On October 15, TIME added the NestWorks C500 to its Best Inventions of 2026 list. The desktop CNC mill cuts hard metals like titanium, and the magazine puts its retail price at $6,000. Pre-orders haven’t opened yet.
Two other picks on the 300-item list matter to makers: Anker’s eufyMake fabric printer, due in early 2027, and Superfeet’s 3D-printed custom insoles. Of the three, only the insoles can be ordered now, according to the magazine.
Table of Contents
- Why the NestWorks C500 Desktop CNC Made the Best Inventions List
- When You Can Buy the NestWorks C500
- Anker eufyMake’s Fabric Printer Made the List, and xTool Got a Special Mention
- Superfeet ME3D: 3D Printing Made the List Too
- What the 2026 Best Inventions Picks Mean If You Make Things at Home
- What We Still Don’t Know About the C500 and eufyMake Fabric Printer
Why the NestWorks C500 Desktop CNC Made the Best Inventions List
The C500 is a 3-axis CNC milling machine sized for a desk. It carves parts out of solid metal instead of building them up layer by layer like a 3D printer.
The case for it is the price gap. CNC machines that can cut hard metal “normally weigh thousands of pounds and start around $50,000,” the listing says. The C500 is pitched as shaping titanium and stainless steel to within a third of the width of a human hair.
The other pitch is automation. The magazine also credits it with handling the prep that takes people years to master, like selecting tools and lining up each cut. “We reimagined every one of these steps so users are not limited by their machining experience,” says Henry Lin, project lead at NestWorks.
What it doesn’t do: it is a 3-axis machine. If you want undercuts and complex angled parts in one setup, the 5-axis desktop CNCs from the recent Kickstarter wave are a different class of tool.
When You Can Buy the NestWorks C500
Not yet. The C500 is still marked “Coming Soon” on the NestWorks homepage, and the company says pre-orders “will open this October.”
The magazine’s write-up gives it as what the C500 “retails for,” even though it can’t be ordered yet. NestWorks hasn’t posted pre-order pricing or a delivery date on its own site, so treat the magazine’s figure as the number to check against when orders open. If you’d rather not wait, the ToolDance X1 desktop CNC is on Kickstarter now at a $2,999 backer price, with the usual crowdfunding delivery risk.
Anker eufyMake’s Fabric Printer Made the List, and xTool Got a Special Mention
The second maker pick is Anker eufyMake’s Next-Gen Personal Fabric Printer. It’s designed to print custom designs directly onto fabric or iron-on film from one desktop machine.
eufyMake’s sneak-peek page promises both direct-to-garment and direct-to-film printing, vivid colors on dark fabrics, and white-ink management to prevent clogs. Professional direct-to-garment printing has traditionally required industrial equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars, the magazine notes.
“It’s basically democratizing something that was previously locked behind industrial-scale manufacturing,” says Alick Zhang, who leads product development at Anker. The printer is due in the first quarter of 2027, and eufyMake is recruiting beta testers now. It sits next to the company’s eufyMake E1 UV printer, which we covered in our report on Bambu Lab’s upcoming UV printer.
A competing machine you can buy today also got recognized. The xTool Apparel Printer Plus earned a special mention as a second-generation system that automates the whole fabric printing process, including powdering and baking.
Superfeet ME3D: 3D Printing Made the List Too
The third pick uses 3D printing directly. Superfeet scans your feet with a smartphone camera and prints a custom insole layer by layer, with each layer one-twelfth of a millimeter thick.
What the 2026 Best Inventions Picks Mean If You Make Things at Home
Picks are judged on originality, efficacy, ambition and impact, per NestWorks’ announcement. But a spot on the list isn’t a hands-on review, and none of the three entries includes test results.
- You 3D print functional parts and keep hitting the limits of plastic. The C500 is the most interesting pick. Wait for pre-order pricing and the first owner reports on real metal jobs before you commit. A desktop metal 3D printer like the SnowPod is the other route to metal parts at home.
- You sell custom shirts or merch. The eufyMake printer could replace outsourcing or buying ready-made transfers, but it is months away and unpriced. The xTool printer is already on sale, and TIME’s entry links to it on Amazon. If you also sell engraved goods, our list of laser engraving ideas to sell lists real costs and prices for 30 products.
- You saw the Xhorse3D WM-100 on the list. We couldn’t confirm it. The WM-100 isn’t among TIME’s 300 published entries, and it doesn’t appear in the magazine’s October 15 sitemap, which lists all 300 picks plus the special mentions.
What We Still Don’t Know About the C500 and eufyMake Fabric Printer
- C500 pre-order price and delivery date. NestWorks hasn’t published either.
- eufyMake fabric printer price. Not announced.
- Independent test results. Neither machine has public, independent testing on its accuracy or print durability yet.
NestWorks says C500 pre-orders open this month. That is when we’ll find out whether the magazine’s price holds.
