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For the last couple of issues I took a major dive into the harsh realm of atomic equations and as important as these mathematical puzzles effect the efficiency and performance of the tattoo machine, it’s time perhaps to move to some of the everyday situations. So on a lighter note let’s step back for the moment to the device that delivers juice to the machine i.e., the power cord.
The industry standard for many years has been basically 18/2 zip cord (lamp cord) usually black, and that’s fine. The clipcord style connection (still the most widely used form of power connection) is not without a few inherent problems.
The length of the cord itself plays a small yet significant roll in the fact that over any given length; the delivered voltage will drop, to a degree. Now granted most of us don’t use a fifty-foot cord, that’s just silly. Six and eight are most common. Keep in mind what 18/2 means - eighteen being the gauge of wire and two, meaning the number of leads in a particular housing. Contained inside each of the leads are, depending on the manufacturer, somewhere between 32 to 40 strands of wire. These wires measure only .005 to .007 in diameter. Each one of these small strands will carry a measurable amount of current to the machine. Ask yourself, what happens if just one of these fragile wires should break? Does this diminish the performance of the machine? Yes, too a degree, yet the machine continues to run along as nothing has happened, all the while there’s an oxidation process going on inside the housing that is slowly destroying the strand next to the first broken one and growing like a bacteria next to the next wire, and so on until you’re only one strand away from a complete clipcord failure. All the while nothing appears to be going wrong. On the contrary, we’re forcing each thread to take on more current load. This choking starves the machine of the proper juice it needs to maintain efficiency, therefore causing an over heating problem.
What to do, what to do? One reason for this continued strand deterioration is the fact that you can’t see inside the wire housings, as the green goblins start to eat away at the remaining strands. Easy solution; use clear speaker wire. Now when the green goblin shows its ugly head, you can; nip it in da bud. When copper oxidizes it puts off a lime green color that can be recognized easily, when using clear speaker wire. This strand breaking usually starts just behind the spring on the clipcord, easy to see, easy to repair.
Now to the connection itself. While the old standard clipcord device is quick and for the most part, carry current o.k., there is something to be said for the actual point of contact. A small, but significant amount of current is lost; after all, the clipcord to saddle and too the rear binder connections are just touching, while the machine is in constant motion as you move through the tattoo. Don’t get me wrong; for the first fifteen years I personally used this type of power connection and never realized just how unstable it was until I was turned on to the jack/plug set-up. The improvement is; well, lets say all my personal machines have been converted.
There’s a couple of advantages. First with the plug/jack configuation the current is sustained because the connection never waivers. The other great thing is, in the transition, when moving from a machine push movement, to a pull machine movement there’s no clipcord weight shift that can slow you down, simply waiting on the cord to settle before moving.
Now I realize that this short measurement of time may seem to be a bit trivial. But over a period of hours this adds up to who knows how many minutes wasted that could be used on the next job in line. Therefore having a direct influence on your days wage, from observing today’s tattooer this small amount of time is probably not so important, but also feel I can say with confidence that everyone that’s worked a military/ high volume shop, every minute counts. Time is $$$$$$$$$$$.
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