Reinventing The Tattoo Forum

Hello!!  I have been tattooing for 6 years and lining has always been an on and off struggle for me.  The way I go at a piece now is I will, as quickly as I can, outline the piece, single pass, so I don't have to worry about the stencil and then I will go through doing tight ovals followed by skirting back and forth to darken and smooth out the lines.  I will go through periods that this works really awesome for me and then I'll struggle with it for a few days and have no clue why, like I'll go over a line basically 3 times (single pass, ovals then skirting edges) and some spots still aren't saturated?  When lining this way I do feel like I take forever to outline a piece.  I've tried just hammering them in single pass and can't get good saturation or smooth results that way.  I've tried all different sizes of needle groupings but like to stick will smaller rounds like 5's.  I've been using a direct drive rotary and disposable tubes.  Been considering switching over to stainless tubes for outlining to see if that helps with the consistency issues I'm having.  Any other outlining tips out there?  The days I'm on, I feel great and confident doing lines, but I'm not sure if some days I'm just having an off day or if the disposable tubes (Wrath tubes) are giving me consistency issues?  Attached is an example of my line work from a "good day".