Hello from Seattle!

[donovangesting]

My Name is Donovan and I’m 38 years old. I have been an artist all my life with minor success. I worked in the Printing Industry for a dozen years as a Prepress Tech/Designer and pressman. I have a cousin who is an established Tattoo Artist and is training me. I wanted to setup here since I will have many questions and hope to learn from your critiques. I would say my first question to start this off is…

“I have arching from my front spring to the contact screw on my Liner Machine. Why is this and what can I do to fix it?

Thank you, I wish to learn.

Donovan Gesting

p.s. Below is the last practice piece on pigskin.

[Johnny]

Please clarify, does your front spring stay bent when your armature bar is pressed down? Do you have an o-ring around your front spring? Seems like you may have too much of a bend or pressure on the rear spring, putting too much pressure on your front spring, or you are using a long thin front spring like you would use on a shader.

[donovangesting]

Thanks for replying Johnny,
It looks like the front spring goes along with the armature bar but yes it stays in place. There is an o-ring under the front spring and around the back of the armature bar. You might have something with the gauge of the front spring, its the same gauge as my Shader. what gauge should a liner be at?

[Johnny]

Typically 18ga short. 20ga wide rear. But some people use all kinds of different combos depending on needle groupings, and personal preference. If your front spring is long and thin, and you are trying to line with that setup, its going to be hard to get your machine to go fast enough to actually be a liner since the front spring will be bending, and absorbing speed on the upward stroke, effectively slowing your machine down. Try adjusting your fron binding post by turning it so that it is facing almost straight up and down, then turn your contact screw in until you get about a dime width gap, then see how it runs. Let me know how this works.

[donovangesting]

Thanks Johnny, I will keep you posted.

[Author]

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