Yudu machine?
 

Anyone used a Yudu machine (small screen printer) to make screen-printed decals?

Yudu machine at Home Shopping Network

Well, I'm not getting rid of my Alps printers just yet. ;)

I've been looking at that for the same purpose. I can't tell from the website (https://www.4yudu.com/index.asp) if the $33 is the complete price or if there is some follow on cost when the 30 day trial is over. If it's a straight up deal I'll grab one for sure.

Sale Price: $249.95
HSN Price: $279.95
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Retail Value: $340.63
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Average Customer Rating:
3.3 out of 5
3.2 out of 5
( 24 reviews )
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SOLD OUT

retails for about $350, but sells for as low as $200 depending on where you find it and what coupons are available. Apparently it is being marketed the same way as the Crikit vinyl cutter, and in many of the same places (Michaels, Joann's, HobbyLobby, etc, and on the web)

Is that a "yes, I've tried it"? or what?

No but, there seems to be too many "ifs" about it.

The 3.2 or 3.3 out of 5 is not a real good rating.

I think it's just too new yet to make a judgement.

I know my Alps printer works.

I don't get it - it looks just like a standard manually-operated silkscreen frame to me. Something that you can build yourself for probably less than $50 - possibly much less. I built one when I was an undergrad (way back right after the Earth had cooled) and another one right after graduation, and I still have them. I don't need to use special Yudu ink, either - I can use any screen-printing ink. BTW, I have never seen ink applied to a screen that way - with a thin bead of ink - from a squeeze bottle! - squirted on just above the stencil, and then a bead squirted out in the middle of the stencil. Apparently it works, but it just looks weird. Otherwise, the printing process looks like it is completely conventional and non-mechanical. So I'm confused - what in this process requires electricity? And what is there about this completely ordinary device that justifies calling it a machine?

In my daze as a screen-printer, I worked with industrial screen printing machines; they were very different than what is shown here. Those machines stood tall on the floor, and they automatically raised the screen, charged it with ink, lowered it and operated the squeegee to pull the print. Over and over and over again, a hundred times a minute, sometimes faster. The printer (me) set up the machine, aligned the screen, positioned the register guides, loaded the screen with ink (a big pool at the top of the screen), fed the stock in one sheet at a time between prints, and yanked the printed sheet out and onto a drying rack, all as fast as I could (without smearing the still-wet print), while monitoring the print quality, the condition of the screen and the supply of ink.

Now those were mechanical screen printers; the Yudu, unfortunately, is no such machine. Don't get me wrong - I like the fact that you can get a self-contained screen printing set up in a compact package that you can operate on your kitchen table. But to me it seems to be way, way overpriced. The screen holder appears to be just thin plastic, and the screens themselves are not true screens, but thin pieces of some kind of mesh. I couldn't tell what kind of frame they were stretched over, but it didn't appear to be very sturdy. You can build a screen, a screen holder and a printing frame yourself for much less money, and outfit the screen with real serigraphic screen material, which is very smooth, very durable and has an extremely fine mesh. And you also won't be locked into buying just one company's ink.

Again, what part of the printing process is electrified?

For what it appears to do, I might pay something like $49.99 for it, but not a penny more.

MarkII

This one uses a photoresist film that has to be exposed to light in order to make the master (much like photo etching). This allows you to make fairly complex designs. Just create a negative on the computer useing any graphics program then print it out on a transperence film. Lay that over the photo sensitive treated silkscreen and iluminate. (hense the electricity)

The sad reality is that since the Alps printer hasn't been produced in quite a few years, it too will go the way of the shuttle. The sadder reality is that there is no good substitute for hobbyists to go to, unless you are independently wealthy. My hope is that someone, someday, will produce one of like quality that once again will be within the reach of hobbyists.

Greg