So you’ve got a portfolio of awesome, custom tattoo flash, a small following of your close friends, a slick leather jacket, some wicked neck tattoos, and a couple of hours’ worth of time behind a tattoo machine but until you can take care and maintain your own equipment, you’re still a relative amateur. Maintaining your tattoo machine, like anything, require some basic knowledge and understanding of its components, and some minor technical details. Regardless of how deep you decide you want to get into it all, it’s just as important to know how to carefully setup your tattoo machine, from the start.
For starters, familiarize yourself with a three standard parts of the machine. The contact screw, the front spring, and the armature bar, are the three tattoo machine parts we need to know to perform this basic setup. Always remember to hold down the armature bar when adjusting the contact screw up or down for the work you are doing. For fine lines, you want to set the gap between the front spring and the contact screw to about dime width. Nickel width is appropriate for doing shading. After you’ve set the desired gap, always ensure to tighten the contact screw’s locking device.
Before continuing with your work, check the functionality of your tattoo machine’s new setup. Connect your foot pedal and clip cord to the power source and the machine itself. Turn everything on, to see if you’ve hooked your tattoo machine up correctly. It is important to remember that you never forget to hold down the armature bar when setting your gapping for the type of job you are doing. Voltage settings for new tattooists are at about a 7-8 for lining, and 8-9 for shading. Safety and sanitation are always a crucial consideration, so keep these in mind when performing any adjustments on the fly.
Tags: armature bar, contact screw, front spring, tattoo flash, tattoo machine, tattooists