Serious spring question

noah313 · #1 01-19-2008, 12:07 PM

In the past 3 to 4 weeks, between me and my apprentice ( who now works for me) we have had 5 rear springs break on 5 different machines. 3 of the machines are Workhorse Irons ranging in age from two and half to a year and a half old. The other two are Next Generation machines that are about 7 months old. They use Eikon springs. We have changed nothing in our set up except we moved locations and I have my machines hanging on a hook when not in use. We bag our machines, spray them down with cava cide, let it sit for 10 minutes and wipe them down with alcohol. I have been tattooing for 6 years and in that time I have only broke one rear spring. This can not be a coincidence. Please if you have any suggestions or insight to my problem let me know I am tired of replacing springs. If I am doing something wrong, please educate me. thanks

hamlet · #2 01-19-2008, 01:30 PM

talk to dank he knows his s&!t ....hey dank where ya at ???

inkmunky · #3 01-19-2008, 01:37 PM

what hardware are you using on your spring shelf? do you have a spring saddle or large washer? I've noticed if the hardware is not wide enough it causes a lot of stress right around the hole/slot for the screw which can lead to microscopic cracks and eventually a snap.

machine springs are under a lot of stress, check your tension too.

Dank will either confirm this or tell me i'm completely wrong...

xtraevil6666 · #4 01-19-2008, 02:00 PM

Check your amature bar, if it is a bit on the long side this puts too much stress on rear spring causeing it to break.

noah313 · #5 01-19-2008, 03:54 PM

The problem is these are all the original setups both from workhorse and Next Gen. I haven't modified them at all until now. And they are liners and shaders. I can see if I had been messing with different springs and setups, I could have screwed something up. I don't know

lackthereof · #6 01-19-2008, 06:58 PM

The people at workhorse are pretty pleasant to deal with. Give 'em a shout.

I had a similar problem with a Pilot Deluxe, sent it back and turns out the the threaded hole on the spring shelf was slightly off center. SOBA punched some new springs and mailed it back in less than a week. Runs like a champ. He even replaced a slightly worn binding post.You only pay postage.

Doesn't seem likely that 5 machines would have this particular problem, but ... food for thought anyway.

conorblue · #7 01-20-2008, 10:38 AM

It seems to me that the rear spring breaking on workhorse machines is fairly common, ive worked with two people with workhorses and that happened with the soba pilot, and if you search it, you can find others on message boards that its happened to, however reliable you beleive that to be. maybe cranked too tight down, with not enough clamp. joey d uses two tight, custom drilled washers and im pretty sure sobas have two smaller, and maybe looser washers?

ive used tons of machines, and that has never happened to me. the machines i have used that i like the best, are usually smaller run, independently made. more is on the line for a handmade machine, and a little more room for error on production types i think. from using: pulse, next gen, time machine, micky sharpz etc. id dont know. maybe workhorse is getting too big, because i remember years ago, cifferri made a machine that couldnt be beat. hell he may still. but im guessing they are making a s&!t ton of machines and they might have a small error, or maybe the spring stock is wack?