I’m going to start out this time with a quick tip that will immediately improve the performance of your machines.

When preparing the mounting screw used to fasten the armature bar to the springs, make sure the screw is ferric (not stainless steel). The drilled and threaded hole in the armature bar has to be completely filled. This screw needs to be long enough so when both spring washers and dress-up buttons etc. are in place, at least two threads protrude though the underside of the armature. This extra length needs to be cut down flush as you de-plate the contact side of the A-Bar. Float filing is preferred, yet a quick way is the use of emery cloth (not sandpaper) on a flat surface. The filling of the A-Bar’s hole gives the rear coil a flat full surface to react with. But now, the A-Bar is somewhat out of balance with the core and yoke! Solution? Removing the nipple from the A-Bar, drilling and replacing with a stainless steel dowel brings it back into sync (a stainless dowel or spring pin in the A-Bar hole doesn’t register in the crucial ferric balance.)

Now, to the topic at hand. Most of us tattoo folks power our tools with converted AC current. You battery people, you know who you are, just hold tight. Yours is a flavor trail of maintenance mayhem that most find difficult to swallow. Pure DC current is the “perfect juice” but, bittersweet. Baking soda, white grease, multiple resistor blocks, corrosion covers, charging timers…yada, yada, yada. Great current, a bitch to manage “properly.” Enough a dis!

AC current comes to you traveling in supposedly constant waves of 50 or 60 cycles (depending on which part of the world in which you reside.) Unfortunately this electrical anarchy, as it were, second by second is lazy, spiky and unpredictable. Remember that we’re online with who knows what; robbing the stability of flow to the transformer (power supply.) Simple fix: spend a hundred or so bucks on a UPS (uninterrupted power supply). These surge protectors filter the incoming current by holding a charge in AC voltages for an assigned time. The cost of these gadgets is related to the duration of time that they will supply power. The longer the time, the more expensive, for our work thirty seconds is more than adequate. Clean, stable AC power to the transformer is key to overall current control.

Many different circuits are used as tattoo power supplies and understanding the specs is a good thing. Ask your technician about DC ripple.

By using an oscilloscope you can measure the ripple given off by any DC power supply. Once you have that measurement, you can layer the coils on the tattoo machine to accommodate for the inadequacy of the supplied power. What? “Dirty” power needs more wire on the coils. “Dirty” will be discussed later.

I think this is a good time to clear up the terms used in our trade in reference to coils. Wraps, you know… 8 – 10 –12, is not a term used by electromagnetic wire winding professionals. The term is layer. E.g.: How many turns per layer. Layer is the word NOT WRAPS. Damn! It really comes down to how much wire (in feet). Try it this way: tattoo machine coils, as a pair, have resistance of 1.0 ohm to 3.0 ohms. Let’s split the difference and call it 2.0 ohms. One foot of 24g wire, poly-over-vinyl, “55 proof” copper magnet wire will measure .001 ohms per ft. Now, divide your desired resistance of 1.0 ohm per coil (2 ohms per pair) by .001 and the magic number is?…measured in? This equation gives you the length of wire in feet needed on the coils, not wraps…dig? But all of that is really moot if your core material is greater than 1010 carbon. Then there’s the question of core metallurgy, and the coil iron is only 25% of the magnetic equation!

So what’s all the hub-bub, bub? Well…JUST EVERYTHING to the life span of the tattoo itself, including the tattooist’s long term reputation, and let’s not forget the individual wearing it. I know, on a personal level, I’m opposed to the two-year maintenance program. I love tattoos as much as the next guy, but once is plenty, thank you. But that’s just me…yeah right!

At this point you may want to sit up, take a deep, cleansing breath and prepare for “brain bleed” (wire specs).

At the manufacturing plant magnet wire is drawn down to the designated size using a drawn eye tool. When this tool is brand new, the first run material is near perfect in its minimal allowable tolerances. As this small tooling device wears out, the minimal tolerance starts to decay. When this occurs, the tool isn’t changed, only the grade identification number is changed. This first run is the most expensive for obvious reasons. For the remaining life of the tool, the wire produced is used for things like winding electric motors and generators. These applications are not as tolerance critical as our tattoo machine magnetics.

This first run wire is the key to solenoid fabrication. Ask yourself: “This machine sounds gravelly, why?”

Let’s target one of many answers.

The outside diameter (OD) of first run wire is precise over a determined length. Think of it this way. With inferior wire the current flow passes through inconsistent wire diameters, which I call “chokes and aneurysms.” Remember that after the magnetic field collapses in mid-stroke, it has to be refilled again at electrical contact. This reloading current must push itself through a restricted pass (thin wire) only to find itself in a large cavern. This cavern is equivalent to a reservoir. The current can’t move along its path until this space is completely filled. This damned confused current flow contributes to the gravelly sound that you hear. You hear? Now decompress.