soon (July 2025). Most Kickstarter campaigns have shipping dates two or three years out.
I could certainly be wrong about this, but I would suggest anyone interested search for a few videos on YouTube for the EufyMake E1 and decide for yourself. There are a lot of reviews from some very respected makers that have a long history of honest reviews. I don’t think all of them could be so mistaken about the product
All that being said, I appreciate hearing other views about this.
Sorry I misled you. I was not questioning the success/completion of the project. I just feel the harder someone tries to sell me something, the less I think it will be worth the money. So I will wait to see how it plays out in the market, and maybe wait for V2.0 instead.
We’re aware of the rapid cottage-industrialization of machines like this. As others have noted, there’s little we can do now without direct access to the hardware/firmware. I’m encouraged to see this sort of device trickle down to consumers, and we’re definitely keeping tabs on this sort of thing - but we’re focusing on the bigger fish.
Hi Allan,
I own a dtf & UV printing business in Australia, what part of the world are you in? While I think thos looks great for beginners and at pinch small businesses, i ess resched out to Eufy make to test review one but never recived any reply / feedback, it will be interesting to see how this pans out. In Australia this unit I think is early to mid north of 2K.
I am in Atlanta, Hopefully I will expand my laser business with the UV printing to the point where it makes sense to purchase a commercial scale UV printer. The price point of the Eufy makes it a reasonable purchase to see what I can do with it.
For anyone interested in how complex products are manufactured here is a really detailed video showing most of the manufacturing and assembly steps for the Eufy E1 UV printer.
Watching this entire process makes me wonder how they can sell it for the $2,000 price.
Companies rarely make money on their hardware. It is the consumables where they make their money. The resin for these printers is pricey but a few of the reviews have shown that it does not take a lot of resin to produce a sellable product.
I actually just cancelled my pledge, I have a feeling that printer is going to be a nightmare. We know UV printers are expensive some starting at 20k, your not going to be able to get the samething for 3k. There is a reason no other printer manufacturer has attempted this…because the demand is there. They realize that just because we can doesn’t mean we should.
I want a rip software that I can import sku numbers into and it will then nest the designs needed for both printing and then cutting the acrylic silhouette.
