YUDU Hack – Cheaply coat your screens for 1/20 of the cost

by dirged on Aug.05, 2009, under Tips and Tricks, Yudu

Previously, we gave out a funny, yet tip on YUDU use. The YUDU machine itself is a bulky, over-glorified light table. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great for burning screens — and that’s about it. However, if you did buy it and figured out how to work it correctly, you may have fell in love with the screen printing process, which is only natural.

The YUDU machine uses sheets of emulsion called capillary films to coat the screens. These films are extremely expensive, not very easy to use, and are a point of contention for many Yudu owners and enthusiasts. They sell for about twenty dollars for a package of two.

Coating your screens with liquid emulsion costs less (about .50 to 1.00 dollar US), and is much easier. Gary explains here:

diyTeeshirts.com can outfit you with all the tools you need to coat your own screens and help you along the path of screen printing enlightenment.

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25 Comments for this entry

Karmisha
September 12th, 2009 on 12:07 pm
Great video! Could you please tell me the name of the emulsion? I’d like to order some online, but I know nothing about the various kinds available. What you used looks pretty good.

Thanks in advance.
motleymind
October 4th, 2009 on 11:32 am
It’s Graphic HU. You can get it at diyTeeShirts.com
Bianca
October 12th, 2009 on 12:23 am
Now you can’t remove this emulsion like the Yudu emulsion film, can you?
motleymind
October 29th, 2009 on 9:57 am
Yes. You most certainly can! It’s basically the same stuff, just applied a different way.
mogo
November 12th, 2009 on 9:22 pm
I’m very happy about this method but I’m getting some uneven results timewise. Any recommendations for how long to burn the screen on the yudu lightbox? The capillary films take about 8.5 minutes but with normal emulsion that doesn’t seem to work anymore. Should I try longer or shorter?

Thanks for the help.
Lauren
November 28th, 2009 on 1:35 pm
Thank you for this quick tutorial!!! I just got my liquid emulsion today. I’m hoping to try it out this afternoon.
melissa
December 28th, 2009 on 8:51 pm
Great information! Now, were can you find that emulsion dispenser? Also, what is good emulsion remover that is not a yudu product?
motleymind
December 31st, 2009 on 11:42 am
You can get a kit from http://diyteeshirts.com/yudu_screen_hack
It has the emulsion remover and the scoopcoater in it. It also has a mini-course in screen coating.
Alex
January 16th, 2010 on 9:32 am
Mogo-

what kind of problems are you having? If you burned too long, not enough of the image will wash out. If you didn’t burn the screen long enough, then more than expected will probably wash out. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, I’ve been out of the business for a few years.
Dennis
January 27th, 2010 on 11:11 pm
I live in Wisconsin and it’s often below zero this time of year. If I order liquid emulsion, will it be damaged during shipping if it freezes? Do I need to wait until spring to get some?
nita
February 3rd, 2010 on 12:12 am
When using liquid emulsion can the screen be tried in the yudu machine?
motleymind
February 4th, 2010 on 7:20 pm
Yes. It certainly can.
motleymind
February 4th, 2010 on 7:25 pm
I’ve heard people say emulsion can freeze if it gets cold enough and it could ruin it. I’m in Florida, so I can’t really say. I’ve never seen it.
Jeff Fox
February 11th, 2010 on 3:51 pm
Is there a suitable Waterbased Ink (more cost effective) that can be substituted for the Yudu ink? Read about Discharge System inks…etc. Will those work?
Karissa
March 6th, 2010 on 11:33 am
So does the emulsion scoop have to be the same size as the screen to work properly?

And do you sell cheaper screens than Yudu as well?
Steve
May 28th, 2010 on 9:18 am
I’ve heard people say emulsion can freeze if it gets cold enough and it could ruin it. I’m in Florida, so I can’t really say. I’ve never seen it.
Emily
June 1st, 2010 on 7:19 am
When using liquid emulsion can the screen be tried in the yudu machine?
Maurice
June 4th, 2010 on 4:50 am
I recently bought your liquid emulsion kit online for my Yudu. The problem that I am having is after I flash the screen and go to rinse it, all of the emulsion is coming off like water. My screen is completly washed away, image and all. What am I doing wrong.
Amanda
July 24th, 2010 on 8:44 am
Great hack! I saw this and ran down to Hobby Lobby. I picked up Speedball liquid emulsion and emulsion remover kit for $30.00. I used the emulsion remover in the kit to remove my Yudu emulsion and it melted it away. I don’t have the trough, so I used the squeegee to smooth over both sides. Since I can control how much and where to apply the emulsion, I covered only half the screen for my image. I am probably making this screen for alot less than $1.00. Yay! Thanks.
motleymind
August 4th, 2010 on 7:33 am
Thanks for linking to us. Sorry it took me so long to get back, but I get so many spam comments on our blog that sifting through them takes forever. I have a really cool video I put up about loading the T-shirt platen upside-down on our site. The url is http://diyteeshirts.com/yudu_platen Basically it speeds up T-shirt printing a lot. It fits pretty well into your Yudu themed stuff. I am making mote videos as well, if you are interested.

Gary Jurman
diyTeeShirts.com
motleymind
August 4th, 2010 on 7:40 am
I’m glad you liked it. I really don’t like the Speedball emulsion. It breaks down too quick and creates a lot of pinholes to constantly manage. That’s why we sell the Saatichem Grafic HU. It costs a little more, but saves a lot of headaches. I really don’t recommend using a squeegee to coat your screen. I saw the Dick Blick video and the Speedball tutorial and think it’s just bad advice. We coat a lot of screens around here, and we’d die of old age and customer complaints without our scoopcoater. Anyway, good luck and have a great time. You are welcome to check out http://diyTeeShirts.com for supplies. We carry a waterbased ink (Matsui) that is way better than Yudu or Speedball.

Gary Jurman
diyTeeShirts.com
motleymind
August 4th, 2010 on 8:02 am
You have to sensitize the emulsion. The CD that comes with the kit tells you to sensitize it and how to do it, and the bottle of diazo that comes in the kit does too. In the newer kits we now also tape a note on the box of emulsion telling you that too, and we now have started printing out the instruction sheet that is on the cd and putting that in the box as well. Hopefully that will help the small number of you guys who are too Gung Ho! for the CD.
motleymind
August 4th, 2010 on 8:04 am
Sure. But we recommend using a fan because the Yudu rack is not a very good screen drying cabinet.
motleymind
August 4th, 2010 on 8:05 am
I asked Saatichem about that, and they said it rarely gets cold enough to worry about that.
motleymind
August 4th, 2010 on 8:27 am
The scoopcoater has to be not quite as wide as the screen. Yep. We have Yudu screens for sale.