Nedz Micro-Rotary Review.

I have done some Reviews in the Past and posted on other sites, so I thought it only right if I posted one on here regarding the Nedz Micro-Rotary. I am unaware which format you guys and gals use on this site, but here goes.Firstly, I would like to state, that I am totally impartial, and not associated with the Builder, or Company in anyway...P.

Nedz Rotary.....I wanted to try one of these http://edsheadtattoo...a416054dffe184c, I was fortunate to be given a Red Medium stroke a while back, the Med stroke is a bit of an all-rounder, but, I mainly use it for Colour work i.e Blending, Shading and B&G.

Basics.. This machine has three Cranks or Piston options, Short stroke, Medium stroke and Long stroke, so this is a very versatile machine. The Pistons control the stroke, so, the Short Stroke gives 2.2mm of throw (Lining,Detailing), the Medium Stroke is 3.5mm (Colour work, Blending etc) and the Long Stroke throw is 5.0mm (Colour Saturation, Packing). Obviously, you can use your style to determine what stroke you use to get the best results.

What do you get..Firstly you need to pick what Piston stroke you want, Short, Med or Long, also included is 5 Colour coded Springs, ranging from Hard to Super-soft, ( these springs are fitted in seconds, and fine tuning is achieved by adjusting the Silver knob on top), with a quality RCA cord and instructions.

Tuning the Machine..Well this is simple, select the Spring you want, do you want it hard hitting (Packing), or nice and soft(B&g), honestly, the Springs are fitted in Seconds, unscrew the Silver Knob, drop in the Spring and adjust, tighten down the Knob to firm up the Spring, Slacken off to reduce tension. The Volts control your CPS, or speed, and the force of Hit/Punch is controlled by the Silver Knob, as simple as that.

Using the Machine..Again very simple, the Machine is well balanced, and is nice and light (130g) but feels solid in the hand, so best of both worlds. The Nipple bar movement is smooth and straight up and down (Linear) just like a Coil Machine, it is worth mentioning that the Nipple bar itself can be moved forward or back to suit, the tube is held nice and firm in the clamp. I started off slowly Shading, with a Medium hit spring, no drama, slight adjustment on the way, and good to go. Any fine tuning can be made as you work (on the fly), Machine movement was nice and fluid, very little skin trauma, client said pain was minimal (However this could be put down to skin area being tattooed, I am not suggesting it is pain free,LOL). Lining was slightly different, I decided to use a 5rl, and sculpt a few lines, rather than pulling a large one. I line slow, so all I had to do was change over the Spring (Honestly 5 secs is all it takes) to a harder one, tighten down to increase the hit, and upped the Volts, took a minute or two to get used to it, but, again, performed without any problems, if you like to line fast, then you may have to slightly change your speed.

Any comments,or questions, please, feel free to ask..P

What voltage did you find best for the different functions?

I adjust the Gas to suit, I can't remember specifics, also, the options regarding the springs, means that some springs can be used for different jobs, just by adjusting the Gas.

Yeah i've got 2 of Nedz machines, i just wondered what sort of voltage you were using it on. Around 4.5-5.5 suits me best, i pretty much keep the red spring (medium) in and find that best for shading and lining.

Yep Red spring performs most duties,but, it took me a while to try out the other Springs cos I got lazy,LOL....Thats why I believe it could take months to try out all possibilities.Off the top of my head, I am pretty sure I use between 4.5-6.5, depending on the Job I was doing, the Spring I was running, and the Speed I needed, the throw/Piston will also affect the Gas/V's so the answer is in there somewhere,P.

Had my Mid-stroke Nedz for about a week and it rocks! I changed the springs a few times on the first 2 tattoos i did with it but I went ahead and left the red spring in yesterday and did lining and shading with only tension adjustments. Works great :) will get a short-stroke next when I have the dough

It is my favourite liner and my favourite colour machine. I still shade with my Treasure Chest. The strange thing is i work quite a bit quicker now cus i tattoo so much more efficiently but the negative side to that is getting paid less for tattoos! I'm actually contemplating highering my hourly rate to compensate for this. I'm doing similar tattoos to my colleagues and getting paid less for them as i'm finishing them quicker. Proportionately i'm the best value tattooist in my studio! :)

As an update to my opinions on this machine there are a few things that have arisen over the past couple of months of use 1) the tube vice stripped easily and needed to be re-tapped, i'm now using a brass key type thumbscrew i had in my spares box. 2) I had motor issues so i decided to investigate; the motor was wired and soldered pretty badly and the motor is a standard, cheap, flat can style that can be found in any cheap swiss knock off machine, not great for a rotary going for £270.

I believe this machine could be a true competitor if these issues as well as the strange dimensions were addressed.

Im happy with my Nedz, I do have voltage problems at times which is kinda annoying it usually occurs at low voltage with hard springs but as long as i keep my machine really clean and running kinda high it performs well. I do agree that an update would be awesome :cool:

I agree with you bishop, to much money for the machine and those changes you spoke of would put it up there with the other $400 machines that it cant compete with at the moment. The basic parts and frame didnt bother me and i did think they were built as well as any other. The vice, motor and maybe a better more solid cap and thumbscrew. Point is it can easily be up there with the best rotarys with a few changes and NO price increase.

Maybe a good motor can fit the nedz ?

I could have sworn there was a thread where Ed from Nedz was saying that they were using a Fualhaber motor. Maybe that is for the next version. Or maybe it was in the prototype of this machine.

Let stop this before it gets out of hand again at the moment I use mabuchi motors they cost about 15 dollars each and this kept the initial cost of the machine down. Remember that anyone that bought a machine through the forum paid £225 and not £270. Also I sell may machine mostly to other supply companies in Europe and the US and these machines are sold at a whole sale price which means i make even less. I could have posted up a computer aided design of my machine and told you how wonderful my machine was going to be. Then got you to pre-order, took your money and used it to make my machine but I didnt. I used my own money to develope the machine so surley I entitled to make a little profit. Also I spent £1000 making the needle bar tensioner and then offered it free to anyone that wanted one plus I offered to fit it for free to anyone that could not do the job them selves as we are not all machine builders. I am currently working closely with a Swedish tattooist and he seems very satisfied with the machine you can see his work on my face book page.

The next batch of machines will have a slot type vice, use the same needle bar tensioner as the dragon fly and will be able to take a Faulhaber 1717 motor for any that would like to upgrade the motor.

The MR02 when its ready will use a Faulhaber 1717 motor which cost about 60-100 dollars depending on the quantity I purchase and I hope to have the prototypes ready for the London convention.

I hope this has answered any questions you have on the machines

I have 2 and will NEVER let them go... Ed is one stand up dude for sure and yes he offered the needle tensioners for free and off to put them on for free and is always there to walk u through any problems u may have... NEDZ machines are deff a MUST buy

I would quote you on all that Ed but that was a lot to say. I knew there was something about a faulhaber motor. Sounds great.

Hey Ed, is there a distributor in the US for those needle tensioners? I called friction tattoo a couple times and they say they dont carry them.

I did send some to Friction they must have given them all to customers but send me your address I will pop one in the post for you.

I still back up my original review...

All i mean is with a few small upgrades it would be hard to beat. Thats a good thing, honestly i have started with the nedz and sold it to try another and so far went through a good amount of rotarys doing that. Now i see that the nedz is built just as well as any other rotary i tried so far. The machine build/frame and parts were as good as any other rotary i have tried. The customer service was as good as it gets, answer to ever email. I say make a super hard spring equal to hard plastic tubing so the give is 0 or little as possable. Yes those needle tensioners worked great and i like that you could angle it to put preasure in a few spots on the bar. It would be nice if it came with all strokes

My point is that i believe too many builders are releasing prototype level machines and then expect us to buy the "new improved mark 2" machine. Look at Gaston's machine. How many times has he gone back to the drawing board BEFORE releasing a machine?! To me that's how it should be done! The Rotar has had issues, The Marksman has had issues, The Nedz has had issues, i could go on. All these "issues" are things that could've been ironed out before an official release if a good amount of testing in the field had been done. I'm not singling out Ed, it's just one of the examples of a machine not quite ready for full production in my opinion.

I remember when the "old timer" rotary was being built, I done a review on it a while back. The Builder asked the initial users (5 of us) to look for any existing faults or issues, or possible future ones. As the design and build quality had been thought out prior to build, only 2 small points came to light (Rear clipcord posts were too long, and a thicker collet was required to cope with dispos). The machines were recalled, the issues fixed and the machine design has remained the same, and this still is a £100 Machine.. I agree "prototypes" should only be used to gain opinions,not become the bench mark for future build models, unless the are "fit for purpose " from the word go.....I guarentee the Nedz went through a few models,design features and testing before arriving at the model we see today. If not I will eat a Ciferri Sandwich...LOL