What Should My Tattoo Power Supply Settings Be? (For Gun Speed)

Tattoo power supply settings can get a little difficult if you don’t know what you’re looking at. While some power supplies are too much primary, with simply a power button and a knob, some power supplies can come with digital screens, multiple knobs, multiple jacks and switches. It’s when you get to these machines that it can get a little confusing.

So what are all the settings obtainable on tattoo power supplies? And what does each one do? Let’s dive in and figure it out.

To start off, what accurately does a power supply do? Well, a tattoo power supply is what you use to not only transfer electricity to your tattoo machine but to monitor how much electricity is being fed to your tattoo machine at any given time.

Knowing that, what are all the available putting for a power supply and what do I need to set them at for a shader? For a liner?

Here’s the Short Answer

** Tattoo Liner Voltage

When doing line work, best practices indication you run your machine at 7.5-8.5 Volts.

** Tattoo Shader Voltage

When shading 8-10 Volts is what maximum artists use.

Basic Tattoo Power Supplies for Purchase

Let’s look at the most primary kind of tattoo power supply there is. With a basic box, there will only be a power switch, a phone-jack for your clip cord, a phone-jack for your foot pedal and a knob to control the voltage.

To manage these, you simply plug in your machine and foot pedal and then turn the machine on. Once powered on, you are going to synthesize the voltage to the level you need.

The amount of voltage is dependent on a handful of variables, but will usually always be somewhere between 4-12 volts. The first changeable is if you are trying to run your machine fast for lining or slow for shading. The voltage is the last system you want to use to speed up or slow down your machine, but usually, the higher the voltage, the faster the machine will go.

The second unstable will be the machine you will be using, and whether that machine is mechanically tuned to run fast or slow.

Best Tattoo Machines & Equipment For Beginners

Advanced Tattoo Power Supplies

So what about the more advanced machines? Some machines will come with plugs to run many machines at once. When this is the case, typically, they will be designate liner and shader. They do this so you can have your liner and shader installed at the same time. All you have to do is a switch that will be on the front of the machine to either L or S, depending on which machine you necessity to be using. This does not average you are limited to only hooking up a liner to the liner and a shader to the shader, it is just a way to label the jacks and knobs.

These kinds of tattoo power supplies come with a set of two knobs: one to rule the liner jack and one to control the shader jack. The knobs are going to correspond to the side a given jack is on. Meaning the left knob controls the left jack.

Sometimes these kinds of machines will have a digital screen that will tell you the present volts your machine is running at and the duty cycle.

All Digital Tattoo Power Supplies

Then there are the modern all-digital tattoo power supplies. They work in the exact same way, but there are no knobs. Instead, on the digital screen is a navigation menu you can usage to set the voltage.

With these, all-digital power supplies you can save presets for your favorite machines too, which makes the machine prepared to go with the push of a button.

Obtainable Tattoo Power Supply Settings and What They Mean

** Power Switch – The power switch is used to turn the tattoo power supply on and off.

** Phone Jacks – The jacks will be where you hook your machines and foot pedal the power supply.

** Switch – If your tattoo power supply has the option to hook up more than one machine, it will have a switch that is used to flip between the different machines you have hooked up.

** Digital screen – The digital screens will tell you information such as volts, duty etc.

** Knobs – The knobs will be used to control the level of volts you are running at any given time.

** Voltage – The voltage is the amount of power being given to your machine. Typically the upper the volts, the faster the machine will run, but the higher the volts the quicker the machine will overheat. A machine will require anywhere from 4-12 volts.

** Duty Cycle – The duty cycle of a machine is the percentage of time that the machine is on. What this means is the percentage of time that the contact screw is touching the front spring, thus opening the circuit. So if your machine is running at a 45% duty cycle that means your machine is on (the circuit is open) 45% of the time. The easiest way to synthesize your duty cycle is to adjust the distance between your contact screw and the front spring. The closer the contact screw is to the front pox the higher, the duty cycle. About 50% duty cycle is where you want to stay.

** What Speed Should a Tattoo Machine Run?

Contrary to what a lot of people believe when they are first starting out as a tattoo artist book, there are no right power supply settings. There are several basic guidelines you can follow, and you should be aware of what everything on the power supply does, but the settings are going to be destined by the individual tattoo machine and how you have it tuned.

Some things to keep in mind are – A tattoo machine work will run on 4-12 volts and the fewer volts you need to run a machine for the better.

Tattoo Holding Machines

Holding a tattoo machine correctly entails much more than just getting a good grip on it and digging right in.

All needle tubes should be stainless steel and all correctly manufactured stainless steel tubes come complete with a knurled grip on them. Knurling is a machinist’s term used for pieces of metal with lathed on “Crisscrosses” engraved in the metal, commonly used for grip-type surfaces. Metal knurled grips are much better than plastic or tape. With plastic type grips, llie hands seem to stick more to them and shifting of the machine can be erratic. Metal knurling provides a sure grip but also allows readjustment of the fingers much easier in case some shifting around of the machine is necessary.

Some tattooists propose light machines and some prefer heavy ones. This is why some manufacturers offer such models as “Lightweights,” but it should be kept in mind that any machine, no matter how hefty it might feel at first, wilt take some getting used to. But in the long run, it will feel quite good and stable to use. The machine also acts as a “Shock Absorber.” The tattoo machine when being used gives off vibrations and these can get you tired awfully fast. Just like certain stabilizers or heavy barrelled guns, the more metal there is. the more energy it will absorb, passing less vibration on to you. This is the idea behind tattoo machines and it should be kept in mind that the heft of a machine can actually move in your favor.