Dragonfly X2

[Bishopbyname]

Hiya guys, i know these machines have been around for a while now but there's not that many threads about them. I know they're widely used so i thought that was kinda strange? I've just won one on eBay and i'm looking for any tips, tricks, opinions etc... I've heard that this version of the Dragonfly has more power and is better suited to carts for instance. I do like the idea of a one machine does all kind of set up but have yet to find it. I do normally use machines with no give, such as Cheyennes, Bishops, Neo Tats and Direct Drives so i'm looking forward to seeing the effects of such a wide range of give lke what the Dragonfly x2 apparently has.

I see some great work done with these machines, particularly awesome colour work with crazy saturation. I do colour portraits fairly regularly so i'm excited to see if it suits me.

Any contributions appreciated guys.

Cheers

[casey]

Ive recently acquired an X2 and must admit its a very nice machine, must admit I mainly use it with the give turned all the way down and only open it up a touch on those really sensitive spots ( collar bones etc) Only used on a couple of small colour pieces so still early days , but for B&G I bloody love it. This was my first run out with it alongside an original dragonfly on a young lads shin danny.JPG Run it between 9.5 and 10.5 depending on skin type which is about 1 volt lower than my original

[Bishopbyname]

Nice and smooth mate. Standard needles or carts?

[casey]

Standard needles only so far bud, I have far too many machines to justify carts lol

[Bishopbyname]

haha fair enough. I've got a colour Star Wars piece in tomorrow so I'll give it a go with carts then.

[777Tattoos]

They are a great all around color/B&G machine. The give won't work properly without the right spring if you are using Carts. The spring it comes with is for needle bars only unless the previous owner ordered the springs from Christian at Inkmachines. If you want to use carts Order the springs from the Inkmachines webcart. also get yourself the toolkit it comes in handy as a lot of those allen screws are not standard sizes. Also if you use Carts besides the give spring, don't forget to remove the up spring.

[Seanaskew19]

I've just got one to replace my Halo, I mainly use HM machines but unfortunately Roman doesn't make a fully adjustable machine (stroke and give) and I like to have at least one in my arsenal mainly as an all round back up.
Didn't want to buy another Hyper v3 as each one seems to be a completely different machine, or Halo/FK as being in the U.K. turn around time for these if anything goes wrong could be weeks which is not what I want.
So when I saw that I can buy all the spares and tools from suppliers here in the U.K. plus an extensive PDF manual I thought that a dragonfly X2 could be the answer.

Its a lot lighter than what I'm used to, HM machines feel more substantial if that makes sense but that's not a problem. Stroke is altered very easy although more difficult if the machine is already set up. Give is spot on if needed, rock hard to very soft- what more do you want.
It has only a very slight vibration and is almost silent.
Ive done a few tattoos with it, mainly black and grey and as Casey says it's fantastic for those soft effects. Switch the stroke up and wind the give in and it will bray solid black in with an 11 mag no problem.
Lining seems totally fine but only tried it on and easy bit of skin.
Ive yet to do any colour work with it but can't see there being any problems there.

So it's a great little machine. Better than my halo and my hyper v3. Way better in fact.