Yesterday, I wrote about the enormous unopened boxes currently sitting in my house containing my new eufyMake E1 UV printer. I also explained why I had not opened them yet. Partly because I was heading to The Print Show at Birmingham NEC today, where I knew I would be able to see the eufyMake E1 demonstrated properly. And partly because while I was still waiting for my order to finish arriving, eufyMake sent me an email offering the same Deluxe Bundle for hundreds of pounds less than I had just paid for it. (Grrrr)
Anyway, this is my report from The Print Show in Birmingham today.
Today’s mission was fairly simple:
- Go to The Print Show.
- Look at the eufyMake E1 properly.
- Look at the other UV printers and printing technologies available.
- Decide whether I still thought I had bought the right machine.
- Do not buy anything else.
I did quite well with four of those.
First stop: eufyMake
I went to the Anker eufyMake stand and explained the slightly unfortunate timing of yesterday’s discount email. The people demonstrating the printer were helpful, but unsurprisingly weren’t in a position to sort out an online order there and then. They suggested that I contact eufyMake customer support directly, which I have now done.
So the boxes are still closed. For now.
However, seeing the eufyMake E1 working in person didn’t make me regret choosing it. I came away still impressed by the machine and excited by what it could potentially add to my LaserSister business.
The E1 is a compact UV printer designed to print in full colour directly onto materials including wood, acrylic, metal, ceramic, stone and glass, and eufyMake also promotes its ability to build up raised, textured prints. That combination of full colour, texture, wide range of materials and relatively small-scale production is exactly why I think these new desktop UV printers are so interesting. Not just for makers, but for authors too.
I think something important is happening with UV printing
UV printing itself is not new. UV printing machines have been commercially available for a couple of decades already. But until recently, UV printing felt like something you outsourced to a specialist company with a machine the size of a whole room and a price tag that immediately excluded most people.
What feels new is the arrival of smaller, more affordable machines aimed at individual makers and small businesses rather than industrial print companies. Now we’re starting to see smaller machines designed for workshops and studios. That changes things. It means smaller-scale makers like me can start experimenting with short runs, personalised products and one-off designs without needing to order hundreds of identical items.
Oh, man, I am really dying to open my eufyMake boxes and get the machine working. It’s such a shame they got me to pay full price and then before the chuffing thing was even delivered they lowered the price!! But hopefully they will understand my frustration and disappointment and will let me have the published discount.
In the meantime my ideas will have to stay in the theoretical realm, rather than being put into practice. But let’s start asking those questions anyway, and getting used to thinking creatively about author merch.
Because once you know what this technology can do, you can start asking much more interesting questions.
How could authors use their existing intellectual property? Could they:
- reuse artwork from their books? (Illustrations, maps, book covers)
- reuse quotes from their works? (coasters, fridge magnets, ornaments)
- incorporate texture into their products? (brushstrokes in paint, faux leather, faux wood, reptile scales)
- create collectable artworks? (sets of prints, coloured metal coins or tokens, limited-edition pieces)
Could something that currently exists only in your imagination become an actual object that someone can hold? That’s the part I find exciting.
The eufyMake machine wasn’t the only UV printer there
One of the useful things about going to a show like this is being able to look at competing machines and technologies in the same place. So I also saw a demo of the xTool UV printer (“Omni Printer”) along with all sorts of commercial printing machinery and services.
Put it this way: although I am still very enthusiastic about the eufyMake E1, I’ve got an alternative lined up if they aren’t prepared to honour their discount offer.
…which reminded me that this is not really about one particular manufacturer. It’s about a whole category of technology becoming increasingly accessible. It’s like laser cutters all over again: When I bought my first one about 15 years ago, they were still relatively unusual. Now they’re everywhere. Even in schools! Owning one is no longer a USP in itself—which is exactly why I went to The Print Show: to see what might be next.
But then I saw a desktop-sized laser that was cutting metal
This was where the day went slightly wrong. (Or extremely right, depending on your perspective.)
I already own three CO₂ laser cutters, and they are excellent for materials such as wood and acrylic. But one of the machines I saw today was capable of marking — and cutting — metals.
This opened up an entirely new category of products I could potentially make, many of which could have interesting applications for author merch..
- Metal tags.
- Badges.
- Jewellery components.
- Small plaques.
- Coins.
- Tokens.
Naturally, though, being a sensible and restrained business owner, I admired it politely, took some photographs, and walked away.
No, obviously I didn’t. I ordered one. Oops. More on that in a later post…
Then there was the 3D printer that made mine look tiny
I also saw a 3D printer operating on a scale considerably larger than my new little Bambu machine.
I already find 3D printing fascinating because it lets you move from a digital idea to an actual physical object. It feels really sci-fi to me. But seeing machines operating at much larger scales was another reminder that the boundaries are already much further out than most of us realise.
I don’t necessarily want to start producing enormous 3D objects (yet), but the point is that once you begin understanding what these technologies can do, your imagination starts changing.
You stop asking:
“What existing merchandise could I try to fit my products onto?”
And start asking:
“What would objects from my story’s world actually look like, if I could create them?”
That is a much more interesting question.
So… am I keeping the eufyMake E1?
Don’t know yet! I’m still waiting to hear from eufyMake customer support about the unfortunate timing of the current discount (to the tune of a few hundred pounds that I missed out on). If they can’t honour the promotional price for my order, I might as well just return the unopened machine and then reorder at the current price. If they can, I will be extremely happy — and, rather dangerously, I already know several accessories and supplies I could spend some of the saving on.
But after seeing an hour’s worth of live demos today, I am still very much hoping that an E1 will be staying in the LaserSister workshop.
What did I learn today?
Mostly that I need better self-control around interesting machinery.
But also this:
There has never been a more interesting time for small creators to make physical things.
- Laser cutters.
- 3D printers.
- Desktop UV printers.
- Sublimation.
- Short-run manufacturing.
- Print on demand.
- Sprayed edges.
Increasingly, tools are becoming available at a size and price that let you move from an idea or an image to a physical object without needing to become an industrial designer first.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to keep exploring what all of this means for authors and their existing intellectual property. That is really the point of this series: not to persuade authors to buy machinery, but to help them understand what makers can now create on their behalf.
Because I suspect that a lot of writers are sitting on ideas that could become beautiful, interesting, useful or collectible physical objects.
They just don’t know yet what is possible.
And after today, I’m pretty sure I don’t know the limits either.