Cheap Yudu Personal Screen Printer

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List Price: $299.99
Sale Price: $250.00
Today's Bonus: 17% Off

After spending most of my three years of grad school in the screenprinting facilities, I was anxious to create some sort of setup for myself at home once I'd graduated. As a couple of other reviews point out, the YuDu is indeed different from traditional screenprinting the tools are different but the process is essentially the same with the major difference being the application of the photo-sensitive emulsion. And this is where the YuDu will make or break you. While in the end I'd give the YuDu a rating between 3 and 4 stars, mostly for potential, these have been the challenging areas for me along the steep learning curve:

EMULSION:

Applying the emulsion in sheet form (rather than as a liquid with what's called a scoop-coater, as you would in traditional screenprinting) has been the most challenging part of the learning curve for me (and most others, it seems). But like any tool, it takes time and back-up supplies to learn it so do yourself a favor and have at least 2 sheets of emulsion on hand, a lot of patience, and a first project that is not on a tight deadline. The trick is having the screen wet enough but not too wet (since you're essentially doing something in solid form that's ideally applied as a liquid) and this will take practice.

BUY A 220 MESH SCREEN:

Once you get the hang of emulsion application, you may want to add a 220 mesh screen to your supply inventory since the 110 mesh screen that comes with the machine won't be fine enough to handle most text-based projects or designs with lots of detail. I got the YuDu primarily for client-based work, primarily text-based, and my own art projects, which are more graphic design based with some text. I'm not terribly interested in printing t-shirts, which is what the YuDu is primarily marketed for, so having at least one 220 mesh screen is essential.

GET YOURSELF A REAL SQUEEGEE:

I'm not fond of the tone taken in a few reviews here, most of which are hardly reviews of the product (I doubt those reviewers even have a YuDu) but rather snobby declarations of their preference for "traditional" screenprinting. I will be a snob on one point though and that's the "squeegee" that comes with the machine. Maybe this piece of plastic works well printing on t-shirts but I found it to be really inconsistent with pulling the ink through and getting a consistently printed surface on the paper below. You can find a variety of screenprinting squeegees at your local art store (or try I got the "graphics" squeegee but a standard squeegee should work just fine and there are squeegees especially made for textile printing). This is one of several details the folks at Provo Craft need to work on to make a good machine with potential really great.

INKS:

Once I finally mastered the art of applying emulsion to the screen and successfully burned my design, I found the YuDu brand inks to be too thick to pass through the finer mesh of my 220 screen. Like my squeegee rant above, this may not be an issue with the 110 screens and printing on textiles, but I found it to be a real problem, only passing through the larger parts of my design despite being able to tell that my image had burned perfectly and the emulsion had rinsed out no problem. So I experimented with a different brand of ink (Versatex which I got at my local Blick art supply store) and sure enough my design printed just fine (having a new squeegee at this point also helped). I had my heart set on a particular YuDu color, however, so I tried adding some extender (again, available with the screenprinting inks or online) and, although this did dilute the color ever so slightly, worked like a charm. I mixed enough ink (about 3-4 parts YuDu ink to 1 part extender but it may vary for you) for my entire print run and stored it in a little plastic container you can get at just about any art or craft supply store (or even a tupperware devoted to your Yudu would work).

If you want to read more, you can check out my even longer, more rambling blog post on the topic:

I hope Provo Craft is reading all of these reviews, and the countless blog posts and video tutorials and taking all of these complaints into consideration. The machine itself is great it's nice to have something that will fit on my table that's an exposure unit, light table, and printing apparatus all in one. But the accessories could use some work emulsion sheets are tricky and costly and the squeegee is worthless. I can understand why they don't want to include all these little bits of information in the instructional DVD and pamphlet (they'd turn off a lot of potential customers if they advertised just how tricky this thing is) but a little more information up front would be useful. On the other hand, keep in mind that screenprinting is an art form that some folks spend years perfecting. Like any tool, it's going to take some time and practice to get it right, but I think this thing has a lot of potential, especially for folks like me who don't have the time or resources to create a screenprinting setup from scratch in my nonexistent garage.

Good luck and happy printing!

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I have been wanting a thermofax machine for a long time now and when the YUDU came out I thought it would work similar to the thermofax for far less money. I have never screenprinted a thing in my life and have been researching how to do it and what to buy for a while now.

Here are the things I like and dislike about the machine:

PROS:

I like the exposure unit since this seems to be the issue with traditional screenprinting.

I like not having to deal with chemicals the exposure sheets are easy to use.

After botching the first screen, the second was a breeze the screen came out great and made a bunch of pulls experimenting with inks and paints. All of the images came out great!

CONS:

* I think it's really pricey for what it is, but I used a circular flyer coupon and saved a lot on my unit.

* The first go-round I didn't have the screen wet enough and consequently my result was a wasted emulsion. I blame this on...

* The DVD it comes with is just TERRIBLE. It's really annoying, not serious and did not help at all. I could not get past the fact that they were in a garage in one part with FLIES flying around them!

* It does not come with the emulsion remover so make sure and buy it or if you ruin your first try you can't wash it off to try again. There is nothing worse than having to wait when you want to play!

* The unit is HUGE it has a 17" X 26-1/2" footprint.

They recommend that you use their inks but I used my fabric paints I had on hand and they worked just fine.

Overall it was pretty easy to use (after I ruined the first one to figure it out) even for a novice like me! I wish they would redo their DVD and show up close how things are supposed to look assume no one has ever screen printed before. I would say that I am happy I have a fairly mess free way to screenprint that is easy and quick! It's definitely more affordable than a thermofax setup. I will also layout more images on my transparency to burn onto my screen rather than waste all that emulsion space.

I am going to experiment with using the machine as an exposure unit for my own screens I will have to follow up with how well that works. I want the freedom to make smaller screens and save them for future use and I think it can be done with this machine (without having to use the YUDU screens). We'll see!

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After playing with it for the weekend I wound up returning it. I think it's great if you want to do LARGE area graphics without fine details. I tried to burn some screens with finer details to no avail. It jut couldn't pick them up. So, I think it depends on what you want to use it for, and since they are leaning toward t-shirts with big chunky graphics it's fine. Skip it if you want to use it for fine printing, like small text or detail.

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While the machine is convenient to use, you need to be aware of some of the issues.

I followed the tutorial online step by step. I wasted both emulsion sheets in the process. Being a beginner, the tutorial shows a woman using a spray bottle generously to get the emulsion sheet attached to the screen. She then lets the emulsion dry in 20 minutes. I tried this, and the emulsion was still wet, so I gave it another 20 minutes. After coming back, it was still a little wet, but I was unsure if it became "too dry" whether or not the plastic would become cemented to emulsion. The instructions included are vague, and make this process seem a quick step by step without giving any word of potential issues.

This happened to both emulsions, before I realized on the second emulsion that it took way longer than 20 minutes to dry this. Once again, I followed both the instructions and the book, and they both made it seem that one 20 minute cycle (hitting the fan and walking away) was how to handle the emulsion.

My issue at this point is that I live on Long Island, with 2 JoAnn's, and 3 Michaels and 2 AC Moore's all within 25 miles of me. I have driven to each and every story every other day for the last week, and none of them sell emulsion sheets. I tried contacting Yudu, and after explaining my problems, they told me the only place these emulsions were available were at JoAnn's and HSN.

Anyway, if you consider using this product, just be aware of the potential problems that come along with it. If you mess this up, Yudu won't help you, and if there is no emulsion available in stores, you are SOL. I wish I could give you an idea of what the shirt came out like, except I couldn't get past the drying process.

Honest reviews on Yudu Personal Screen Printer

I am so disappointed. I wanted to LOVE this unit ... but have had so much trouble burning the screens. Particularly, getting the silk frame properly wet so that the emulsion sheet will adhere evenly. It never seems to work out right ... no matter how many methods I use ... no matter how many times I watch the dvd demo video (terrible video by the way) or the online video ... and no matter how long I give the screen to dry. I feel slightly crazy over this ... yet I know that I am not craft-challenged. So I can only figure that the machine is not as easy to use as it suggests. Perhaps they should sell screens that already have the emulsion set onto them? Or perhaps I will learn to silk screen the "hard way" (seems easier to me!).

I do not recommend this unit until they work out some bugs ... and make it easy for the at home crafter.

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My wife and I bought the Yudu a few days ago to do some T-shirts for our community theatre because we did not have time to get them done commercially. We had been considering the machine for quite a while and this was the need that pushed us into investing the money.

If you decide to buy one, do yourself a favor and buy extra supplies at the same time. Our biggest challenge up front was getting the emulsion sheet properly attached to the screen. Since only 2 sheets come with the kit, we ended up having to head back to Michael's for more. (Fortunately, it is only about 5 miles away.)

We found the drying function of the machine to be relatively worthless, taking far too long to adequately dry the screen and emulsion sheet. However, a blow dryer works great! Just make sure you have the sheet sufficiently wet first. We use a small mister bottle of water, inspect the sheet to make sure everything is wet properly, then blow dry it -which takes only a few minutes. Then the exposure setting on the Yudu does fine.

We have been able to get 2-3 shirts done each time, then rinse out the screen, re-dry it, and start again. This process has yielded very good results so far.

Our biggest complaint with the product kit is that the instructions are horrible, leaving out some fairly important information on wetting and drying. Consequently, trial-and-error plays a big role in learning to use the equipment. The YouTube 7-step video is much more helpful than the included DVD, which was obviously created by Bubba for his own self-edification.