Mine burnt me!

When I tattooed the cover up the other day, my shader machine, which is a cheepy (only a 60 dollar one), was running hot and while resting on the back of my hand for two and half hours caused my skin to blister. It wasn't painful and only blistered the top layer of skin, but maybe I should turn it down a little or just buy a better machine. Actually running it slower causes it to bog down too much in the skin causing it to snag in the skin sometimes. I tune my machines by sound and this one has a good hum around 12 volts. It's a 10 wrap coil. Should I just ditch this one or change something. It's reliable and does not tear up the skin running so strong, but is it running this hot a real problem? Maybe I just need to build some scar tissue and be a man. Lol. What do you think?

I think a machine running that hot has a coil issue. First thing I'd do is drop a few bucks on a better set of coils. You probably have a break in the wire that isn't enough to break continuity but it is enough to create heat. One of the downfalls of an inexpensive machine. Machines shouldn't heat up like that.

This advice is from wiring motorcycles and not experience with that problem on a tattoo machine.

Mark

12v sounds a bit to much for me, but it's a cheap machine, so i'll guess that's why, anyway, all machines work differently when it comes to voltages anyway, still, with cheap machines comes cheap materials and parts, some of those that can probably easily overheat or damage in short term, a good machine should allow you to work for several hours straight without doing that kind of damage, so if i were you i would go that way.

Thanks. I think i'll take the advice and buy a better machine.

None of my machines run at over 7v, I build my own machines and they usually run at between 4 and 5v. Even the cheap ass ones that came with the kit ran at 7v until i stripped them down and rebuilt them, now they also run between 4 and 5. Strip it down and see if you can spot any problems, if not decide whether you want to keep the frames and replace parts or just buy a new machine. The last thing you want is to damage your own skin while tattooing, not only for health reasons (I'm guessing the heat didn't burn through your gloves?) but also because if you are in pain how can you do your best work?

All machines run at different voltages but 12v is way too high, there are a few reasons it mat be heating up as others have discussed, but also look at whether you have too many elastic bands, or too tight - they're only there to hold the needles to the back of the tube tip, too many or too tight elastic bands make the whole A-bar set up difficult to move, as well as making the coils have to work much harder this also puts tons of strain on the back spring. The back spring also might be the problem, if it's too thick you have the same problem, combined with too many elastic bands...

My advice is to try and sort the problem out, learn your machines inside out so you can make repairs on the fly, by all means invest in a better machine but if you come across the same problem again you still won't know the cause. Also, if you just buy a new machine, how long will it take you to get it set up sweet as you like it?
If you don't want to get involved in tuning and knowing how to repair your machines then I reccomend buying a rotary. I have a stealth machine, takes a few secs to switch from liner to packer or shader (by changing the bearings - simple job involving 1 hex head screw), and if the motor burns out just a few screws need to be undone to replace the whole motor, the only setting up needed is how much needle you like to hang with.

Right on! No it didn't burn through my glove and I wasn't in any pain. I didn't even notice that it happened until I took off my gloves at the end. All I noticed was that the machine was running hot. But this is the first time I ever got a blister. I use only one rubber band but now that you say something about that it makes sense. I think the bands I use are too tight. They tend to bog my machines down a consideralble about and cause me to have to turn up the volts. I've stripped my machines down a few times but I have very little knowledge of electricity. Guess its time to study! I'll learn about springs too. Thanks for the info.

I would agree with everyone 100%, and I agree with Trantula 100% as well. I dont want to sound like a advertisement here but I love my Hildebrandt machines ALL OF THEM coils and rotarys. They were relatively inexpensive and operate excellent....
Entirely up to you, but at least give them a look.

I will. Thanks.

Have to agree with everyone, sounds like a coil or capacitor problem. 12v does sound high to me, but I'm not going to say it's too high. The voltage people run their machines at completely depends on that person and how they tune their machine. I will say that I've found that running machines at lower voltages lets you work longer and in my opinion gives more control over what you want to do with your machines. Of course you said it was a cheapo machine which means the coils could be crap metal for cores and crap wire for wraps and even a crap capacitor, combined those factors could make it so that you have to use more voltage to get the same results you'd get with a nice set of coils at much less voltage.

Try some new coils and see what it does.

Changed the back spring to a thinner one and whola! Now running at 8.5, tested it out and it runs cooler. I'm still thinking about switching to rotary and I will definatley be buying better machines. Thanks everyone!