Yudu Screen Printing – A Project and Tips on Alternatives to Yudu Emulsion Sheets
September 26th, 2009
So far I’m loving my Yudu machine! (Click Here and Here to read about my purchase)
The photo above is my latest project, which is a design called Mestiza and printed using Fuschia waterbased ink.
If you have a Yudu machine or have been contemplating purchasing one, then you know that the emulsion sheets
AC Moore or Michael’s, you may be lucky to pick them up at $11 or so for a pack of two, but good luck finding them the emulsion in stock! None of the locations I’ve gone to around here have them in stock at all, and the store clerks and reps I ask have no idea what I’m talking about.
But you don’t have to use Yudu’s emulsion sheets. There are two other options:
- alternative emulsion sheets (aka capillary films), such as Magna/Cure 50 or Magna/Cure 70 sheets or Ulano CDF-5VT capillary films
- emulsion liquid, such as Ulano Emulsion (I think you would use Ulano Fotocoat TZ
, but I’m not 100% sure) or Speedball Diazo Photo Emulsion
(which I use and highly recommend!)
The general consensus on both YuduForums.com and T-shirtforums.com seems to be that capillary films are cost-prohibitive (even when purchasing NON-Yudu films), and it is much less expensive to learn how to coat your own screens with liquid emulsion like the screen printing pros do it.
To illustrate how much money you can save, with the Speedball Diazo Photo Emulsion Kit (for which I paid about $20, the cost of just TWO Yudu sheets), I’ve coated about 9 or 10 screens already, and I’ve still got a lot more emulsion left. Keep in mind that during the learning curve, I ended up disposing of more emulsion than was necessary after coating my first few screens. So for the regular cost of two Yudu emulsion sheets, I was able to get liquid emulsion, from which I’ll be able to make a total of at least 15 screens. Sounds like an easy choice to me.
For a video detailing exactly how to quickly and easily coat a Yudu screen with liquid emulsion, check out the “Yudu Screen Hack” by DIYteeshirt.com.
Wow, loves those colors together!!
Do you use the scoop coater to use the liquid emulsion? Or can you use your squeegee?
Nicole – I did purchase a scoop coater, but it was too long to use with the Yudu screen (my mistake!).
So what I do is I use the scoop coater I purchased as a trough. I pour some emulsion into it, about as wide as the length of the squeegee, and I “scoop” the emulsion out, applying it with the squeegee.
The squeegee I currently use to apply the emulsion is the one that came stock with the Yudu, and the squeegee I use when printing is a “pro” squeegee I bought at Pearl Paint.
Do you cover both sides with the emulsion liquid or just one side? Do you have to do this in a dark room or with a special light or just in a room with a dim light?
This is definitely the most economical way to use the YUDU machine. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Peggy, yes you do need to cover both sides.
They way you’re *supposed* to do it is to do 1 coat on both the front (part of screen that faces down when printing) and back (part of screen w/ the lip, or that faces up when printing) or 2 coats on the front and 1 coat on the back.
If you’re using the Speedball Diazo emulsion I mentioned in the post, you don’t have to use a special light or anything, but I would still recommend a very dimly lit room to avoid exposure of the emulsion.
I haven’t tried coating screens with the Diazo liquid during the day, but when I did I had the lights off, with ambient light coming from both the hall and the TV set so I could see something.
Thanks for visiting
I have a few questions.
My biggest concern is that when I am using the Yudu emulsion sheets and I wash out the design out after it has been exposed some of the unexposed emulsion peels off too. Will using liquid emuslion prevent that or am I doing something wrong?
I was also wondering how long it takes to dry and if you can dry it in the Yudu machine. Also, does it take any longer to expose than the yudu emulsion or can I just run the regular 8 minute exposure?
After you coat with the Diazo liquid, do you proceed just as if you had used the yudu emulsion sheets? Can you continue to use inkjet transparencies and “burn” the screen in the yudu as normal?
@kiki – You shouldn’t have the problem with the liquid emulsion peeling off AT ALL as long as you make the emulsion is fully dry when you expose and rinse it.
You can dry it in the yudu machine, definitely. I would run it for two cycles (I know, kind of long), making sure to turn it around. Or, if you’re in a dimly lit room, you can use a hair dryer set on low a few feet from the screen.
As far as exposure time is concerned, the regular 8 minute exposure does work, but what I would recommend doing also is doubling up your transparency/vellum or using an opaque cut-outs (i.e. cricut) and then upping exposure to 9-10 minutes.
@Nick – yes and yes
To both: remember it’s a thin layer that you want on the screen.. you definitely don’t want it dripping or too thick, otherwise it’ll either drip emulsion all over the inside of your Yudu when you dry it, it’ll take suuuuuper long to dry, or both.
Kristina – Love your site, info but most of all the shirt! Tee Hee Hee!
My 14 year old has designed a logo for a line he wants to come out with. We have been screen printing with a loom, silk and modge podge. Do you honestly think that the Yudu is an easier alternative? Are the transparencies expensive and is there something else we can use other than the Yudu brand that is cheaper?
Many thanks!
Hi Steph,
I definitely think the Yudu is a better alternative to the modge podge method i he wants to make more than a couple of shirts at a time and wants pretty accurate registration (i.e. having the design lined up in the same spot for every shirt).
The alternatives to Yudu’s emulsion sheets are discussed in the above post.
Hi Kristina:
My first four tries with burning my image have been unsuccessful. I bought the Diazo Photo Emulsion, which seems to work fine, so I am going to try doubling my print to see if that may be the problem, but could you tell me what type of transparencies you use, and ink do you use?
@ E – I actually prefer the use of vellum paper (make sure it’s pretty transparent vellum, though) over transparencies. What you might want to try doing is either doubling your print as you suggested, which I have done successfully with vellum paper, by the way. You may just have to increase your exposure time by a bit (though it should be less than a minute). I’d say do a trial run to be sure.
or 
. Yudu’s inks are rather expensive, but the quality is, in my opinion, not as good as either Versatex or Speedball.
As far as ink is concerned, I’d recommend using either
Versatex
Speedball
I DONT WANNA BUY ANYMORE YUDU PRODUCTS! WHERE DO YOU SUGGEST I CAN GET OTHER PRODUCTS LIKE THE EMULSION, TRANSPENCY SHEETS AND INKS AND I THINK THAT WOULD BE ALL???
I used the Speedball Diazo Photo Emulsion @ 10 minutes with a printed transparency. Perfect exposure. Non-exposed emulsion rinsed out easily.
I’m am getting sooo frustrated with my YuDu! I’m on my fourth sheet of emulsion and it is still coming out bad. After exposure the emulsion is bubbling up, and parts of my burned image seem to be washing away with the rinse. I can’t afford to wash any more $$ down the drain… literally, please help.
[...] means you burn through a lot of pricey emulsion sheets while you learn to get the feel of it. This link has some good alternatives, check out the part on liquid emulsion. She even has a video showing [...]
Hello Kristina my name is Montanez and I Just wanted say thanks for your great threads
Hi!
I read your thread on the liquid emulsion, currently I bought the paper ones on ebay in a 10 pack for 30 bones so yours is way better still. And these are an off brand and are hard to get just right when working with fine lines. So I am going to try the liquid next!
But I do have a tip, when working with smaller images for instance I burned an IU on a screen I really like to use a rubber spatula from the kitchen. It also makes it easier to put back in the bottle!
But has anyone figured out how to print light ink on black yet? mine takes like 4 passes and then ends up being blurry!
Thanks in advance!
Brittany
Has anyone figured out how to do white ink on black?
and when working with smaller images I like to use a kitchen rubber spatula. it makes it easier to put in the bottle!
to print on black you have to do a base in white let it dry (we like to use a hair dryer to dry the ink to touch) the do another layer in color it should make you color stand out on the black shirt and make your color brighter