just bought a Mike Metaxa! Anyone use them??

**Mikey** · 04-12-2012, 10:09 PM

Tgseh was kind enough to let me buy a mike metaxa direct drive from him! I'm not too sure what to expect. Anyone use one of his machines before???

**Amoebadesigns** · 04-13-2012, 02:47 AM

I have one of his that Robie Sayan tricked out in a joint build with him. Robie gave it to me in Philly 2 months ago. I haven't used it yet but it seems pretty nice. Robie did some cool stuff to it with acid etching and wrapped the motor with snakeskin.

**Bishopbyname** · 04-13-2012, 04:09 AM

It can pound colour in solidly and bring the needle back and it shades beautifully too. I use mine at about 4-4.5v. I get issues with splatter sometimes, but i guess that's the side to side motion of the direct drive? Bit more of a bend in the needle or an adjustment of the elastic bands fixes it.

**Mikey** · 04-22-2012, 12:58 AM

So for the past few days i've been using my new Metaxa direct drive and i'm truly amazed by how well rounded it is! It put in smooth shades of grey with about a 2mm hang at 5v, Solid colour with an 11mg at 4v with about a 3.5mm hang, and it lines larger configurations with ease as well!
i have been having some issues with ink flow/ splatter when lining though.... Like Bishop said its usually resolved by adding a little more tension on the needle bar or an extra bend, but i'm not sure about my ink flow problem. I find that the ink does not flow as freely with my direct drives (both metaxa and Roy Richardson) as it does with my coil liners. I do find that this problem is slightly resolved when i slow the machine down a bit. Any thoughts??
Anyways, Mike Metaxa's machine has replaced my Mike Pike Shader as my daily driver for black work and colour. Very efficient, very smooth!

**Bishopbyname** · 04-22-2012, 04:34 AM

Still one of my favourite machines and nicely priced too! He does have a specialist b&g machine and after seeing the performance of the classic rotary i'm very tempted.