New to Rotaries..

Hey, been tattooing professionally seven years now. I have always used coil machines. Pulse, SOBA and Mickys..

I really want to pick up a rotary as I keep hearing great things about them from different artists but I do have some questions..

1. I am looking at the Stigma Hyper and Fly. Which of these do you recommend? Can they both perform equally well as a liner and shader?

2. I assume unlike most coil machines these can be used as both a shader and liner with just turning the "give knob" on top of the machine? Is the fly more set up as a liner and the hyper a shader?

3. How are you guys setting your needle. I usually ride the needle out a bit and set it up in the tube by pressing down on the a-bar to see how much stroke I have. You can do this with a rotary I assume, so are you just putting your needle out a pube hair from the tube tip and running it?

Hope there is not too steep a learning curve. Thanks for your time!

I picked up a hyper about 4 months ago as a shader and havent put it down since (LOVE IT). I am never going back to coils for shading or coloring. However I am still rocking my coils for liners. As for lining with rotaries there is alot of good information over in the lining with rotaries section on this site. I just have not made it that far yet in my tattooing mainly because of price justification.

Have you tried lining with the hyper? If so how was it?

I have had my Hyper V2 for about 5 months now and it has become my daily workhorse used for everything , lining , shading and colour packing. I have always worked off the feel of the needle in the skin rather than riding the tip and so have about 2mm of needle showing so set the machine up and then run it and adjust the amount of needle showing.
I do also have a Dragonfly L/S but haven't used it enough to see if I really get on with it, my apprentice has been using it however and gets on with it very well. It also seems to be a good all rounder
All done with the Hyper V2
Attachment 4893