Lucky Museum Machine...testing, testing

Since my last post, I finished making parts & doing all the assembly for the Luckys Museum "Hugo" Machine.
With that all done, next on my agenda was:

• get it running.
• establish it's optimum voltage range while drawing the minimum amps.
• fine tune it to work smoothly within that voltage range.
• test how well it will lay ink into skin.

Luckys Museum "Hugo" Machine assembled & awaiting tests

Why run tests:

I'll state here & now that I've no idea how others go about testing their newly built Machines...

...and nor do I profess to have all the answers needed to build Machines...

I know what works for me, so I'm following a tried & proven process that I've always used.

And in doing so, those same processes are continuing to work well for these current Machines.

Part of that process involves testing how well the Machine will lay (punch) ink into the skin.

Being a typical Old School Tattoo Artist, I only use myself as the "Guinea Pig" to run the first tests & have found my foot & ankle to be the best "test subject".

On the foot, you'll find the skin structure changes quite dramatically within a small space & so it allows you to test hard into soft skin, including taunt & loose skin. 

If you've got a preference for Big Liners, then you can quickly establish if the Machine is going to be up to the task of punching a large pattern into tough, hard skin.

I decided on using a 9 Liner for my tests...

...this Machine just pushed the ink in without any dramas!
I even used it like a Round Shader at one stage, just to see if it could keep up & continue laying ink in...

...this Machine didn't miss a beat!
Here's a photo showing my foot with it's new additions...
...they now join all those other test results from 20+ years of Machine building.

My foot with the results from testing this new Machine

I've tuned this Machine to run exactly how all the Aussie Old School Tattoo Artists ran their Thin Armature Machines...fast!!
As with all the Machines I've built, they're designed to work within a range so that you can use a variety of different sized Liners, using just that one Machine.
In this case, the Luckys Museum "Hugo" Machine can run 3, 5, 7, 9 & most likely an 11 Liner just by dialling up through it's voltage range.

This Machine has a voltage range from 9V through to 11V & draws low amps of 0.3A to just over 0.35A.

Lucky Museum Machine...aka the "Hugo"

As mentioned in the previous post, I'm building a Thin Armature Machine for Luckys Tattoo Museum.
The Museum is part of Luckys Tattoo & Medical Supplies which is owned by Jimmy Whitlock.


What's in the name of a Frame:
Whilst looking at the prototype Machines, Jimmy happened to mention that my Frames looked similar to a Bulldog style of Frame.
Strangely enough, it was only from looking through Jimmy's online Tattoo Museum that I'd recently found out that there was an actual name for this style of Frame...you live & learn!!

So I guess these Frames that I'm making are what you'd call an "Aussie" Bulldog.

All of which is kind of ironic because our beloved pet dog was an Aussie Bulldog named Hugo.
Sadly though after 11 years, Hugo is no longer with us.
So if these Aussie Bulldog Frames must have a distinct name to go by, then I'll just call them a "Hugo".

Hugo 

Luckys Museum "Hugo" Machine:
I've managed to make a good start & so have finished hand making the Frame.
All of the current Frames will be stamped with my name followed by the year they've been made, so in this case it reads:  C.CREED 2011

Still need to cut a Top Spring to suit, finish all the assembly, then it's time to do some fine tuning.
As with all my Machines, it will be run as is to allow everything to bed in properly, then measured, stripped down & the Frame will go off to be chrome plated to stop any rusting.
Once back from the Chromers, everything will be reassembled to the previous measurements, tuned & used a number of times to test everything is still all working correctly.
Then it'll be posted off to Jimmy for his Tattoo Museum.

Here's some photos of how it's looking like so far.