Homemade manufacturing has never become more accessible

Shiun Okada / Android AuthorityAdd Android Authority on Google: Starting small goes a long way: 2D UV printing You may think full-color 3D printing is a must-have for HeyGears G1X Series, but the G1X Series also offers a pack for 2D UV and 3D Texture Printing, priced at just $2,799 after the limited-time cashback. The first and easiest way to get started with the G1X printer is printing in 2D on over 400 base materials, like plastic, metal, wood, glass, ceramic, leather, acrylic, and more. Have a tile you want with your design on? It’s really easy to do with HeyGears’ slicer, Blueprint Studio: Place your material in the center of the print bed, start a new Project, select your printer, start the Positioning sequence, and the Blueprint Studio software will automatically calibrate and find the edges of your materials on the print bed so you can import your image or design and rescale to your heart’s desire–then hit Print.Shiun Okada / Android AuthorityMake a canvas, add your logo, custom designs, characters, or whatever you want to a huge list of supported materials!Shiun Okada / Android AuthorityThe possibilities feel almost endless, but you’re not limited to just 2D surfaces. HeyGears also has a Rotary attachment that allows you to print onto cylindrical materials like water bottles, glass vases, or metal rods. Support for the rotary module will be available upon launch.Even better, this 2D UV printing capability isn’t just versatile. It’s remarkably fast and precise. The G1X delivers up to 12x print speeds compared to traditional F1080 UV printers, letting you complete projects in a fraction of the time. Plus, backed by G7 highest-level color certification and with HeyGears’ self-developed wide-gamut inks, including light cyan (Lc) and light magenta (Lm) inks, your prints deliver higher color accuracy and a professional-grade finish every time.Once you’ve mastered 2D UV printing, breathe more life with 3D-texture modeShiun Okada / Android AuthorityIf you want your products or materials to have a tactile surface or texture, you can take it beyond 2D UV printing and give the 3D-texture mode a whirl by adding relief effects up to 150 mm, with a recommended height of 5 mm, depending on the materials you’re printing on. Don’t make the mistake I made of accidentally printing a design onto material that was too thin to have the full 5mm of 3D relief texture on, since some materials may curl up and come off the print bed, forcing you to replace the positioning sheet that is expendable.Know the relief height recommendations, and use double-sided sticky tape for better bed adhesion just in case!That is something that I’d like to see in a future firmware upgrade, to see if there’s a way to implement print-failure detection to catch a lifting substrate and stop the job before it keeps printing onto a build plate and ruins it. I found this out the hard way. The silver lining is that the build plate itself uses the replaceable positioning sheet as I mentioned before, and the kit ships with several spares, so a failed print costs you a sheet and some time, but not the whole machine.First time using a full-color 3D printer? HeyGears surprisingly makes it pretty straightforwardShiun Okada / Android AuthorityI’ve always intrinsically been a creator. From making wireframe dinosaurs and models to pottery goods as a kid, and more recently, 3D modelling and printing. That being said, I always wanted to make my own custom products with designs and photos, but make them in a way that you wouldn’t think of it as ‘homemade’.The problem was that I’ve never done anything like UV printing, which was something I’ve been frankly scared to do. The added barrier to entry was the high premium with machines that can do even just one of these. Most other industrial full-color 3D printers can cost anywhere between $50k and upwards of $200k+, whereas the HeyGears G1X Full-3D Pack goes for an MSRP of $5,499 and a Kickstarter price of $3,599 for the same package. To make the price even better, HeyGears is now offering a $500+ cashback, meaning you can take home this printer for just $3,099. That’s where the HeyGears G1X UV and full-color 3D printing machine comes in, which is a fraction of the cost of the industrial competition. It helps that HeyGears isn’t new to this, and the company’s been building photopolymer 3D printing hardware for industrial and professional customers since 2015. The G1X is clearly benefiting from a decade of lessons learned on machines that cost a lot more than this one.There’s lots to unpack with the HeyGears G1X, but thankfully once you get a few calibration tests done, you’re off to the races.Upon unboxing and initial setup, and just running a couple of calibration steps to make sure that the UV resin ink is filled and running through the printhead correctly, using HeyGears’ slicer, Blueprint Studio is intuitive and easy to navigate.Getting everything up and going is pretty quick, but while HeyGears claims that the resin is safe and non-toxic, it’s still good practice to operate the printer in a well-ventilated space for the most comfortable printing experience and take proper precautions when using resin. The G1X Series features a built-in air filtration system that captures micro-particles, ink mist, and odors during printing. The filtration system can even be connected to an external exhaust system for additional ventilation and air purification when needed.Ready to take it to the next dimension? Now 3D print in full-color!Shiun Okada / Android AuthorityWith the HeyGears G1X 3D printer, I was, of course, excited to unlock the possibilities of being able to print designs onto different kinds of materials with 2D UV printing as well as 3D textured relief printing, but being able to create full-color 3D prints with higher fidelity and color renditions than what a traditional FDM 3D printer can do was something I looked forward to the most. I’ve been a FDM 3D printing enthusiast for a little while now and have always been scared of the barrier to entry for learning to handle resin, as well as all the post-processing you have to do with resin prints after they come out of the printer, but honestly, with HeyGears G1X, getting set up and getting the first print going wasn’t as bad as I feared.Arguably the biggest selling point of the HeyGears G1X is the ability to print 3D models in full-color up to a maximum build volume of 420 × 330 × 130 mm. HeyGears claims the G1X can reproduce millions of colors, smooth gradients, and the ability to combine transparent and multi-color sections in a single continuous build, all without hand-painting afterward. It can even print water-soluble supports for complex structures and models, which is such a lifesaver compared to traditional FDM printing supports, which are sometimes annoying or nearly impossible to get rid of depending on the model.Instead of a multi-filament switching printhead or filament loader like with FDM printers, the one Epson I3200 industrial-grade printhead in the G1X prints with ease.Shiun Okada / Android AuthorityOne thing to note is that you will have to switch out the 2D UV Printing Module for the 3D Printing Module in the Epson I3200 printhead. HeyGears has a pretty comprehensive tutorial on how to do this, so it’s relatively easy to do, but once you switch to the 3D Printing Module, you also have to use HeyGears’ 3D Ink Refill Station, which will keep the 2D UV ink and the 3D UV ink separate. I encountered some issues with the calibration process, but after reattempting it a few times and clearing any potential blockages or air bubbles in the print head, I was able to achieve good calibration results. From there, you can import your own .fbx, .obj, .stl, .glb, .3mf, and .bpsx files. That being said, if you don’t want to import your own files, you can find a big selection of pre-colored 3D models directly in Blueprint Studio’s HeyVerse Library, as well as create your own textures, models, and images from the HeyVerse Playground.Shiun Okada / Android AuthorityOnce you load up your 3D model, it’s easy to resize and adjust it, generate supports, and then hit print. Depending on the size of your print, it may take a while. Once you have a finished print, you can melt away the support material that prints around the model using water in HeyGears’ Wash Station, leaving a pretty impressively detailed 3D print with full color! The nooks and crannies of an intricately textured and colored 3D model come out pretty well, making it easy for people like myself who don’t know how to fabricate these kinds of models on their own through sculpting, for example, let alone paint. The HeyGears G1X is impressive in its ability to deliver the kind of quality you’d expect from some toy manufacturers, all in a pretty compact and comprehensive package.So should I buy the HeyGears G1X?Shiun Okada / Android AuthorityAfter having tested the G1X, I can confidently say that I absolutely see the appeal of Full-Color 3D/UV printing. Taking almost any surface and printing your own designs onto it is something you can’t do with something like a die-cutting machine, as the adhesion of the UV resin is far superior and durability is unmatched. Add the ability to even have textured 3D relief printing, and it brings the G1X above most other types of machines that DIYers and creators may have used.Bringing full-color 3D printing even makes it, in some ways, superior to regular FDM 3D printing. The gradations of colors you can give your prints are better than what a multi-color 3D print could ever give you.Other systems that do full-color 3D printing and UV printing up until now cost in the tens of thousands of dollars, which made it very inaccessible for a lot of creators and small business owners looking to make their own custom products and trinkets. The HeyGears G1X brings the experience in an overall smaller package than the industrial competition, and at a fraction of the cost.To meet different needs, the HeyGears G1X Series offers different versions. G1X Starter Pack (For 2D UV and 3D Texture Printing): Priced at $2,799 after cashback. It delivers faster printing speeds and higher color accuracy compared with other desktop UV printers. G1X Fabric Printing Pack (For Textile Printing): Priced at $2,849 after cashback. With aqueous inks, you can print onto textiles such as T-shirts, canvas bags via True DTF (Direct-to-Film) and DTG (Direct-to-Garment) printing. G1X Full-3D Pack (For Full-Color 3D Printing): Priced at $3,099 after cashback. Designed for advanced 3D creation, featuring water-soluble support materials and bringing industrial-grade full-color 3D printing capabilities down to an accessible desktop price point. Like what you see? Back it before it ends on Kickstarter If the G1X has you convinced, you don’t have to wait for retail pricing. HeyGears currently has the G1X Series live on Kickstarter. Plus, get $500+ cashback, unlocked $10M & $15M stretch goal rewards, and a 1-year main machine warranty with 180-day coverage for the printhead.