Swashdrive brushless Gen 8 review

[Butternuts]

Picked one of these up a few months back and got to log some time on it. I had two Gen 8's in the past that I really liked and proved to be very versatile machines so I was beyond curious to pick up the brushless model. I had some issues with trying to get parts from Swashdrive for my old Gen 8's, wasn't going to buy any more machines from them but couldn't resist when I seen this. Anyways, machine is awesome for shading/color blending. When starting a tattoo I start out with the give adjustment right in the middle, start in a "non critical" area of the tattoo and adjust the give either harder or softer until the machine is in harmony with the skin/area that I'm working. I'm not running carts with it so I can't say how it runs carts. Machine is super tiny, a lot smaller than the original Gen 8 and it weighs nothing and vibration is zero. I tried doing some lining with it, didn't much care for it in that department. Even with it hitting on the hardest give setting it was still too soft for my taste for lining. It might do better with the weights on it for lining but I didn't care enough to try it as my AXYS is my go to liner. Smooth black and gray shading or color blending though this machine is an absolute joy to work with and it's easy to bag so you can make give adjustments without contaminating it. Did this black and grey heart with it a few weeks ago. Probably going to pick up another one.
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[thesmokingmirror]

thanks for the review. Any updates on its lining performance?

[S_Trofatter]

i was always under the impression people thought these things had gobs of power to spare. and i always wanted one. now i dont think i do

[hellraiser6662]

Well its the same motor as the flitev2 so that can goto 20v no probs so i cant see why it cant do everything once you made it rigid... I was thinking today about this machine, i had a gen 7 i loved till i had to replace the motor and it was never the same, as i was let down by barberdts on my nano today, paid for it 4 weeks ago as it was instock and got 10% off only to be told today ive got to wait 2 months after 4 weeks of being lied too about when it was going to turn up. Im not going to pay £500+ for a machine with a blue led lite and some plastic bars the v2 was alot better valve machine. So this might be the one i'll see if i can pick one up at the london convention.. if not anyone knows of them in europe?

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