Ok, so lets set this straight "it's the indian not the arrow" stands pretty true in tattooing to a certain point. Some great tattooers tattoo with pretty crappy machines. i use a kaplan pretty regularly. i did rebuild it but the thing is so crappy they should just be disposable. secondly, spaulding and Rogers sucks.....really they do. all the previous defense is half true, paul Rogers designed the frame and ordered 250 to re-drill the geometry and only used the frame. old spaulding coils were great, the ones with fiber washers were good, the ones now would work great for a fishing weight. my first machines were a cut back supreme, which was the second machine aaron cain made, and my shader was a puma frame, both of which are the thicker older castings. i have every casting and they get cheaper and cheaper. as for the part where they sell to everyone this was true about waters, moskowitz, jenson and so on. The difference is that unlike today, where every dude that can ride a fix gear or grow a beard is a tattooer, back then the market was much smaller. they also sold veterinarian set ups. i haven't seen the work horse iron vet set yet but if there was a market they would be leading it. ha ha. In reality, there is no way i could go to college and apprentice at the same for the simple fact that when i should've been studying i would've been drawing...all night. but with todays line drawing books and the current folk revival technique, artistic fortitude can be waved as the bar is now easier to jump. sounds bitter but its true. in reality if your gonna be a tattooer your degree wont mean shit when your whip shading a jenson design. You're lucky if you've found a decent tattooer to apprentice with, and the longer you've been putting the effort, the more the tattoo community will open up to you. To me, that's always been one of the most important things about tattooing, the more you put in, the more you will get out of it.
Oh, and Nick, if you've got so much free time, shouldn't you be doing some laundry or changing a diaper or something? At least go get your poor wife a cup of coffee.