First time with a tattoo machine and having power problems! (2025)

Hey everyone, I’m Yuto. I recently graduated from stick n pokes to having a brand new Yuelong tattoo machine kit (coil I believe) gifted to me by a friend who said I had too much talent to be stick and poking. I’m really thrilled, but having some trouble getting the thing to power up.

95% sure I set it up correctly, the power supply lights up and I can adjust the voltage no problem, but when I hit the foot petal I don’t get even a hint of power into the machine itself. Safe to say I’m pretty confused, and I’ve watched a bunch of videos and studied my instructions in detail but to no avail. Does anyone have a suggestion on what I can try? I have some fresh oranges just begging to be practiced on.

Cyberthrasher706 said:

Is it new? If used, did it work before?
Make sure :
-the contact screw is adjusted right,
-dirty contacts
-it has enough voltage (cheap kits can require a lot of volts),
-The foot switch and clip cord are plugged into the right jacks
-loose/broken wires on the machine

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And even with enough volts, those things are so out of whack that they simply dont run. They have super thick rear springs with a lot of tension, so you hit the foot pedal and the A-bar will move but will never break contact.

Chustik said:

And even with enough volts, those things are so out of whack that they simply dont run. They have super thick rear springs with a lot of tension, so you hit the foot pedal and the A-bar will move but will never break contact.

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That's pretty bad. I thought the springs on the cheap ones I started playing with were thick, but at least they moved by 8 or 9 volts.

Cyberthrasher706 said:

That's pretty bad. I thought the springs on the cheap ones I started playing with were thick, but at least they moved by 8 or 9 volts.

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Usually they run, but i have seen a couple that didnt. Just realease some tension from the backspring and they begin working again.

Hey again everyone! Thanks sooo much for your input. I checked over everything and I’m just not sure I did it right now.

Here’s an album of the kit and assembled machine. After some adjustments, when I hit the foot pedal while it’s on I can kinda hear some action but the tattoo machine itself has zero response.

Cyberthrasher706 said:

That needle bar looks pretty tight to the back of the tube. Go ahead and remove the rubber bands for now to test. It's possible there's too much drag, but you should still get something more then what you're describing.
You can also try flipping the clip cord on the machine. There is a positive/negative. They'll run both ways, but it will run like crap if the negative is on the bottom. And just to be sure, your clip cord plugs into the right jack on the power supply closest to the screen.

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Fantastic, I’ll try that as soon as I’m off work. I did it that way after watching a video on the matter, didn’t think it was an option to remove them! Thanks so much for the advice. I’ll post again with an update.

yuto said:

Fantastic, I’ll try that as soon as I’m off work. I did it that way after watching a video on the matter, didn’t think it was an option to remove them! Thanks so much for the advice. I’ll post again with an update.

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They're there to stabilize things and you'd normally want them there. But, if they're too tight they'll act like a brake. If the needle is already too far back because the armature bar isn't long enough than the bands are just going to make it even worse. So, for now taking them off is just a test to see if that's what you're dealing with.

2 questions :

When you press the foot pedal does it sound like current is running through the machine?

When you remove the rubber bands, do you see a spark on the armature bar?

I hate these machines so much but when I had one my issues were always setup / tuning related until the capacitor just shit itself.

i'd like to add that - awesome on going for a coil machine.

learning on a coil. learning to tune them & how the skin & everything reacts to different settings makes for a very solid tattoo foundation in my opinion.

I have recently retired my coils... but i still love them.

I second that coil statement.

I only switched to rotaries because I'm left handed and the machine sits easier with my hand angle without the coil weight.

I absolutely love the lines you can get with a coil though. Definitely the best instrument to learn the fundamentals with as well as get rid of insecurities with hand movements.