Product Review: Yudu Screen Printing Machine

Posted by Khris in Crafter's Toolbox

In my quest to be a total craft nerd with all the cool toys, I recently purchased a Yudu screen printing machine recently introduced to the market by the fine folks at Provo Craft. I had to see what the hubub was for myself and then figure out if it was worth recommending to you, my lovely crafty wedding peeps.

For the record: printmaking is one of my crafting obsessions. I love doing it. I love teaching it. I adore other printmakers and buy a considerable amount of printy goodness every year. In 2000 I bought my first Print Gocco (and then sold it – doh!). A few years ago I picked up a Speedball screen printing kit. You could say that I have a decent background in the basics of print. I’m no expert, just a crafter who digs getting her fingers inky.

The Basic Info

The MSRP of the Yudu is $300, though you can get it online for around $200. {Oh My Crafts has it for 184.99 at the moment}. JoAnn and Michaels are also carrying the machines in store but do not yet allow their coupons to be used to buy the machine. You can, however, use their coupons to buy supplies – which you’ll need.

In the Yudu box you’ll find:

• Yudu machine
• Adult t-shirt platen
• Blank ink-jet transparency
• 110 mesh screen
• Squeegee
• 2 fl oz black ink
• Platen adhesive sheet
• Instructional DVD
• User manual
• Emulsion sheet

A quick run-down of the process (there are other steps and details in here but are not covered in this review):

1. Place emulsion sheet onto screen.
2. Place screen in dryer. Wait for it to dry.
3. Put your artwork onto glass.
4. Top that with emulsion screen.
5. Burn artwork into screen.
6. Rinse screen.
7. Get your print on.

What I tested:

• Cardstocks – some scraps in my never-ending pile.
• Tshirt
• Silk pillow cover
• Metal flashing
• Wood veneer

What I love about the Yudu:

• Print area. The screens are  11″ x 14″ which is a great size for stationery and many other wedding crafts. By comparison, the ever-popular Gocco PG5, has a max print area of 3-9/16″ x 5-9/16.
• The all-in-one design of the machine. There’s no need to buy a lot of supplies just to get started and the all-in-one makes storing it easier than with my other screenprinting kit. The product design team at Provo Craft did a great job.
• Ease of use. Overall, this was pretty darned easy to use. There is a bit of a learning curve but I think even the timidest of newbies could get the hang of the Yudu with just a few tries. Read those instructions, kiddies!
• Handles large prints and designs beautifully.
• Prints great on wood, metal, and fabric.
• Yudu inks offer nice coverage and opacity.
• Screens are re-usable and were easy to wash out.
• The quality of the machine is very good and I think it’ll last forever.
• No special lightbulbs for the machine.

What I didn’t like:

• The machine itself is pretty big, about the size of a large scanner or all-in-one inkjet printer. For those of us who have very limited craft space, the Yudu footprint is cumbersome. However, it has the 11 x  14 print area so it really couldn’t be much more streamlined than it already is. If you’re used to the Gocco’s size, the Yudu will be an adjustment.
• The process is long. It took about 50-ish minutes to do a single print – not including the drying time of the print. Getting the emulsion set up and everything ready to go takes some time. Once you get going, doing multiple prints is pretty easy and quick.
• The supplies are not cheap. Screens run about $28.00, emulsion sheets (2 pack) are $19.00, 5 pack of transparencies are $6.00, inks are around $22.00 for a 3-pack. You’ll also need more platens (if you’re doing multiples of t-shirts), emulsion remover, blockout, adhesive sheets, registration panels, and then all of your clean-up tools, things to print on, etc. etc.
• Screens are available only in 110 mesh. I found that the 110 didn’t do well with small text and very fine detail. On my test of an invitation with 10 and 11 pt fonts (script and serifs), it wasn’t as clear as I would have liked. I’ve heard Provo Craft is working on different mesh sizes.
  
• It didn’t print all that great on some of the cardstocks I had. The ink was too runny on some of the cardstocks and this could totally be the cardstock itself rather than an ink/Yudu problem. I haven’t had a chance to go back and do more tests yet.
• The inks were drying REALLY fast for me on the day I tested so I had to hustle to get prints made before they clogged the screens.
• There aren’t that many ink colors available.
  
• The demo video is not very good.

My overall impressions:

I really, really like the Yudu and am happy to have it. I am eagerly awaiting other mesh sizes to see if they handle finer text and small detail better – an important thing for invitations/stationery design. Bottom line: If you’re serious about taking on screenprinting as a hobby or career, I think it’s worth the investment especially if you’re new to printmaking. If you’re considering only making your invites and a few other projects this is probably way too cost-prohibitive to make it worthwhile.

In comparison with the Gocco, I have to say that I like the Yudu better. Supplies are readily available for the Yudu, the print area is larger which allows opens up a whole new world of print possibilities, and the process seems more intuitive than what I remember from my Gocco days. (If you have Gocco-specific questions, please ask!)

Gocco Tips from Miranda

Posted by Khris in DIY Projects & Tutorials, Invitations, Programs, + Stationery

I know, I know… it’s Thursday. Pretend it’s yesterday and enjoy these fantastic Gocco tips submitted by DIY Bride Miranda. If you’re unfamiliar with the Gocco, it’s a small screenpriting machine from Japan.

I’ve been reading wedding blogs compulsively for months now as I’ve been planning my April wedding. I’ve learned so much and found some amazing ideas and advice. I wanted to contribute now by sharing what I learned by making my wedding invites with my Gocco PG-11.

First of all, I’m a relatively artistic person (I’m a costume designer by profession), so I thought I could easily handle making my own invitations. I do tend to be a little impatient, though, so I knew I was going to be challenged by this project. I waited a long time to begin, and read the instructions included and online over and over again. There are a few helpful hints they don’t mention anywhere, though, that I learned the hard way by making a whole set of very flawed invitations that I ended up having to throw
out. Maybe I’m just especially “challenged”, but I thought I might be able to help someone else as they begin their own Gocco invite project.

This is what I learned:

1. Have plenty of extra bulbs and screens on hand. I used up the ones I had in my first screw up and then had to wait weeks while a new order got shipped. It’ll make you feel much less pressured if you have plenty handy.

2. Print way more (15-20) invitations than you think you’ll need. That’ll allow you to weed out the less than perfect ones.

3. DON’T try to do more than two screens/colors in your first design unless you’re an extremely compulsive/careful/fastidious person. It was harder than I thought to make things line up perfectly. There might be some designs where this is easier than others…where being a little off won’t show too much.

4. Don’t make a fine border on your invitations and expect it to print clearly. It turns out that the stamp doesn’t work as well on the very edges of your machine, so fine details on the edge will sometimes not print. A border also points out too obviously when your paper’s a little off-kilter…something I found to be easy to let happen.

5. Use a couple of tiny pieces of masking tape to affix your card to the stamp pad. Sometimes I’d line the card up with the registration guide (that clear insert that comes with the PG-11 that helps line up your second screen) and then it would shift when I closed the top. Make sure you put the tape on a part of the card where you’re NOT printing something, or it’ll interfere with
the print.

6. Don’t use fonts that are too fine or small. You can use a 12 point font if it’s a blocky font, but curvy fonts (like the cursive font on my invite) just blur together illegibly when they’re smaller.

7. Make sure you have paper towels handy. This can get messier than I thought from what I read from other people…but maybe that’s just me, again.

8. The paint is very sticky and hard to clean up. DON’T use water, because it just smoodges it around on you, but doesn’t remove it. Just smear that remover they include and wipe it off with paper towels. I’m impressed by people who cleaned and reused their screens. It’s not easy to clean off the paint.

9. Go really slowly. My second time around I took a lot more time to make sure the card was even, aligned, and taped down, and it made a huge difference.

Good luck!

Photos of the Gocco Process

Gocco with “registration plate” down to help line up card for second printing

Pieces of tape strategically placed

Our finished invite

Miranda is a Boston-based costume designer. She designs for theater and opera in New York and around the country. She marrying a Cajun in the gorgeous French Quarter of New Orleans. Miranda envisions her wedding to be “fun, festive, inviting, and the opposite of a cookie-cutter event. It turns out that what I do for a living has made planning a wedding really manageable (knock on wood). It’s not too different from what I do all the time, so I’ve been having a lot of fun.”

{Tips and photos are copyright Miranda Hoffman.}