8mm Forum: Eumig - How to Clean Sound head?

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Posted by Jason Verlen (Member # 113) on December 19, 2003, 10:13 AM:

I have a Eumig S-O&M. I have read a lot that you should clean the sound head with Xecoate or alcohol or whatever. The problem is that the film path on these Eumigs is so convoluted and hidden I can't even find the mag head! Has anyone done this?

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on December 22, 2003, 05:26 PM:

Hi Jason,
Yes, cleaning the sound heads on the Eumig S800 series is not that easy. One of the great virtues of the Elmo projectors is that the sound heads are readily accessible for routine cleaning with alcohol. In the 900 series, Eumig used a new design sound head, where the pressure pad assembly can be quickly removed to expose the sound heads for cleaning. However, the 800 series heads can be cleaned, by one of two methods;

METHOD 1: (for a quick clean). The sound head is located right underneath the Bulb. It has a white cable coming out of it, which plugs into a receptacle on the chassis. For a real quick clean, taker a can of air duster and blast air down into the teflon film chute at the front of the sound head asembly. This will blow out any loose oxide particles in the sound head. This process is recommended after every couple of reels, to keep oxide from building up inside the head assembly.

METHOD 2: ( FOR A THOROUGH CLEAN, THIS PROCEDURE TAKES ABOUT 30 MINUTES, AND REQUIRES DISSASSEMBLY OF THE SOUND HEAD).
1. Set the control knob to the Forward position then pull off the black control knob at the side of the projector. Remove the lamp housing cover.
2. Pull off the volume control knob and the mixing control knob.
3. Undo the screw located between the volume control knob and the mixing knob, and pull the side panel forward and out to expose the inside of the projector.
4. Unplug the sound head, then undo the single screw which bolts the sound head to the chassis wall.
5. Remove the sound head.
6. Look at the sound head. There are a total of 6 screws in view. Do NOT touch the four innermost screws , they are used for the critical elevation and azimuth aligment of the sound head to the magnetic tracks on the film. Undo the 2 outer screws to remove only the MU-METAL magnetic shield, and the pressure pad assembly. You now have total access to the heads and pressure pads for a thorough cleaning with alcohol. Be very gentle in wiping the head areas. You may wish to de-magnetize the heads while you are at it, using a Radio Shack tape- head demagnetizing probe. Also polish the film channel and pressure pads with Pledge or Favor furniture polish.
7. After cleaning, reassemle the mu-metal shield and pressure pad assembly to the head, and tighten down the 2 outermost screws.
8. Align locating hole on the sound head with the pin in the chassis, and bolt back into place with the single screw. Plug the sound head back into the wall connector.
9. Reassemble the side panel, audio knobs, and Main control knob. Return the control knob to the OFF position.

Posted by Jason Verlen (Member # 113) on February 09, 2005, 08:58 AM:

Paul/Everyone...

I finally got around to trying this last night. I think the S-O&M model is a bit different from the rest of the 8 series. I followed the first part of your instructions ok but there is NO WAY to unplug the sound head...it appears to be soldered on the other end. From what I can tell there is absolutely no way to get it out and clean the head.

Anybody have any ideas...can I run a piece of test film through it coated with some sort of cleaner that might clean the head? Any "tricks" to getting the head out?

I have always like Eumig because it was reliable and easy on film but this arrangement is really dopey.

Any assistance is appreciated.

Jason.

Posted by Joseph Banfield (Member # 2082) on July 01, 2010, 02:25 AM:

I realize that this is an old post but for those looking to do this procedure on a Bolex SM 80 or similar units there is a bit of information given that was not quite accurate regarding these models.

You do not need to remove the sound heads completely to clean them. Follow the instructions given but do not remove the single screw holding the sound head assembly to the chasis. After removing the two-piece metal shield around the sound heads put the machine on its side and you can clean the sound heads after removing the nylon pressure pad assembly while the sound heads are solidly still bolted in place. If you remove that single screw holding the head assembly to the chasis that assembly is forced to hang by the tiny wires which can easily break at a solder joint since most of them are all soldered directly to the sound track selector switch and are not simply unplugable like someone has already discovered. Hope this can be of help to someone in the future wanting to attempt this procedure.

Posted by Narendra Singh (Member # 4945) on August 13, 2015, 10:49 PM:

After another 5 years one more post is being added.

I have a Eumig Mark S 804D. The sound head needed cleaning, so I worked my way as explained by Paul Adsett as well as Joseph Banfield. I found that you need to remove the single screw holding the sound head assembly to the chassis without which it was difficult to access the head.

Hence the head cleaning instructions by Paul Adsett is the way to go, at least for the S-800 series of Eumig projectors.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 14, 2015, 08:53 AM:

There's a lot of useful information in this forum, and to me this one is among the classics!

I'm very wary of messing up the alignment of sound heads, and without this instruction I would never have dared to dig into that enclosed Eumig head. By the same token I had no idea what kinds of nasty crud might be growing inside there and that made me a little queasy about using the machine a lot.

It's well worth doing. Granted it sounds daunting, but once you've done it once or twice it's actually pretty easy!

-the good news also it's quite surprising how clean the head is once you get inside. It's just good to know that for certain. Since it's after the gate you could gouge up a whole bunch of films before you find out.

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