What’s the difference between a coil tattoo machine and a rotary tattoo machine? What if the tattoo machine stops working? Mr.Shi is going to teach you to fix tattoo machine problems. Click the video and share it.
Mr.Shi: Today, I will talk about the tattoo tools we use. Tattoo tools have 2 types. One is used by hand, the other is driven by electricity.
One of the famous tattoo works done by hand is the Sak Yant tattoo in Thailand. The tool looks like this. It is driven by wrist strength, then it penetrates the skin and delivers tattoo ink to the skin. Japanese tebori tattoo is also done by hand. Unlike Sak Yant tattoo, practitioners use Sashibo to hand poke ink into the skin by their elbow and body strength, instead of wrist strength. The third one is the traditional Polynesian tattoos. The tool for a traditional Polynesian tattoo is called the rake. Artists tap it to deliver ink to the skin. The last one is to handle needles. It is mostly used in permanent makeup. Of course, someone also uses it to make some small tattoos and detailed parts. Modern tattoo artists should make it fast and fluently. So most of us use electrical machines. One is coil tattoo machines, the other is rotary tattoo machines including tattoo pens. The 2 tattoo tools have their advantages and weaknesses. They both have convenient sides and inconvenient sides.
Today, I will tell you how to use the 2 kinds of tattoo machines. Coil tattoo machine first. As you know coil tattoo machines have different shapes and materials. Then how to choose a coil tattoo machine? Firstly, the material. There are many different materials. Such as brass, iron, stainless steel, aluminum alloy, even wood, and plastic. Which one suits you? Its conductivity, permeability, comfort, and convenience are different due to different materials. You can choose them depending on your habits and convenience. Generally, metal tattoo machines are better than others. Since we need an electrical tool, we should consider its conductivity and permeability. Brass and stainless steel ( especially brass) have better conductivity and permeability. After assembling a tattoo machine, we will add many accessories to it to get better conductivity and permeability. Well, I will tell you the functions of all kinds of tattoo machine accessories and matters that need attention to assembling. So I will disassemble a coil tattoo machine. If you meet problems while using a tattoo machine, you can fix them by yourself. This machine in my hand is made of zinc alloy. Now I‘m gonna disassemble it. What matters do we need to pay attention to while disassembling? Please look at the area of the contact screw. It’s called a contact screw. A contact screw works as a switch. It touches the spring directly. When the machine is powered on, the current goes through a spring which will cause electromagnetic power.
A contact screw can be made of brass, iron, silver, or stainless steel. Brass and silver are better. Most of the contact screws are made of brass. The contact screw belongs to consumable goods. Why did I say that? Because there may be sparks between the screw and the spring, accompanied by electricity and magnetism. The contact screw will be attrited gradually if it causes sparks. When the contact screw touches the spring it will be attrited. Once the contact screw is attrited., the tattoo machine will work fast or slowly, and the power of it will be strong or weak when we use the machine. How does it happen? Because the amplitude of the spring depends on the pressure exerted by the contact screw. The contact screw just needs to gently touch the spring, then we twist it one and a half to two circles. Don’t make contact screw too tight. Or the armature bar cannot move up and down. As a result, the machine cannot work. The machine cannot work either when the voltage is too low or if the contact screw is too loose. So we twist the contact screw one and a half to two circles. Neither too tight nor too loose. After that, we can tighten this small screw. The space between the contact screw and spring will change once the contact screw is attrited. So I usually adjust the contact screw instead of voltage after the machine works for a couple of hours or the whole day. I don’t agree to adjust the voltage. If you adjust the voltage every time the machine is not powerful enough, you will find out that it still works slowly even if the voltage is very high. If the voltage is too high, the machine will heat up and there will be other problems. The machine will even be damaged. So I advise you to adjust the contact screw rather than the voltage. Now I am disassembling the contact screw. This screw is used to fix the contact screw. It had better be plastic. Plastic can fix it (contact screw) better. If the screw is metal it will become loose with long-term vibration. Then contact screw will shake. Once it shakes, the space between the contact screw and spring will change. Well, the accessory under the contact screw is a spring.
Here are 2 tattoo machines. Let’s compare them. Compared with the armature bar, its spring is long, as long as the armature bar. In this machine, its spring is shorter than the armature bar. Why is it different? Generally, the machine with a shorter spring is a liner machine. the machine with a longer spring is a liner machine. What’s the difference? I don’t mean the liner machine can only be used for the outline, shader machine can only be used for shading. It depends on our needs when we make a tattoo. What’s the difference between the liner machine and the shader machine? A short spring vibrates more frequently than a longer one. Then the needle will also work faster. The needle moves up and down quickly. When we are making an outline, we have to work quickly, so we need a tattoo machine to vibrate faster. so that the dots will be denser. The line will look more real. When we are using a liner machine, since the needle works faster, the needle depth will be shorter. For many tattoo beginners or when we make dense lines, a longer needle depth will be better, And we can see the outline if the needle depth is long. The tattoo will be made more accurately. If we need longer needle depth, the tattoo machine should have a longer spring. The spring is shorter, its frequency will be faster. If spring is long, the amplitude of needles is large, which means needle depth is long. Long spring means long needle depth. It also means the needle works slowly. Of course, we can make it faster by adjusting the voltage. Because we can change the frequency of the machine by adjusting the voltage. This is the front spring. The rear spring on the liner machine is different from the shader machine. The liner machine needs a harder and thicker spring. Because we need the spring to work quickly and keep a certain strength. So a rear spring should be thicker than a front spring. We need a shader machine to have a large amplitude of spring, so the spring should be softer. Some machines only have a single spring. The quality of a single spring maybe not be so good. If the front spring and rear spring are clearly separated, and their thickness is obviously different, then the performance of this machine may be very good. That’s all about springs.
Well, I continue to disassemble it. Here we go. If the armature bar is too close to or too far away from the coils, we can make the washer on the rear spring thicker to change its distance. Let me disassemble it firstly, Here are 2 springs. This screw is used to fix the spring. This is a needle grommet to fix tattoo needles. This one is called the armature bar. What’s its function? When we install an armature bar, we should make it paralleled with this coil. They are not paralleled before the tattoo machine works. But they should be paralleled once the machine works. The gap between the armature bar and coil should be close to the thickness of a piece of A4 paper. If the armature bar touches the coil, it will be adsorbed onto the coil. So there must be a gap between them. But the gap can not be big, otherwise, the coils cannot produce enough electromagnetic force and armature bars cannot work powerfully. So the armature bar shouldn’t touch coils when the machine is working. Remember that there must be a gap between them. Liner machines and shader machines require different armature bars. A liner machine needs to vibrate faster. A heavy armature bar will prevent the liner machine from working fast. To make liner machines vibrate faster, we need a light armature bar. Generally speaking, the armature bar can vibrate more quickly when it is light, small, and thin. In order to make the lines look nice, we need to make the dots dense, since the line is made up of dots. If the dots are dense, the color will look bright. That’s why the liner machines need to work fast. In a word, the armature bar should be light for the liner machine. It is on the contrary when we shade. A shader machine needs a heavy armature bar. In order to get a heavy enough armature bar, we can make it wider and thicker. The heavy armature bar vibrates slowly. Why do we need a heavy armature bar when shading? When we are shading, especially doing light shading, for example, portrait tattoos, sometimes the shade just need 30% or less, then the needles need to work slowly. We need to do shading little by little, so the shader machines need to vibrate slowly, otherwise, the color would be dark. When the shader machine becomes very slow, it may have no power. If the needle works slowly, it may not penetrate the skin when meeting the resistance of the skin. If we want the needle to work slowly and penetrate the skin, we can only make it by increasing the weight of the armature bar. For example, I hit myself with a light pole, which may not hurt me since this pole is light. If I hit myself with a heavy pole, I will feel pain even if I hit myself gently. That’s because the pole is heavy. The same thing goes for the armature bars. Well, I just talked about the differences between liner machines and shader machines. This accessory is used to fix the contact screw.
It is a contact point of coils behind this accessory. Look here, there is a washer. This washer is necessary for tattoo machines. If there is no washer, what will happen? Without washer, we can use a frequency regulator which can change the speed of the tattoo machine to make the machine work slowly. It sounds like da da da. Ink can be delivered into the skin even if the machine works slowly. Then we do dot effects and light shade effects. If you take advantage of a frequency regulator, then remove the rubber ring, the machine will become a tool for special effects. Let me remove it. This is the contact point for coils. And this contact point is for the armature bar. This is a tattoo tube clamp. Let me try to install the tube. Insert the tube and twist tube clamp. I take the tube off. This screw is for fixing the tube clamp. Finally, only 2 coils are left. There are 2 screws below the coils. I am unscrewing the 2 screws. As you see, there is a tattoo machine yoke.
What is its function? It is used to conduct magnetism. As I said just now, tattoo machine frames can be made of different materials. If the machine frame is made of alloy, stain steel, or acrylic, the 2 coils cannot produce the strongest power without a yoke. Without a yoke, the2 coils may work independently. The machine may not be powerful enough. So you need to add a yoke under the 2 coils to make them produce the strongest power. What’s the function of the 2 holes? This is for clip cords. Clip cords hook here. Take off the clip cord. Here is a washer. It is also necessary. Look, this is a tattoo machine frame. And here are 2 tattoo machine coils. The quality of the tattoo machine depends on the copper wire inside the coils. Different copper wire produces different power. Let’s disassemble it and take a look. This is a plastic wrap. I separate the two coils I will pick out the copper wire. We often ask the seller the tattoo machine coil is 8 wraps, 10 wraps, or 12 wraps. What’s the difference? The more wrap, the more copper wire the coils have, the stronger the power of the machine.
Do we always need to buy a powerful machine? It’s not true. A tattoo machine with 10 wrap coils must have strong power. When the shader machine whose armature bar is heavy works slowly, we need to use a 10 or 12 warp coil machine to make it powerful. We don’t need a very powerful machine if we want it to work fast, which means 8 wrap or 10 wrap is enough. What is a wrap? You will understand if I take this line apart. Take this copper wire apart, This is a wrap. Let’s continue. This is the 2nd wrap. This is the 3rd wrap. The fourth wrap. The fifth wrap. The sixth wrap. The 7th. Then the 8th wrap. Finally, we see a coil core. Here it is. There is an iron core inside it. The iron core is used to conduct electricity and magnetically. There is a small capacitor between the coils. Well, these are all tattoo machine accessories. What do we need to pay attention to when using the machine?
You will meet many problems when using the machine. For example, the tattoo machine cannot work. Many people think the machine is broken. Actually, it’s because you didn’t adjust the machine before.
How to adjust?
Step1, check whether the power supply works after you install a tattoo machine. If it works, the display of the power supply will show voltage. If the power supply is okay, then adjust it to 6V. Of course, you can adjust it to 5V, 7V, or 8V according to your habit. I usually adjust it to 6V or 7V. The different power supply provides different currents. And different machines need different strengths. So the power supply does not have a certain value. But the voltage shouldn’t be too high or too low. Well, I adjust it to 7V. The display is on, so the power supply is okay. As you see, it has 2 holes. This hole is used to insert a foot pedal. The other hole is used to insert a clip cord. What I said just now is about the power supply.
Step2, if the power supply works, you can check the clip cord. Check if there is any problem with the soldering here. So we need to pinch the connector rather than pull the wires when we unplug it. That’s the right way to unplug it. Then check if your clip cord hooks the machine or not. Some machines are covered with paint, some insulators on the clip cord are long. Therefore, when it is moving, the insulators may separate it from the machine, which may cause a temporary short circuit. Sometimes the 2 holes on the machine may be too big. The clip cord will not always be parallel to the machine when tattooing because we need to change the angle. Then the machine has poor contact. As a result, the machine will continue to stop working when tattooing. If it happens, that’s because the clip cord goes wrong. You need to fix the clip cord. Make it is mounted on the machine. Do not let the clip cord hang on something when tattooing. If the hook line is dragged by something, we will get into trouble tattooing. So generally don't hang it on something, just leave it alone. If it is long, you can hang it in a high place. Or sometimes we hang it on ourselves. Just to make the clip cord move freely. In short, you need to make it freer. Make sure it can move easily. This knowledge is about the clip cord.
Step3, if the clip cord is okay, check if the contact screw touches the spring or not. We twist the contact screw one and a half to two circles. Then check if there is any other dirt on the spring. Sometimes, vaseline or hair may be stuck here when tattooing which may cause a short circuit. Meanwhile, move the armature bar. Why do we move it? The purpose is to check if there is an obstacle when it is moving up and down. The obstacle may come from the needle. If the needle is stuck in the back stem, or in the tip, or it is stuck by the dry color, or the tip doesn’t fit the needle, which is harmful to the armature bar to move. If the armature bar can move normally like this when you press it, then the armature bar is okay.
Step4, check the rubber bands. Why do we need to fasten rubber bands to it? Since the needle is fixed on the armature bar, there will be space inside the tips. The needle will swing during the movement. You can observe it through the tattoo tip. If the needle and tip are not parallel, which means they are not in one line during the movement, then you should pull the rubber band until the needle and tip are parallel. Let the needle move like this. The strength of the rubber band is enough. So don’t make the rubber band too tight. There is a big chance for tattoo beginners to make this mistake. They often make the rubber band very tight. At this time, the needle and the armature bar will be fixed tightly if the rubber band is too tight. and the armature bar will not move. The machine will not work. So you need to check the power supply, the clip cord, the contact screw, the armature bar, and the rubber bands before tattooing. If all of are okay, you can begin to use the machine. If the machine still doesn't work, you should check if the wire inside the clip cord is broken, or if the foot pedal connector is broken. You can use two clip cords, two power supplies, and two-foot pedals to test. And figure out which product is broken. You can figure it out if you test like this. That’s all about the coil tattoo machine.
Well, let’s talk about rotary tattoo machines. In fact, it is also a coil inside it. However, the 2 kinds of coil need different winding method and thickness. The rotary tattoo machine is lighter and more convenient to use. It is very suitable for small tattoos. I often use a rotary tattoo machine to make small tattoos and details. Its disadvantage is that we may not be able to use it when we make a large tattoo. We need a more powerful tattoo machine if we are making back tattoos, or make thicker lines, or do dark shading. At this time, the power of the rotary tattoo machine is slightly weaker. The advantage of the coil tattoo machine is that it is quick to get started, and the power is strong. Its disadvantage is that it’s not easy to control. There are many difficulties in using. If you want to control the coil machine skillfully, you need a very long time professional training and practice. These are the differences between these 2 kinds of machines. This kind of rotary tattoo machine is called a tattoo pen which just needs a cartridge needle. Insert a cartridge needle directly. This kind of rotary tattoo machine needs a grip. A coil tattoo machine also needs a grip. What kind of grip should we use?
There are many types of tubes. There are aluminum tubes, of various shapes, cartridge tubes, silicone grips, and heavy grips. It depends on your habit to choose a grip. The advantage of silicone grip is anti-slip. It does not slip when tattooing. Some metal grips are light, some are heavy. I recommend you to use heavy ones. You had better use heavy grips when you are making a line that is long or coherent, or when you need to do large shading. So the machine will work stably. A light grip will make the tattoo not smooth enough when we are doing lines because the tattoo machine will shake when it’s working. A heavy grip will prevent the machine from shaking heavily which means the machine will work stably. So I recommend you to use a heavy grip when you are using a coil machine. You can use a silicone or lighter grip if your operation skill is professional and you can finish it soon. Of course, the premise is that you don’t need to do dark shading in this tattoo. A lighter grip makes it more convenient for you to control the machine. What I share with you today is about coil machines and rotary tattoo machines. If you want to watch more wonderful tattoo tutorial videos, remember to subscribe to my channel. I will make three series of tattoo tutorials. Each series has about 30 to 50 knowledge points. The first series is mainly about basic knowledge. About tattoo needle skills, tattoo machine skills, and tattoo tools. The second series is mainly about tattoo styles and tattoo operations. The third series is mainly about the techniques to make a real tattoo. Remember to subscribe to my channel.
Visit the tattoo needle skills to learn more about how to tattoo.
One of the famous tattoo works done by hand is the Sak Yant tattoo in Thailand. The tool looks like this. It is driven by wrist strength, then it penetrates the skin and delivers tattoo ink to the skin. Japanese tebori tattoo is also done by hand. Unlike Sak Yant tattoo, practitioners use Sashibo to hand poke ink into the skin by their elbow and body strength, instead of wrist strength. The third one is the traditional Polynesian tattoos. The tool for a traditional Polynesian tattoo is called the rake. Artists tap it to deliver ink to the skin. The last one is to handle needles. It is mostly used in permanent makeup. Of course, someone also uses it to make some small tattoos and detailed parts. Modern tattoo artists should make it fast and fluently. So most of us use electrical machines. One is coil tattoo machines, the other is rotary tattoo machines including tattoo pens. The 2 tattoo tools have their advantages and weaknesses. They both have convenient sides and inconvenient sides.
Today, I will tell you how to use the 2 kinds of tattoo machines. Coil tattoo machine first. As you know coil tattoo machines have different shapes and materials. Then how to choose a coil tattoo machine? Firstly, the material. There are many different materials. Such as brass, iron, stainless steel, aluminum alloy, even wood, and plastic. Which one suits you? Its conductivity, permeability, comfort, and convenience are different due to different materials. You can choose them depending on your habits and convenience. Generally, metal tattoo machines are better than others. Since we need an electrical tool, we should consider its conductivity and permeability. Brass and stainless steel ( especially brass) have better conductivity and permeability. After assembling a tattoo machine, we will add many accessories to it to get better conductivity and permeability. Well, I will tell you the functions of all kinds of tattoo machine accessories and matters that need attention to assembling. So I will disassemble a coil tattoo machine. If you meet problems while using a tattoo machine, you can fix them by yourself. This machine in my hand is made of zinc alloy. Now I‘m gonna disassemble it. What matters do we need to pay attention to while disassembling? Please look at the area of the contact screw. It’s called a contact screw. A contact screw works as a switch. It touches the spring directly. When the machine is powered on, the current goes through a spring which will cause electromagnetic power.
A contact screw can be made of brass, iron, silver, or stainless steel. Brass and silver are better. Most of the contact screws are made of brass. The contact screw belongs to consumable goods. Why did I say that? Because there may be sparks between the screw and the spring, accompanied by electricity and magnetism. The contact screw will be attrited gradually if it causes sparks. When the contact screw touches the spring it will be attrited. Once the contact screw is attrited., the tattoo machine will work fast or slowly, and the power of it will be strong or weak when we use the machine. How does it happen? Because the amplitude of the spring depends on the pressure exerted by the contact screw. The contact screw just needs to gently touch the spring, then we twist it one and a half to two circles. Don’t make contact screw too tight. Or the armature bar cannot move up and down. As a result, the machine cannot work. The machine cannot work either when the voltage is too low or if the contact screw is too loose. So we twist the contact screw one and a half to two circles. Neither too tight nor too loose. After that, we can tighten this small screw. The space between the contact screw and spring will change once the contact screw is attrited. So I usually adjust the contact screw instead of voltage after the machine works for a couple of hours or the whole day. I don’t agree to adjust the voltage. If you adjust the voltage every time the machine is not powerful enough, you will find out that it still works slowly even if the voltage is very high. If the voltage is too high, the machine will heat up and there will be other problems. The machine will even be damaged. So I advise you to adjust the contact screw rather than the voltage. Now I am disassembling the contact screw. This screw is used to fix the contact screw. It had better be plastic. Plastic can fix it (contact screw) better. If the screw is metal it will become loose with long-term vibration. Then contact screw will shake. Once it shakes, the space between the contact screw and spring will change. Well, the accessory under the contact screw is a spring.
Here are 2 tattoo machines. Let’s compare them. Compared with the armature bar, its spring is long, as long as the armature bar. In this machine, its spring is shorter than the armature bar. Why is it different? Generally, the machine with a shorter spring is a liner machine. the machine with a longer spring is a liner machine. What’s the difference? I don’t mean the liner machine can only be used for the outline, shader machine can only be used for shading. It depends on our needs when we make a tattoo. What’s the difference between the liner machine and the shader machine? A short spring vibrates more frequently than a longer one. Then the needle will also work faster. The needle moves up and down quickly. When we are making an outline, we have to work quickly, so we need a tattoo machine to vibrate faster. so that the dots will be denser. The line will look more real. When we are using a liner machine, since the needle works faster, the needle depth will be shorter. For many tattoo beginners or when we make dense lines, a longer needle depth will be better, And we can see the outline if the needle depth is long. The tattoo will be made more accurately. If we need longer needle depth, the tattoo machine should have a longer spring. The spring is shorter, its frequency will be faster. If spring is long, the amplitude of needles is large, which means needle depth is long. Long spring means long needle depth. It also means the needle works slowly. Of course, we can make it faster by adjusting the voltage. Because we can change the frequency of the machine by adjusting the voltage. This is the front spring. The rear spring on the liner machine is different from the shader machine. The liner machine needs a harder and thicker spring. Because we need the spring to work quickly and keep a certain strength. So a rear spring should be thicker than a front spring. We need a shader machine to have a large amplitude of spring, so the spring should be softer. Some machines only have a single spring. The quality of a single spring maybe not be so good. If the front spring and rear spring are clearly separated, and their thickness is obviously different, then the performance of this machine may be very good. That’s all about springs.
Well, I continue to disassemble it. Here we go. If the armature bar is too close to or too far away from the coils, we can make the washer on the rear spring thicker to change its distance. Let me disassemble it firstly, Here are 2 springs. This screw is used to fix the spring. This is a needle grommet to fix tattoo needles. This one is called the armature bar. What’s its function? When we install an armature bar, we should make it paralleled with this coil. They are not paralleled before the tattoo machine works. But they should be paralleled once the machine works. The gap between the armature bar and coil should be close to the thickness of a piece of A4 paper. If the armature bar touches the coil, it will be adsorbed onto the coil. So there must be a gap between them. But the gap can not be big, otherwise, the coils cannot produce enough electromagnetic force and armature bars cannot work powerfully. So the armature bar shouldn’t touch coils when the machine is working. Remember that there must be a gap between them. Liner machines and shader machines require different armature bars. A liner machine needs to vibrate faster. A heavy armature bar will prevent the liner machine from working fast. To make liner machines vibrate faster, we need a light armature bar. Generally speaking, the armature bar can vibrate more quickly when it is light, small, and thin. In order to make the lines look nice, we need to make the dots dense, since the line is made up of dots. If the dots are dense, the color will look bright. That’s why the liner machines need to work fast. In a word, the armature bar should be light for the liner machine. It is on the contrary when we shade. A shader machine needs a heavy armature bar. In order to get a heavy enough armature bar, we can make it wider and thicker. The heavy armature bar vibrates slowly. Why do we need a heavy armature bar when shading? When we are shading, especially doing light shading, for example, portrait tattoos, sometimes the shade just need 30% or less, then the needles need to work slowly. We need to do shading little by little, so the shader machines need to vibrate slowly, otherwise, the color would be dark. When the shader machine becomes very slow, it may have no power. If the needle works slowly, it may not penetrate the skin when meeting the resistance of the skin. If we want the needle to work slowly and penetrate the skin, we can only make it by increasing the weight of the armature bar. For example, I hit myself with a light pole, which may not hurt me since this pole is light. If I hit myself with a heavy pole, I will feel pain even if I hit myself gently. That’s because the pole is heavy. The same thing goes for the armature bars. Well, I just talked about the differences between liner machines and shader machines. This accessory is used to fix the contact screw.
It is a contact point of coils behind this accessory. Look here, there is a washer. This washer is necessary for tattoo machines. If there is no washer, what will happen? Without washer, we can use a frequency regulator which can change the speed of the tattoo machine to make the machine work slowly. It sounds like da da da. Ink can be delivered into the skin even if the machine works slowly. Then we do dot effects and light shade effects. If you take advantage of a frequency regulator, then remove the rubber ring, the machine will become a tool for special effects. Let me remove it. This is the contact point for coils. And this contact point is for the armature bar. This is a tattoo tube clamp. Let me try to install the tube. Insert the tube and twist tube clamp. I take the tube off. This screw is for fixing the tube clamp. Finally, only 2 coils are left. There are 2 screws below the coils. I am unscrewing the 2 screws. As you see, there is a tattoo machine yoke.
What is its function? It is used to conduct magnetism. As I said just now, tattoo machine frames can be made of different materials. If the machine frame is made of alloy, stain steel, or acrylic, the 2 coils cannot produce the strongest power without a yoke. Without a yoke, the2 coils may work independently. The machine may not be powerful enough. So you need to add a yoke under the 2 coils to make them produce the strongest power. What’s the function of the 2 holes? This is for clip cords. Clip cords hook here. Take off the clip cord. Here is a washer. It is also necessary. Look, this is a tattoo machine frame. And here are 2 tattoo machine coils. The quality of the tattoo machine depends on the copper wire inside the coils. Different copper wire produces different power. Let’s disassemble it and take a look. This is a plastic wrap. I separate the two coils I will pick out the copper wire. We often ask the seller the tattoo machine coil is 8 wraps, 10 wraps, or 12 wraps. What’s the difference? The more wrap, the more copper wire the coils have, the stronger the power of the machine.
Do we always need to buy a powerful machine? It’s not true. A tattoo machine with 10 wrap coils must have strong power. When the shader machine whose armature bar is heavy works slowly, we need to use a 10 or 12 warp coil machine to make it powerful. We don’t need a very powerful machine if we want it to work fast, which means 8 wrap or 10 wrap is enough. What is a wrap? You will understand if I take this line apart. Take this copper wire apart, This is a wrap. Let’s continue. This is the 2nd wrap. This is the 3rd wrap. The fourth wrap. The fifth wrap. The sixth wrap. The 7th. Then the 8th wrap. Finally, we see a coil core. Here it is. There is an iron core inside it. The iron core is used to conduct electricity and magnetically. There is a small capacitor between the coils. Well, these are all tattoo machine accessories. What do we need to pay attention to when using the machine?
You will meet many problems when using the machine. For example, the tattoo machine cannot work. Many people think the machine is broken. Actually, it’s because you didn’t adjust the machine before.
Step1, check whether the power supply works after you install a tattoo machine. If it works, the display of the power supply will show voltage. If the power supply is okay, then adjust it to 6V. Of course, you can adjust it to 5V, 7V, or 8V according to your habit. I usually adjust it to 6V or 7V. The different power supply provides different currents. And different machines need different strengths. So the power supply does not have a certain value. But the voltage shouldn’t be too high or too low. Well, I adjust it to 7V. The display is on, so the power supply is okay. As you see, it has 2 holes. This hole is used to insert a foot pedal. The other hole is used to insert a clip cord. What I said just now is about the power supply.
Step2, if the power supply works, you can check the clip cord. Check if there is any problem with the soldering here. So we need to pinch the connector rather than pull the wires when we unplug it. That’s the right way to unplug it. Then check if your clip cord hooks the machine or not. Some machines are covered with paint, some insulators on the clip cord are long. Therefore, when it is moving, the insulators may separate it from the machine, which may cause a temporary short circuit. Sometimes the 2 holes on the machine may be too big. The clip cord will not always be parallel to the machine when tattooing because we need to change the angle. Then the machine has poor contact. As a result, the machine will continue to stop working when tattooing. If it happens, that’s because the clip cord goes wrong. You need to fix the clip cord. Make it is mounted on the machine. Do not let the clip cord hang on something when tattooing. If the hook line is dragged by something, we will get into trouble tattooing. So generally don't hang it on something, just leave it alone. If it is long, you can hang it in a high place. Or sometimes we hang it on ourselves. Just to make the clip cord move freely. In short, you need to make it freer. Make sure it can move easily. This knowledge is about the clip cord.
Step3, if the clip cord is okay, check if the contact screw touches the spring or not. We twist the contact screw one and a half to two circles. Then check if there is any other dirt on the spring. Sometimes, vaseline or hair may be stuck here when tattooing which may cause a short circuit. Meanwhile, move the armature bar. Why do we move it? The purpose is to check if there is an obstacle when it is moving up and down. The obstacle may come from the needle. If the needle is stuck in the back stem, or in the tip, or it is stuck by the dry color, or the tip doesn’t fit the needle, which is harmful to the armature bar to move. If the armature bar can move normally like this when you press it, then the armature bar is okay.
Step4, check the rubber bands. Why do we need to fasten rubber bands to it? Since the needle is fixed on the armature bar, there will be space inside the tips. The needle will swing during the movement. You can observe it through the tattoo tip. If the needle and tip are not parallel, which means they are not in one line during the movement, then you should pull the rubber band until the needle and tip are parallel. Let the needle move like this. The strength of the rubber band is enough. So don’t make the rubber band too tight. There is a big chance for tattoo beginners to make this mistake. They often make the rubber band very tight. At this time, the needle and the armature bar will be fixed tightly if the rubber band is too tight. and the armature bar will not move. The machine will not work. So you need to check the power supply, the clip cord, the contact screw, the armature bar, and the rubber bands before tattooing. If all of are okay, you can begin to use the machine. If the machine still doesn't work, you should check if the wire inside the clip cord is broken, or if the foot pedal connector is broken. You can use two clip cords, two power supplies, and two-foot pedals to test. And figure out which product is broken. You can figure it out if you test like this. That’s all about the coil tattoo machine.
Well, let’s talk about rotary tattoo machines. In fact, it is also a coil inside it. However, the 2 kinds of coil need different winding method and thickness. The rotary tattoo machine is lighter and more convenient to use. It is very suitable for small tattoos. I often use a rotary tattoo machine to make small tattoos and details. Its disadvantage is that we may not be able to use it when we make a large tattoo. We need a more powerful tattoo machine if we are making back tattoos, or make thicker lines, or do dark shading. At this time, the power of the rotary tattoo machine is slightly weaker. The advantage of the coil tattoo machine is that it is quick to get started, and the power is strong. Its disadvantage is that it’s not easy to control. There are many difficulties in using. If you want to control the coil machine skillfully, you need a very long time professional training and practice. These are the differences between these 2 kinds of machines. This kind of rotary tattoo machine is called a tattoo pen which just needs a cartridge needle. Insert a cartridge needle directly. This kind of rotary tattoo machine needs a grip. A coil tattoo machine also needs a grip. What kind of grip should we use?
There are many types of tubes. There are aluminum tubes, of various shapes, cartridge tubes, silicone grips, and heavy grips. It depends on your habit to choose a grip. The advantage of silicone grip is anti-slip. It does not slip when tattooing. Some metal grips are light, some are heavy. I recommend you to use heavy ones. You had better use heavy grips when you are making a line that is long or coherent, or when you need to do large shading. So the machine will work stably. A light grip will make the tattoo not smooth enough when we are doing lines because the tattoo machine will shake when it’s working. A heavy grip will prevent the machine from shaking heavily which means the machine will work stably. So I recommend you to use a heavy grip when you are using a coil machine. You can use a silicone or lighter grip if your operation skill is professional and you can finish it soon. Of course, the premise is that you don’t need to do dark shading in this tattoo. A lighter grip makes it more convenient for you to control the machine. What I share with you today is about coil machines and rotary tattoo machines. If you want to watch more wonderful tattoo tutorial videos, remember to subscribe to my channel. I will make three series of tattoo tutorials. Each series has about 30 to 50 knowledge points. The first series is mainly about basic knowledge. About tattoo needle skills, tattoo machine skills, and tattoo tools. The second series is mainly about tattoo styles and tattoo operations. The third series is mainly about the techniques to make a real tattoo. Remember to subscribe to my channel.
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