Provocraft is the manufacturer of the Yudu screen printing machine. Whenever you work with this screen printing machine you may encounter several problems having to do with printing your images on t-shirts. Fortunately, with a little “know how” you will be able to find ways in which to work around these problems.
Getting Thin Lines Or Small Type To Come Out Right
The three biggest factors that make it difficult to create fine details are:
- The screen’s mesh is too low of resolution to be able to hold the image. You will find that there are a variety of resolutions of screen mesh (a.k.a. “mesh count”) available. They range from 33 through 300. The Yudu screen printing machine comes with a low resolution mesh count (110), which will not hold thin lines or small type.
- You are using a poor quality squeegee to pull the ink with. There are a lot of different types of squeegee blades available to choose from today, what you should mainly be concerned about is its flexibility. Since the Yudu screen printing machine was designed for general purpose, manual screen printing, you will want to purchase a squeegee of medium durometer (a.k.a. hardness), which would be around 70. This will allow you to be able to pull most general-purpose inks through your screen. Unfortunately, the squeegee that comes with the Yudu screen printing machine is less than 60, which definitely is not hard enough.
- The screen’s frame is too flimsy to be able to hold adequate tension. It is considered a low-tension screen and thus it definitely will not work well for even the most casual screen printer.
Understanding Resolutions
There are three types of resolutions that you will encounter whenever working with a screen printing machine. They include:
- Low resolution (110 mesh) is used for thick or light colored ink. It is also used for low detail prints. This is what the Yudu screen printing machine does well with.
- Medium resolution (160 mesh) is used for small type (12 point) and thin lines (1 point).
- High resolution (190 mesh) can capture really thin lines and small dots. Whenever it is used in conjunction with automatic screen printing presses you will be able to achieve very photographic like images.
A Look At Squeegees
You will find that there are a variety of different types of squeegee blades also available. Other things that you need to take into consideration are the handle’s characteristics, the blade’s structure and its composition. Since the Yudu screen printing machine has been designed for doing general purpose manual screen printing you will want a flexible, all purpose squeegee to use. This is why a 70 squeegee comes recommended for use with this machine, even though it isn’t what comes with it.
In Conclusion
Whenever you look at the limitations that you will encounter with the Yudu screen printing machine, you will see why it is so important to limit the types of imprints that you try to do while using this system. While there are a lot of people who have been successful using the Yudu screen printing machine, these are people who are using thick lines (3 points or more) and large type faces (20 points or more) in the designs that they create. Of course, your skill level will also play a big role here. Even so, you will not find it easy to get crisp images without the right tools. So, if you do not find these limitations upon your work to be acceptable unto you, it would be advisable for you to find a different system, which is more versatile, for you to work with.