How to Make a Simple Tattoo Machine

Video Transcript

"The first thing I guess the skeleton of the whole thing is the frame. The machine frame. So basically it's comprised of two vice here. This is where the needle goes into. Here are the front and binding posts. This is where the bar attaches to, and your front binding post. And then, you've got some holes drilled in the frame here for your coils. So, these are the machine coils, basically current goes through the coils, charging these little electromagnets and it pulls the armature bar forward against them and as it pulls it forward, this little gear spring, or the front spring breaks contact. So, basically, it oscillates, you know, opening and closing the circuit here and that's what makes the machine work. The coils being intermittently charged and creating an electromagnetic field that pulls the armature bar back and forth. So, these coils attach to the frame, here. On the front coil here, the machine operates properly. I've got a little tiny shim. So the front coil sits slightly higher than the rear coil. And then, we've got those tightened down here. Having the entire of the inside of the coil with no air space in it, filled up with the screw is also important. Having a gap in the inside of your coils makes it so that you don't get as strong or as clean of a magnetic field. On your electrical connections, you have these little insulating washers. These connections can't be touching the frame or else it will ground out. So. This one. I've got the little connecting piece with the insulating washers. Let me just tighten that down. It's got a little hole in it for the clip cord here. And then on this front brining post, it has the little insulators as well. So, all of your electrical connections are insulated from the frame. And that piece goes on there just like that. Like I said, all these pieces, you can buy on the Internet. From lots of different supply companies. You're not going to be able to find any of these pieces in your backyard, so unless you're actually a tattoo artist working in a shop, you probably aren't going to sell to you. So if you're trying to make a homemade tattoo gun, to tattoo your friends as opposed to you know, if you're a tattoo artist building a tattoo machine, the word gun and machine there is used to give people an idea about the difference between what's happening in penitentiary and at house parties as opposed to what's happening in a professional environment. So there's the alright just attach the front and rear spring, which was already attached to armature bar on the frame here. And then, what we've got left is the thumbscrew for the tube vice. Screw that right in there like that. And then, a clip cord. Which will attach to the power supply hooks up like that. And there you have a working tattoo machine."