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View Full Version : HM adjustable Direct Drive review.



MickWrath
02-24-2013, 01:27 AM
Ok as promised here is my review of Roman's new HM Adjustable Direct Drive Rotary. First let me start by saying Roman, aside from being one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, is very close to his customers. This not only applies to his amazing customer service but his willingness to make special runs of machines for those of us that need little adjustments to suit how we tattoo and what works for us. Seriously one of this industries best builders in every aspect. Now on to the machines...I've been running these guys with Ttechs and 1" tapered easy grips with amazing success in all fields. The fit, finish, and quality of the machines is top tier. The size of these machines actually surprised me a little as I expected a bigger and heavier machine than what it actually is. The balance is beautiful with a stainless grip and still very nice with disposables. The vice is very strong and secure and locks up very positive with no play. It's perfect. The RCA connection fits even cheap radio shack cords snug and secure and almost clicks in. The adjustability is very ingenious and very easy to use. The brass excenter has 4 notch lines on the base and 1 on the top dovetailed piece that simply slides to your stroke length, held in place by a case hardened Allen screw. The screw joins the pieces as one and locks very securely and there is no worry of play believe me. The powerful 22mm Maxon engine drives the machine very smooth, consistent, and almost silently. I use silicone tubing for grommets as it provides a very slight organic type cushion that takes that nail driving edge off of a direct drive machine. When paired with ttechs you get a beautiful coupling of a no give machine that is very forgiving. I'm running smaller groupings between 7-7.5 volts and larger groupings between 7.5-8 volts. When you set the stroke to 2.5mm the machine performs black and grey tasks with such forgiveness and smooth gradients it makes it almost effortless. Many black and grey machines set at 2.5 still require proper hand speed and hand technique to achieve powder smooth gradients but this is not the case with this machine set up with the silicone grommet and ttechs. My hand speed and technique had very little to do with how smooth the greys came out with Fusion premix. It was almost harder to not achieve smooth gradients than it was to achieve them which makes it very user friendly. It truly allows you to focus just on your artwork and less on application technicalities. The same was true for soft color blending when set from 2.5-3.5mm. Beautifully smooth, and opaque without complete saturation is very achievable within this stroke range and IMHO one of the hardest effects to achieve on skin. You move from 3.5-4.5 and you have yourself an amazing color workhorse. From solids to colorbomb, blended to complete saturation it can do it all. Larger mags from 15-27 work amazing in this stroke length range and the highest voltage I used was a solid 8 volts with a 27 #10 curved bugpin mag. Still beautifully consistent and smooth and very quiet with almost no vibration. Finally you move along to the 4.5-5.5 and you have yourself a solid color packer able to saturate the skin very quickly with very minimal trauma. I found my setup did not have the typical "very red" irritated skin look normally associated with DD machines, it was not red in any stroke length for any style. The machine works very quickly and even with multiple passes on blended b&g the irritation greyed out very quickly and had very little root beer type coloration. The skin had very little trauma. The 4.5-5.5 also makes for an amazing power liner able to push larger liner groupings and even my ttech 14 round shader in with no issues. This would be ideal for larger bold lines for newskool, bio, foreground/background seperation and back piece applications. Honestly this machine is the closest thing to an all arounder I have used. I didn't experiment with lining much as I like give with my standard 3,5,7 liners however those of you who like no give liners like the neo 4.2mm for lining I'm sure will have great success with this DD. Many of us know that DD's are notorious for eating elastics during a tattoo due to the pivotal motion the needlebar or pushbar have towards the back and middle section, however I still haven't broken a single one using standard black elastics. I would not change a single thing that Roman did on this machine, he quite literally got it perfect for a DD. It is IMHO the best DD made to date and I'm sure it will quickly become the new standard that all DD's are measured against. Mick-

MickWrath
02-24-2013, 02:00 AM
Apparently I don't believe in paragraphs lol, sorry I wrote this on my iPhone haha.

tattood
02-24-2013, 02:03 AM
damn all that on an Iphone.. thats dedication

MickWrath
02-24-2013, 02:07 AM
Haha the dedication belongs to Roman I just typed, he did all the work. Oh and for the record I don't receive free machines or discounts from HM for a positive review. It's unbiased and honest. Just had to say that. Mick-

Sage Oz
02-24-2013, 04:22 AM
I believe that it would be that good, his other machines are quite nicely made indeed!

Nedz
02-24-2013, 05:11 AM
Haha the dedication belongs to Roman I just typed, he did all the work. Oh and for the record I don't receive free machines or discounts from HM for a positive review. It's unbiased and honest. Just had to say that. Mick-

Like it.

peter clements
02-24-2013, 07:54 AM
I have mine set at 2.5 at the moment and like it so much for B&G it's making me reluctant to try out the other options. I agree with Micks' review ,this is a damn nice machine.

peter clements
02-24-2013, 07:55 AM
P.S ,if I were to give T Techs a try, what options would you guys recommend?

directDRIVE
02-24-2013, 09:13 AM
That's a neat little cam doo-hickey right there!

MickWrath
02-24-2013, 11:00 AM
Peter buy an ez grip a long push bar and a short push bar, make sure you buy the correct size ball at the end of the rod. (It's the new smaller size) then since you have yours set up for black and grey I would suggest a box of #10 bugpin mags in the size you like. This would be a good way to test ttechs out. They are amazing with Halos, Inkjectas, Hyper V3's, but it's almost like they were made for this Adjustable DD.

tgseh
02-24-2013, 01:21 PM
thanks for a great review mick and what a great idea from roman ..i will be getting one now ..

peter clements
02-24-2013, 01:37 PM
Peter buy an ez grip a long push bar and a short push bar, make sure you buy the correct size ball at the end of the rod. (It's the new smaller size) then since you have yours set up for black and grey I would suggest a box of #10 bugpin mags in the size you like. This would be a good way to test ttechs out. They are amazing with Halos, Inkjectas, Hyper V3's, but it's almost like they were made for this Adjustable DD.

That sounds like a plan..thanks Mick.

Bishopbyname
02-24-2013, 02:45 PM
Have to agree completely Mick. Roman is the No.1 guy to deal with in terms of going the extra mile, and speed of response to questions and queries. I bought 1 of these machines as soon as i heard of them simply because i knew it would be an awesome machine, no need to wait to hear feedback.

This beautifully built machine is now my go to colour tool. Yellows and white's fly in and stay true to their colour, no blood contaminating the lighter hues. Minimal redness as you said. These machines get my whole hearted endorsement and i recommend everyone to try 1.

Simplicity and ingenuity in 1 machine. Bravo Roman!

Barrett Russell
02-25-2013, 12:38 PM
Great review man! The machine looks tops.

elbo
02-25-2013, 12:59 PM
Anyone use this machine with standard tubes ???

Administrator
02-25-2013, 01:11 PM
By standard you mean steel?

sent from my oobnoxiosly large galaxy note phone thing via tapatalk.

elbo
02-25-2013, 01:34 PM
By standard you mean steel?

sent from my oobnoxiosly large galaxy note phone thing via tapatalk.

Yes steel or even disposable...i dont use t techs so wondered how they handle standard tubes...Does the side to side motion cause problems????

MickWrath
02-25-2013, 02:01 PM
Elbo I've used these guys with both steel and disposables as well and they work perfectly. Even with the 5.5mm stroke the needlebar doesn't hit the tube stem walls. Romans distance between excenter post and the vice accounts for this and there is clearance.

elbo
02-25-2013, 02:22 PM
Elbo I've used these guys with both steel and disposables as well and they work perfectly. Even with the 5.5mm stroke the needlebar doesn't hit the tube stem walls. Romans distance between excenter post and the vice accounts for this and there is clearance.

I really think its time i tried one...If they are great for B&G then im sold!

Administrator
02-25-2013, 03:06 PM
Elbo I've used these guys with both steel and disposables as well and they work perfectly. Even with the 5.5mm stroke the needlebar doesn't hit the tube stem walls. Romans distance between excenter post and the vice accounts for this and there is clearance.

This would probably mean the geometry will accommodate shorter style tubes like the good luck irons tubes.

sent from my oobnoxiosly large galaxy note phone thing via tapatalk.

elbo
02-25-2013, 03:23 PM
Is it best to get them direct from Roman or are there stockists in the uk???

MickWrath
02-25-2013, 03:45 PM
Admin, exactly!! Elbo, I messaged Roman on here and used PayPal so I got mine direct. Also additional pictures are up in part 2 thread for those of you who don't use ttechs and are worried about peening with a 5.5mm stroke. Use shorter tubes and you're golden. Mick!

peter clements
02-25-2013, 03:53 PM
Is it best to get them direct from Roman or are there stockists in the uk???

From Roman...........you don't want to miss your freebies.

Roman HM tattoomachines
02-26-2013, 08:28 AM
first of all..... Mick , thanks a lot for for review! i really enjoyed reading it . thanks again, for taking the time writing it, honestly, i couldn't have done it better!
and thanks to all of you that like the machine soo much..... and for your compliments!
its great to read what you guys think about the machines,of course we did the testing at the shop etc, but the real feedback is from you guys!
thanks to all of you!!!!!!!!Roman

crabink
03-09-2013, 12:18 AM
sounds like 3 machines all in one.... might have to try one

crabink
03-09-2013, 12:19 AM
does roman have them up or sale on his website? or Facebook?

Administrator
03-09-2013, 12:24 AM
Send him a pm in here he will work it out for you.

sent from my oobnoxiosly large galaxy note phone thing via tapatalk.

crabink
03-09-2013, 01:03 AM
well seeing as how i just dropped 700 on a prodigy i might have to wait or my wife will rip off my balls... but thanks.

Roman any chance i could pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today?

lol a little popeye humor for you 80's children

clint morrison
03-13-2013, 01:36 PM
I just got one of these from Roman. It came super fast. I also got one of his high tension clip cords which is great. The machine is so smooth for B&G. on the shortest stroke It's the quietest machine I have used. It gets slightly louder as you adjust the stroke longer. You can practically change the stroke on the fly which is really cool. It's very easy to change. Beautiful machine. Super Solid craftsmanship. This is my first DD so there is a bit of a learning curve for me, but it also packs color dangerously fast. It's a real work of art. Thanks Roman!

darkness
03-13-2013, 02:48 PM
same here , get my first DD super fast with RCA cable from Roman - i so happy . This machine has the right weight and balance for me ,super accurate with one needle technique too !
Today in shop working on a realistic Tattoo from a children pictures and only used this Rotary ... working is so smooth and the stroke adjustment on the fly so easy. I dont need a other machine and could never work as fast.

crabink
03-18-2013, 01:20 AM
looking at the slope back side of the machine body.. were are you securing the rubber band? Really high were it doesn't do much good? would be good to see some rubber band horns on this..

Hip hop robot tattoo
03-18-2013, 01:52 AM
I have a Kubin Direct Drive.... And love it for color packing..... I really want to get one of these.... I think this is going to be my next adventure

eduki
08-31-2014, 09:15 AM
Hello guys, sorry for re-take the post, but i recently have in my hands a HM DD and thereīs something i donīt really understand. First of all maybe itīs just me (coming from coils) or the question can be silly, but...

I am looking at the rotary, it seems to have some strips on the top of the excenter and also one on the top, thatīs ok. But i move the top part, lightly unscrewed just to know how many distance it has from closest stroke, to longest, ( the cam has a carved hole with itīs own limits, so i try to find each limit side) and i only find 2mm. between each point.
So, assuming the closest point to the center gives me a 2.5 mm. stroke... i have only 2mm. of play wich means 4.5mm. the longest stroke. How can it be 5 or even 5.5?

Thank you, maybe another HM DD user can give me the answer ;)

serial1313
08-31-2014, 12:01 PM
You can adjust it past the "strips". Each strip is a measurement of MM's. The first is 2.5, the second is 3.5, & the third is 4.5. I'm pretty sure that you can move the slide past 4.5.

eduki
08-31-2014, 12:53 PM
You can adjust it past the "strips". Each strip is a measurement of MM's. The first is 2.5, the second is 3.5, & the third is 4.5. I'm pretty sure that you can move the slide past 4.5.
Thanks serial1313, yes i can move beyond the carved hole, but i suppossed somebody made it with a purpose... And if i do it iīd be screwing out of the "carved cut" (sorry, donīt know the right word) and would be screwed, but unbalanced...
Iīm talking about this:

25895

And these are the measurement strips, from limit to limit:
2589625897

serial1313
08-31-2014, 01:38 PM
It will go to 4.5mm fine. If you go further than 4.5mm there will be a LOT of side to side movement with needle bar. That is why it only goes up to 4.5.

Roman HM tattoomachines
09-02-2014, 10:45 AM
you are right that you can only slide the moving part inside that slot slightly over 2mm ( in fact 2,39mm .... )
but i can see that in your mathematical calculations, you are not keeping in mind that you are sliding that moving part while the excenter is still... if you slide 2mm ... we are talking about off center.. .... when the execenter actually turns you are actually get a 4 mm difference...
total stroke length is the language we want to talk about...

thanks, Roman

Ofeloner
09-02-2014, 11:46 AM
I want one of these soooooo bad,,

eduki
09-02-2014, 12:48 PM
you are right that you can only slide the moving part inside that slot slightly over 2mm ( in fact 2,39mm .... )
but i can see that in your mathematical calculations, you are not keeping in mind that you are sliding that moving part while the excenter is still... if you slide 2mm ... we are talking about off center.. .... when the execenter actually turns you are actually get a 4 mm difference...
total stroke length is the language we want to talk about...

thanks, Roman

Yes Roman, thank you, youīre right. My measures are only the radius, and the stroke itīs actually the diameter. Thanks for the explanations ;)

xaviercurtis
11-12-2014, 12:41 AM
I own 2 of these machines, I have only got the chance to use it once and it was absolutely amazing for soft black and grey BUT my griffin tubes from eikon wont tighten in the vise? I have no idea whats going on? I cant even get stainless to tighten inside them either.

CajunDave
04-29-2017, 05:43 PM
I bought one of these last week ive done one black and grey tattoo with it and it worked really well. I'm having an issue though I cant tell what stroke I'm at. it has 3 ticks and I used my common sense to figure out the stroke I'm at but I want to be sure. do you adjust the stroke with the allen key hole on the came facing up or down? the little manual doesn't say and this is my first direct drive. which is considered to first mark(2.5mm) ? the mark at the top when the allen key hole is facing up or when its lower by the vice.

Patrick
04-29-2017, 11:20 PM
It's easiest to just remember the further away from center the longer the stroke. So the closest hash mark to the center is the shortest stroke.

CajunDave
05-05-2017, 05:19 PM
thanks